How to get touch target size right
This is one of those topics that looks small until it costs you something. The short answer to touch target size is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Accessibility work almost always improves the experience for people who have no impairment at all. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.
Why it matters
Small targets cause mis-taps and frustration. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Around 44px square is the usual minimum
- Spacing between targets matters as much as size
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Spacing between targets matters as much as size. It is worth being explicit about, because assumptions differ quietly. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.
Turning this into a decision
The short version
Most of it is correctness rather than charity: use the right element and much of it happens automatically. Three things worth confirming about touch target size before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- Spacing between targets matters as much as size — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.