Triangular Buttons Make On-Screen Keyboards More Usable 287
As someone targeted for perpetual failure by the designers of most keyboards, I'm happy to read
The Register's report that "A British inventor has submitted a patent application for a wacky touchscreen keyboard design which, he claims, could spell the end for accidental key presses."
make users adapt to hardware (Score:4, Insightful)
From the article:
Baker told Register Hardware today that each triangular key has significantly more dead space around it than youâ(TM)d find on a standard Qwerty layout.
Assuming the keys have the same pitch, then that means the active triangular zones are SMALLER than normal keys occupying the same overall keyboard area, making it even HARDER to type accurately, or, in other words, this trains the user to be more careful with their finger placements. It isn't magic (like standard rollover logic in keyboards), it's behavioral modification.
Funny, I was always taught that programs and computers should be designed to make things easier for the user, not harder.
I'll consider... (Score:4, Insightful)
Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually it misses the point, since "significanty more dead space between keys" is only a feasible solution if you have a physically larger screen. He's effectively making the keys smaller, thus harder to hit, and the "dead space" is just space where nothing happens = confused users.
Next thing we know, someone will be inventing a "capacitive stylus" touting "higher precision" while using your iPhone. Well yes, but that's SO not the point of a capacitive, finger-friendly touchscreen.
Re:make users adapt to hardware (Score:2, Insightful)
Funny, I was always taught that programs and computers should be designed to make things easier for the user, not harder.
Um, yes but not easier to make mistakes...
Re:The Best Thing To Do (Score:4, Insightful)
As someone who sues it, I would say do NOT remove the caps lock. kthxby.
In fact, serious data entry users use it regularly.
Re:Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
No one presses a single point, the press an area. By putting the spaces there you are more likely to get the correct key as opposed to fat finger the next key by imstake becasue it got a larger area pressed.
It's pretty clever.
For the iPhone, doesn't make sense (Score:5, Insightful)
For a physical keyboard, this seems reasonable - if you eliminate edges where the keys touch, each other, then you're less likely to accidentally press two keys at once. But for a virtual keyboard like on the iPod, it doesn't matter if you "touch" two keys at once with your finger - the software can determine which one you were actually closer to, and only register that.
While there are certainly drawbacks to a touchscreen, such as lack of tactile feedback, this is one area where they have an advantage - a larger percentage of usuable surface area, as touches that would be a multiple button mash on physical keyboards can be unambiguously mapped to a single key in software.
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
?? On touchscreens.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it prevents users from hitting two keys at once, preventing the need for the software to decide which one the user hit (the one hit first in time or the one hit most by area).
And then maybe it will remove the predictive typing that prevents users from typing "kewl" by presuming the fourth letter should be a "p".
If it was made up of triangles in alternating directions (like a Pegasus Galaxy DHD) then you'd have no benefit for Fat Finger Syndrome.
Re:The Best Thing To Do (Score:4, Insightful)
Baker told Register Hardware today that each triangular key has significantly more dead space around it than youâ(TM)d find on a standard Qwerty layout. Consequently, users are more likely to press the correct key each time they tap.
Significantly more is right. It's about the same size as the buttons themselves, doubling screen real-estate.
From my minimalistic POV, that's horrid.
Re:Apple is, or should be, FAR ahead of this... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Best Thing To Do (Score:3, Insightful)
The idea is so wrong, but I like it.
I tried it (Score:3, Insightful)
I made the image [regmedia.co.uk] fit the screen (CTRL + [+]) and, well that was it. It felt no different. It looked no different.
Surely it's just a matter of practice when using large on screen keyboards?
Aim for the top of the triangle? Why bother outlining the keyboard letters at all?
Re:make users adapt to hardware (Score:3, Insightful)
I understood the design differently. since the use of triangles allows more neutral space the chance of overlapping to another key is lessoned. He also figured out how to do this without making the keyboard itself bigger. Not sure it has anything to do with behavioral modification. if this was the case palms graffiti would be king of the world.
Sceptical (Score:3, Insightful)
As a programmer, any time I hear hype like this ". . .could spell the end for accidental key presses." I laugh a little.
We will NEVER spell the end for accidental use of technology by using more technology.
It kind of falls into the old maxim "Try to make anything idiot proof, and the world with generate bigger idiots".
Re:The Best Thing To Do (Score:3, Insightful)
After that he took a moment out of the interview to stick his head out the window and yell at a group of young kids to "get off my lawn"...
