Disclosed is a user interface that responds to differences in pressure detected by a touch-sensitive screen. The user selects one type of user-interface action by “lightly” touching the screen and selects another type of action by exerting more pressure. Embodiments can respond to single touches, to gestural touches that extend across the face of the touch-sensitive screen, and to touches in which the user-exerted pressure varies during the course of the touch. Some embodiments respond to how quickly the user changes the amount of pressure applied. In some embodiments, the location and pressure of the user's input are compared against a stored gesture profile. Action is taken only if the input matches “closely enough” to the stored gesture profile. In some embodiments, a notification is sent to the user when the pressure exceeds a threshold between a light and a heavy press.