the 200ok weblog

At WDS07 people were going nuts over the iPod Touch. Legend has it that the infamous Perth gang roamed the wilds of Sydney, buying every Touch in their path! While those reports might be slightly exaggerated, the buzz was certainly high since we don't officially have the iPhone here in Australia - so the Touch is the next best thing.

I was briefly caught up in the moment and spent a heady 45 seconds or so planning to buy one myself. Then I heard about the disappointing capacity, particularly against the price. Since my current iPod holds my entire music collection, sixteen gigs just isn't going to cut it for me! ...and while the interface is cool, that alone doesn't justify the price.

but add a keyboard...

Still, after playing with one for a minute I realised what would be a killer app for me: an iPod Touch and a portable keyboard. The sort of fold-out arrangement you can get for Palm Pilots would be ideal:

why a keyboard?

Why? Because an iPod with a portable keyboard would be the ultimate conference and meeting note-taker for me. I don't need to do fully-fledged web dev at a conference, I just need to take notes. I generally use Dreamweaver since that means I don't have to reformat my notes later if I want to blog them; but any text editor will do.

So a laptop is overkill and just weighs me down on the way to the pub. An iPod Touch and keyboard would weigh bugger all compared with a laptop. The keyboard would need its own power, so it could easily contain a kickarse auxiliary battery and still be relatively light. The touch screen also means you don't need a mouse.

Of course I could just go get a Palm Pilot and a wireless keyboard... but the Touch does have a damn fine screen (rivalled only by the PSP) and the touch interface means no stylus to lose on the bus. Not to mention that, yes, the Touch is cooler than a Palm Pilot (don't try to tell me geeks aren't into shiny toys ;)).

accessibility

Adding a keyboard to some of these devices might also have an accessibility benefit. Touch screens currently lack tactile feedback (you can't feel a touch screen "keypress"), so on-screen keyboards are pretty useless to a blind user. Adding a keyboard would also help anyone who sends a lot of text messages - including hearing-impaired people.

Obviously a keyboard alone won't make devices accessible - many of them don't currently vocalise their menus and so on. But a keyboard would certainly help on the input side of things. They might even prevent a bit of SMS-thumb RSI!

It's a case where accessibility moves into the realm of usability. Sure, the little keypad on a phone works just fine to send texts and peck out short emails - but a full size keyboard is more usable. I can also see full-size keyboards being popular as the mobile-savvy baby boomer generation ages, since the tiny buttons on most phones are hard to use if your eyesight is going or you're not quite as dextrous as you once were.

ultraportability (is that even a word?)

At the end of the day I don't specifically have to have an iPod with a keyboard, it could be any small, web-enabled device with a reasonable screen. Data charges aside, a phone would have the significant advantage of being able to connect even when there's no wifi available. Currently in Australia that basically means "anytime you're not at home", although Meraki mobs may change that.

I'm really just looking at the potential of adding a real keyboard to an existing web-enabled mobile device. As John Allsopp recently highlighted, the mobile web suffers from poor text input. Adding a keyboard would take many devices from "annoyingly slow" to "quick and easy", without adding three kilograms of dead weight to your bag.

Here's hoping more devices start getting portable keyboard options.

Labels: ipod, ipod touch, keyboard, mobile device, palm, portable, ultraportable, wds07, wireless keyboard

Or, How I learned to stop worrying and love the stylus

Most people in IT are exposed a lot of different web-enabled devices, but we probably don't pay enough attention to their interfaces. Many web developers have a tendency to just think about desktop PCs running Windows, or perhaps they'll think about Macs too. But what about all the other devices?

