[Sigia-l] 2 steps back and 3 steps forward?

[Will Parker]

On Mar 5, 2007, at 3:10 PM, Ziya Oz wrote:

>> My short-form objection is that the Neokeys design fails by  
>> starting  with too
>> few keys to adequately map all the intended functions.
>
> Are you baselining this against the general cellphone population or  
> the
> iPhone or an ideal device? I'm not a cellphone user, so could this  
> be a case
> of addition by subtraction?

'As simple as possible, but no simpler' applies here. The standard  
cell-phone keypad simply has too few keys (usually 12 to 16 sorta- 
remappable keys with a variable number of dedicated keys) to support  
easy text entry or fine-grained application control _without imposing  
semi-arbitrary mode switches on the user_.

For example, let's say the task at hand is to enter the following text:

	Dear Ms. Zimmerman: You'll find my resume at http://www.example.com/ 
resume.

74 characters/keystrokes, ignoring capitalization. With the NeoKeys  
system, presuming that the key labeled 'Word' is actually a 'space'  
key, the user has to stop and switch keyboard layouts _ten_ times in  
the first line and another THIRTY-TWO times in the second line. On  
average, the user can expect to type 2 or 3 characters before needing  
to switch alphanumeric keyboard layouts.

Forty-two times the user has to stop and sort out which key to press  
to switch modes, mentally remap the keyboard layout, and start typing  
again. Forty-two chances to make an error, mentally re-align to the  
current interface state, and re-try. Talk about user interface friction!

Of course, reasonably complex apps can offer dozens of functions, and  
not all logical collections of functions will map handily to the  
basic 12 keys, so using any 'application' on the NeoKeys keypad is  
going to be an adventure in mode management.

This isn't subtraction; this is serial amputation with intent to sew  
the pieces back in a smaller package.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier