Overall I think this is a good example of a good idea that isn't well executed. A smaller phone is a good idea, as it is more portable and fits easier in your pocket or bag. However due to the ergonomics involved, it is easy to poorly execute it as it can end up too small for the hand to grip, and the buttons become to small to press easily.
The same deal applies to smartphones with full QWERTY keyboards on them. The buttons are tiny, and it even becomes harder to find the number keys, as they got lost in all the other buttons.
Andrew de Morton
I agree to a certain extent. The interface is definitely not perfect on small mobiles and I think that each particular design has its draw backs. The original keypad based texting really wasn't that intuitive and was really slow for people that were not used to it. And in what way did it make sense to have a completely different way of writing on your mobile phone compared to your computer?
ReplyDeleteTouch phones don't work super well because you can't feel the buttons and therefore continually miss type. This is made up for by pretty excellent prediction and correction services but these have their own issues, especially when phone vocabulary is more volatile and changeable than standard english.
Then we have qwerty. I actually like qwerty, I found I was way faster on it than my current iphone and could actually properly write emails etc. This doesn't necessarily mean that it was the most excellent solution to the problem but if there isn't a better precedent on the market how do you judge a product?
Random thought out.
Ed