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Why Are We Still Arguing About Keyboards?

By Brian | September 29, 2009 | Share on Facebook

Speculist

Topics: Tech Talk | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Why Are We Still Arguing About Keyboards?”

  1. Jeff Porten says at September 30th, 2009 at 2:56 am :
    Very amusing post: I use a Dvorak keyboard, and when I customize my ringtone, my favorite is a mechanical ring from a 1950s phone. It’s become more standard recently, but you should have seen the reaction at Starbucks when that went off a few years ago.

    I don’t know that your customized keyboard idea is a good one; most of the utility you get from any keyboard is muscle memory, and any customization is going to subvert that. Bigger question is why we use a keyboard paradigm at all on a virtual screen; my guess is that there’s a better way of doing things, but we don’t know what it is. Most likely, there’s no reason why a single keypress should correspond to a single character; I’m sure that a concordance of all of the writing I’ve done in the last few years would give me plenty of multicharacter strings which could be efficiently mapped to a single key.

    Hmmm… I just gave myself an idea.

  2. Brian says at September 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm :
    Yeah – I think we’re both getting the same idea at the same time.

    My response to your “muscle memory” comment is that “virtual” keyboards don’t use that same muscle memory, since most “typing” is done with the thumbs or index finger(s). Once you’re not “hands on keyboard,” the “keys” could be in any order and/or, as you suggest, contain multiple characters, words, phrases, etc.

    Point is this: why not let the user customize it? Should be easy for the device maker to do and of great utility for the “power user.”

    Who do we call about this?!?!?

  3. Jeff Porten says at September 30th, 2009 at 11:19 pm :
    Thumbs are still muscle memory. Ever try switching from one phone to another, when the T9 input differed slightly? Doesn’t matter whether I’m staring at a keypad telling me that the space is now there, my thumb is still going to go to the old button. I’d imagine the same thing happens on a touchscreen, once you use more than one touchscreen device.

    Essential problem: most handheld devices have all sorts of 3rd-party data entry systems. My Palm TX had dozens of downloadable alternatives. But if it’s not baked into the OS, it’s not going to be as useful.

    Here’s my question: why isn’t our software more modal? You send me an email which I read on my cell phone — why can’t I email you back a recorded voice message? Hell, it should even show up with a transcript. Instead, I have to use whatever data entry mechanism is currently there to send you text. Silly.