There are two cases where vibration or audio of the device is used as an output method:
As a tacticon to inform the user that some important event is taking place in the device. For example, a new message arrival is indicated with vibration, or a Warning note will provide vibrating feedback to attract the user’s attention.
As tactile feedback to indicate to the user that an interaction event has been successful. For example, tactile feedback is given when the user presses a button on the touchscreen.
As with sounds, tactile feedback must be used carefully so as not to desensitize the user to the vibration; the attention grabbing quality remains and functions so long as the feedback is not too frequent.
Tactile feedback is enabled for all the Symbian platform UI components. Tactile feedback can be disabled for the common UI components in an application. However, this is acceptable only if tactile feedback causes interference with other device functions.
The user can choose the level of tactile feedback and turn tacticons ON and OFF.