Definition of "haptic feedback"

Haptic feedback, often referred to as simply "haptics", is the use of the sense of touch in a user interface design to provide information to an end user. When referring to mobile phones and similar devices, this generally means the use of vibrations from the device's vibration alarm to denote that a touchscreen button has been pressed. In this particular example, the phone would vibrate slightly in response to the user's activation of an on-screen control, making up for the lack of a normal tactile response that the user would experience when pressing a physical button. The resistive force that some "force feedback" joysticks and video game steering wheels provide is another form of haptic feedback.

Also known as: "haptics"