Usability Quote of the Day

February 9, 2012

Most people who encounter computer-based automation at work do not choose the software with which they work, and have comparatively little control over when and how they do what they do. For them, the use of computers can be an oppressive experience, rather than a liberating one. -- Sarah Kuhn, Bringing Design to Software, edited by Terry Winograd, 1996    (via interaction-design.org)

Sunday, October 02, 2005

You heard of touch screens now check out touch keys

New input keys and display for cell phones ...

"As with most things in Japan that are at the fore front of technology (especially when the subject is related to mobile technology) this one also has NTT DoCoMo as a partner. The other one is Mitsubishi, together they are trying out a new type of cell phone.

In this case the display is standard, whereas the keypad is a touchscreen. The main objective of this exercise is that modern cell phones with their multiple features have become too complicated. There are a lot of people out there who would love to have these functions and dont mind paying for them but the user interface is getting too complicated for them to adjust. This technology simplifies things a lot. Depending on the main menu, the keypad shows only the associated keys. The phone would thus have literally two displays, one which acts as only the output while the other one (the keypad) can take the input and display keys depending upon the requirement. There are 3 fixed buttons though, these are shortcuts for immediately accessing the keypad (the numeric keys get displayed on the input screen), for going back and forward.

Another change over the traditional touch pad screens is that these input screens have the possibility of feedback. On pressing the buttons on the screen, one can feel that they have been depressed like in a normal keypad. Also beautiful is the way that LEDs have been used under the material of the cell phone to indicate the time as well as missed calls. Since the phone already has two "internal" displays, putting in a third on the outer side would have been too much of a drain on the battery; this is a unique and smart solution."   continued ...   (Via Phoneyworld)

DoCoMo Keys - User Interface Design, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Ergonomics

Keypad as touchscreen.

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