I've been pushed into thinking about this over the last few days, mostly because I've been using a borrowed tablet PC while my desktop was having some niggly hardware problems. The way I've used the tablet is substantially different from any other device I've used before.

devices and their interfaces

Let's take a look at a few of the devices people are using. I won't dwell on desktop PCs of any flavour since they're reasonably consistent: keyboard, mouse, full size monitor. Walking across a university campus, you're increasingly likely to see any and all of the following devices.

laptop pc

Usual inputs

• keyboard and touchpad/joystick/trackball
• when docked, full size keyboard and mouse

Gotchas

• a lot of people are slower when using touchpads and joysticks

tablet pc

Usual inputs

• stylus and on-screen keyboard when undocked
• any combination of stylus, keyboard and mouse when docked

Gotchas

• forms with no submit button - the stylus "clicks" so you have to pull up the on-screen keyboard and use the enter "key"
• precise clicks - the stylus tends to drag a little when you're trying to click, so very small click areas and close-spaced links can be irritating
• links with no "active" style - when you're not completely sure if the click has registered (or if you clicked the right thing), you'll really wish there was an active style on the link

Notes

• absolutely awesome for any interface which uses click+drag (play Solitaire or Bejeweled to see what I mean)
• if the interface is sensitive enough, great for drawing
• users far more likely to switch between portrait and landscape orientation

mobile phones

Usual inputs

• keypad, sometimes joystick-style buttons or stylus
• some models have extras like little keyboards and so on, but they're not especially common

Gotchas

• apart from phones with Opera, the embedded browser is likely to be pretty limited with unpredictable support for standards, plugins, etc
• almost none of the browsers properly support media="handheld" ....yet, hopefully
• most phones have low bandwidth connections and/or can't load big files
• some interfaces forget the "enter" key and can only submit forms with the stylus (or the user won't know how to find the enter key, which is effectively the same)
• very small screens (relatively speaking)

pda and handhelds (including game devices)

Usual inputs

• stylus which is also used to enter text with graffito or on-screen keyboards
• many PDAs have addons like keyboards or mice, but they're not universal
• game devices often have cross-pad devices, some have joysticks

Gotchas

• all stylus-related limitations of the tablet pc
• all browser/UA limitations of mobile phones
• relatively small screens or even split screens (eg. Nintendo DS)
• some screens have glare/backlight issues
• some have very odd text input methods - eg. the Sony PSP takes some getting used to and URLs are a pain to enter

user familiarity masks problems

Users do find ways around many limitations, or become so used to poor workarounds that they no longer think of them as "problems". However if you have a system that needs lots of workarounds, users are also likely to simply stop using your system and go elsewhere. User familiarity should not be seen as a substitute for good usability.

connecting in the first place

Many of these devices have "wireless capabilities" but this can mean many things. Wireless LAN without security, wireless LAN with security, bluetooth, WAP, etc. A large number of devices can connect to a wireless network but won't get past corporate VPN requirements. For example there's no VPN client for the Sony PSP, which put an abrupt end to our wireless testing at work (although the PSP is actually capable of using most of our systems, so long as VPN is down at the time).

Even if you can connect, wireless networks (at least in Australia) usually aren't the nirvana you might wish for. Slow, prone to dropouts and generally not free, wireless is absolutely not "ubiquitous" and not necessarily "high speed".

so what do we learn from all this?

To a large extent, you could summarise by saying that - between all the options- users with devices other than desktop PCs have the same requirements as disabled users. That means some of the most technology-savvy, youngest and brightest users are actually the ones at risk of hitting problems. The user base also includes key decision-makers like managers, CEOs and so on who like to have the latest and greatest toys.

One interesting thing to note is that some users are essentially mouse-only users, which is less commonly considered than keyboard-only users. Most devices do offer a keyboard substitute but many of them are limited.

conclusion?

Here's the good bit. You can cater to varied devices by doing all the "right things": build to standards, don't use tables or fixed width layouts, let users choose or override style settings, keep page weight to a minimum.

It's not a new message, just a lot of new reasons for the ones we already know. Best of all, they're reasons based on the latest gear rather than any form of moral highground or expectation that everyone wants to follow Best Practice.

Standards are good for the boss's latest PDA; your kids' expensive new game handheld; and the tablet PC you kind of wish you didn't have to give back to your employer. They're not the most laudable reasons, but they sure do motivate people.

Labels: graphics tablet, hci, interfaces, keyboard, mobile device, mobile phones, mouse, pda, stylus, tablet pc, trackball, ui, ux