Lastly, we have the hardware based keyboard and navigation buttons interface. All of the Windows Mobile Standard/Smartphone devices and just about all other mobile phones use this type of interface.
Thumb-keyboard oriented interface…
Pros:
- You can feel the buttons with your fingers without having to look at them.
- You can develop motor memory for locations of the buttons thus improving speed and efficiency
- Interface can be navigated without the need to look at the screen
- Commands can have keyboard shortcuts not represented by on-screen menus thus improving the speed and efficiency of the interface.
- No need for a touch screen
- Can be used with one hand (depending on keyboard size/design)
- Less hand/finger movement required
Cons:
- Hardware keyboards take up more room on the device and cause it to be larger/heavier
- Small keyboards tend to be difficult to use if you have large fingers
- Moving parts may wear out over time
Now, plenty of mobile devices out there will combine these types of interfaces. For example, many Windows Mobile devices include a touch screen, stylus, and hardware buttons for navigating the device. Some, such as the Treo, include the touch screen, stylus, hardware navigation buttons, and QWERTY thumboardÂ… some include slide-out thumboardsÂ… some include T9 numeric keyboards, etc. Beginning with Windows Mobile 5, the operating system has been designed to be much more easily navigable using hardware buttons, retaining the use of a stylus only for text input on devices that don’t have built in keyboards. It seems the entire mobile device industry has been moving towards adding hardware buttons/keyboards for input and navigation.
Yet, just last week HTC released the Touch device which relies completely on one-finger and stylus input interaction. And next week the Apple iPhone will be released which relies solely on a finger-only touch-screen interface.
Is this finger-oriented touch-screen interface really the next big thingÂ… even though all the other mobile device manufacturers have actually been moving away from the touch screen for the past 10 years?
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