I posted a few months ago about a PC keyboard that uses a Bell keypad and predictive text. Now Carlo Longino at MobHappy spotted this in USA Today:
Link: Text Games, On Paper (mobhappy.com)
Posts Tagged: input
3
Sep 08
Shredding on a Keyboard
JamLegend, a Guitar Hero / Rock Band service for the PC, piqued my interest just because of the illustration that showed how you can play along with your keyboard by holding it guitar-style. It spurred the thought: how can we hold ordinary objects in different ways so that they become different things entirely?
Link: JamLegend (jamledgend.com)
25
Jun 08
Text input fields deconstructed
Morten Hjerde has taken a long hard look at text input field design.
“Edit-in-place is preferable in most cases. A person can see the context, and the visuals is consistent. Full screen editing is preferable when the user is likely to enter a large amount of text. Predictive text (T9, etc) may only be available in full screen edit.”
Link: The anatomy of a text input field (sender11.typepad.com)
4
Oct 07
Design challenges for mobile UI
“The single most important concept to master when designing mobile device interfaces is “context”. The context in which an application is used and the context of how information is input are both key issues; each must be understood before a well crafted design may be implemented. When these two notions of context are explored, it becomes clear that designing for a mobile device can lead to a solution that is worlds different than its desktop equivalent.”
Link: Challenges of Interface Design for Mobile Devices (yuiblog.com)
2
Mar 07
Puttings small screens next to keys
I’m not sure whether to be excited or terrified by NeoKeys. They’ve removed the labels from the keypad and placed several rows of LCDs above an enlarged keyset. The benefit is that the key behaviors can adapt to context through very specific labeling (fantastic!). The problem is that the keypad layout is fixed for every interaction, and is severely lacking in visual cues to help interpret the context and controls. Looking at some of the product shots and demos makes me feel like I’m looking at an ATM on steroids; there’s just so much to process and so little helping me focus.
The only benefit NeoKeys offers above a dual screen configuration is the haptic response of the keys and the ability to easier target the buttons (but haptic technology is not far away from becoming a reality on touchscreen consumer goods). They’ve done a good job showcasing the invention on the site that boldly claims the system is “a new way to do everything”.
Link: NeoKeys: A New Way to do Everything (neokeys.com)
7
Feb 07
Text input, upside down
A design for texting with the device orientation inverted. This is just a patent application, and not a real product. It’s an interesting idea, though, because it doesn’t ask people to learn new input systems but rather just change the orientation of the device.
“Typing text messages in this manner is awkward, as the mobile is merely held pinched between the middle finger and the palm, while most of the handset extends unstably beyond the user’s palm. Furthermore, the thumb’s range of movement is restricted by the lower orientation of the keypad.”
Link: Mobile phone layout (iol.co.za)
8
Oct 06
Text input methods, again
Little Springs Design has put together a nice summary of different text input methods for mobile devices, including different hardware and software solutions.
“We have categorized various text input mechanisms for mobile devices based on usage scenario. We count not just the number of hands needed to press keys on the device, but also the number of hands and surfaces needed to control the device. Hence, a full-sized QWERTY keyboard is a two-handed device that requires a surface. We’ve included voice (speech recognition) as a separate category here.”
Link: Text Input on Mobile Devices (littlespringsdesign.com)
3
Sep 06
Fitt’s Law for mobile devices
Little Springs Design have published a couple of short pieces on applying Fitt’s Law to mobile devices.
“Fitt’s Law (circa 1954) states that the time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. The further the target is away from the user’s current position, the longer it takes to move to the target. The smaller the target, the more the user has to use fine muscle control and hence take more time to move.”
Link: Fitt’s Law for mobile devices and Fitts Law and softkey optimization (littlespringsdesign.com)
13
Jul 06
Mobile game design process review
A post-mortem of the creation of the mobile game “Tower Bloxx”.
“As we discussed earlier, the original idea came from a mock-up image which was later turned into a prototype, which led to our core mechanics. After production started, we also needed something to fill the long-term gameplay demand, so we had several ideas of how the rules of the city mode could work, and we prototyped those using both pen-and-paper and Excel. In this way, we could test and tweak our ideas without the need for programming time, which helped us getting the game done faster.”
Link: Postmortem: Digital Chocolate’s Tower Bloxx (gamasutra.com)
6
Jun 06
The next generation mobile UI
“Many of these issues are about solving the complexity problem: enabling lots of different features for lots of different users in lots of different cultures. Will tomorrows intuitive interfaces use RFID to allow us to interact with our environment in a more tangible manner, in a way similar to how people in cities like London or Helsinki already use touch-cards to pay for public transport? Probably. Will they have speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionality to enable varied, fast, and context-sensitive input and output? Probably. Will they use motion sensors to allow us to input data in new ways, using movement rather than key presses? Possibly. Will they have different modes, allowing users to prioritise different things depending on context (work / entertainment / personal / social / static / mobile)? Maybe. Will they require a clear understanding of user needs and behaviour in order to be successful? Definitely.”
Link: Mobile user interfaces its time for a new paradigm (the3gportal.com)
