Big fingers, small keys
What am I talking about? The seemingly shrinking size of buttons in Mobile devices, that’s what! In a world where we need more and more functionality in devices, there is a trend amongst manufacturers to decrease the size of buttons on devices – to the point these days where we seem to have dots or slashes, in place of full-size keys!
My throught-train was pushed on this track by using my BlackBerry Bold – it has a combination of two types of button:
* big, wide, square keys for menu & start- & end-call
* small knobbly keyboard keys
Actually that is a combination that works really well – it’s nice having giant call buttons, because you want to be able to hit those squarely – and for the keyboard, a combination of tactile feedback, positioning, and angular shaping have meant the keys can still be hit. So the Bold works, nicely, but how many devices don’t?
I’d propose devices that bastardise the function of keys (stacking functions, changing shape radically, or position) all give you devices that are not intuitive to use. I can think of a number of examples of devices where:
* key position of core functions are changed from where you expect them to be
* key core function is stacked with another ancillary one (enter key = play/pause key for music)
* keys are unusual shapes (small circles, dashes, etc)
It’s a fact that these days people are heavy users of their thumbs, and typing (or even accessing simple functions) when you continually miss-hit keys is a frustration of epic proportions. I am not talking about when you get a new device and have to re-train your brain to make your fingers hit differently positioned keys (because that’s the case whenever you get a new device) – I am talking about fundamental re-training of your brain to access functions that are on a competely different key, made more difficult by it’s shape or size!
There are some GREAT examples of well-designed keypads/boards out there – and some shockers – anyone want to propose which they find good and bad? I’d propose the BBerry Bold as GOOD….