Seriously though all languages evolve and English isn't an exception. Sci-Fi is a generally accepted short-hand for "science fiction" most of the rest of society, that bothers to use the word, out-voted my Bradbury and they're the ones that get to decide.
I'm more upset... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Best Thing To Do (Score:1, Insightful)
Serious data entry?
You'll be hearing from the clown school of administrative assistants for your discriminatory language .
Lazy programmer (Score:3, Insightful)
Missing the points (Score:3, Insightful)
This has nothing to do with the main reasons that people like me cannot use tiny keyboards.
0. When I press down, my finger pad overlaps way more than one key. therefore, I am prone to make mistakes.
1. I can't see through my finger to the keyboard if my finger covers 2 or more keys, therefore I am prone to make some more mistakes.
2. No, I don't need to see the keys, but I at least need to be able to feel their delineations in lieu of that, and since the thing has no tactile measurable quality like a real keyboard, I am prone to make yet more mistakes.
I can work a blackberry keyboard a little because at least i can feel the difference in the keys vs. spaces. Without some physical delineation or press-from-behind type capacity, I don't think any tiny touchscreen keyboard will be any more for me usable than any other one.
Re:make users adapt to hardware (Score:4, Insightful)
Back in the early 90's (92, I believe), I was co-op'ing for IBM and was lucky enough to get to go to COMDEX provided I man a booth for a while. The product I was demo'ing was voice independant voice recognition (it was all the rage at the time). There was no training required, random guy from the street could walk up and interact with the computer by voice, regardless of dialect or accent. I got pretty good with it, but I noticed that some people did have to repeat themselves (but not more than twice) to get it to work -- again, early times in terms of speech recognition. But the reason I was good at it was that repeated practice actually trained ME to speak the way it wanted instead of it being able to adjust to how I spoke. Speech recognition has become more prevelant since then (BING 411 anyone? http://www.discoverbing.com/mobile/411/ [discoverbing.com] ), and I'm sure you've made adjustments to how you speak to computers just to get past the voice prompts. You speak slower with more distinct pauses between words.
Behavior modification is an effective way to improve computer input.
Re:Apple is, or should be, FAR ahead of this... (Score:3, Insightful)
Settings > General > Keyboard > Auto-Correction
Been there since v. 2.2
Re:make users adapt to hardware (Score:3, Insightful)
that means the active triangular zones are SMALLER than normal keys occupying the same overall keyboard area, making it even HARDER to type accurately
There's an easy solution to that: Make the visual deadspace around the key part of the input for that key, in say a rectangular shape.</sarcasm>
Really what he's trying to patent is the idea of putting more space between two things to avoid accidentally hitting the wrong one, which should make it a nominee for the "duh!" patent of the year. The shape of the key is irrelevant; he could do exactly the same thing with a circle or a square. The problem is the touchscreen is very small, so spacing the keys farther apart makes them even tinier than on current products. My iPhone keys are already a small fraction of the size of my thumbprint, so it's already guessing that when I simultaneously touch e r t f, that I mean r, so with smaller keys, it's still going to have to guess that I meant r instead of 'no input'.
Re:make users adapt to hardware (Score:3, Insightful)
So I guess:
- It increase the likelyhood of hitting NO key.
- It decrease the likelyhood of hitting the WRONG key.
- It decrease the likelyhood of hitting the RIGHT key.
So the design fails, since my goal is to hit the RIGHT key.
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
You want Q A and Z to have the same up/down orientation. (if you put the fat ends together you get too much border crossing). You could also interlock the teeth but keep them far apart, that would allow you to have more space and pull the user towards the target.
I found that even very small areas users will get very close to if that's the size you make the button. Better to make a button a few pixels smaller with a border that still clicks IMO.
Schizoid Moderation (Score:4, Insightful)
Some might find this interesting. This is the moderation email I got for the orginal comment. Not a political comment, not calling anyone names. Sure as hell not dissing Linux or Macs or Windows or Obama.
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Further moderations that I have not been notified about have reduced the score to 0.
Just as sure as I say I don't really care someone will say I obviously do. But WTF ever.
What is reallying interesting is that some people appear to have some serious emotional investment in the caps lock key.
Re:Apple is, or should be, FAR ahead of this... (Score:2, Insightful)
Fuck! If you don't know what your own tech is capable of then, yes, you're doing it wrong. And, being concise != smug.