Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Don't click it

I've been fascinated by this web interface study. I'm not at all sure if it has practical implications, but it's fun to play around with, and those of you who deal with interface design might be interested.

4 comments:

Susan Payne said...

Interesting.

Too bad the flash loop runs out or I could doodle endlessly there with out clicking.

Woodson said...

As a person who spent 6 weeks going to physical therapy for repetitive mouse clicking I think this is dreamy. I would love to see the web move to this. For that matter, wouldn't it be great if typing was like this? The key pounding takes a toll after a while.

Susan Payne said...

Has anybody tried one of these virtual keyboards? http://www.sforh.com/keyboards/virtual-keyboard.html

Do they work well? Are they easier on your finger than typing? Maybe not...Would you just "type" on the table hard?

Woodson said...

That's an interesting question. If nothing else, it would give you a lot more flexability about where you put the keyboard. I wonder what the ergonomics are of typing on a flat surface as opposed to a raised keyboard.
In any case they would be a boon to travelers. You could go to a conference, prop your VKB up in front of you and then type away without having to carry one of those clunky add-on keyboards. Plus, it's probably quieter than the clicky-clack of a keyboard (unless you have those manufactured mega-fingernails). Actually, when I think about doing fieldwork this would have been great. I had a small manual typewriter specially fitted to type Kpelle, the language where I worked. It broke once--carriage return got stuck poking out all the way to the right. I had to walk to the highway carrying it like that (a 45-50 minute walk up and down hills all the way) and then ride in a taxi bus holding it on my lap trying not to stab the person sitting next to me. She couldn't really complain though as she had a small deer sitting on the floor between us. That was a truly wonderful year. Ah, but I've strayed from the topic, sorry.