Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use  
Author Message
Roedy Green





PostPosted: 2005-7-8 5:31:00 Top

java-programmer, Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use My partner comes to me every once in a while utterly flummoxed by some
hand held device for example a cell phone, a wall phone, a stereo, an
alarm clock (no kidding -- this beast is quite an intimidating device
it has over 20 buttons), and lately a digital tape recorder.

The problem is these devices have ten thousand features. All she
wanted to do was place a cell phone call or record a telephone
interview. The other features just got in the way.

There are two problems:

1. The other features distract from the basics. There are two many
buttons and too many menu items.

2. The devices have modal traps. Even if you know how to do the
simple operations, it is easy to hit the wrong button, get off in the
weeds and not know how to navigate the device back to a familiar
state.


Imagine a cellphone I could hand to my 4 year old grandson and say
"hit 7 to call me, hit 8 to call your mother, hit the red button for
an emergency" Nothing else the child could do would hurt or confuse
the phone.

Imagine I cellphone I could give to my mother. I say "When you want
to call make a call, hit the call button, use the up down arrows to
select a person from your friends list. If you get to the bottom and
it still not there, choose new person, and they will automatically be
added to the end of your list, but will drop off automatically
eventually if you don't call them.

Imagine a digital tape recorder I could give to a child. I restrict it
so that there are only buttons, record, play, fast forward, rewind.
you can't overwrite anything recorded. There is no erase button.

Imagine a PDA that starts allowing only the simplest functions.
Everything else is hidden. Once you have used and apparently mastered
those functions it offers to teach you yet another function. You can
decline or ask to lean something else. It never reveals too much of
its functionality at a time. It remembers the learning state of
several users.

A few other ideas for hand helds:

1. AC power outlets should have a DC jack built into the wall plate
using some new style plug that delivers a variety of voltages. The
tips of the prongs would receive 12, the base 1.5 with perhaps bands
for 9, 6, 3 in between. The plug on the device would normally only
tap just one voltage, but it would be free to tap all 5. There would
be no matching problem. One plug fits all. It would relieve the
clutter of ac adapters in the typical home office.

2. could it be possible to have a universal charging stand so that you
can wall mount it and put any device in it for a recharging by
induction. Another feature of the charging stand is it would also
tell and device in it the latest accurate atomic time. You could then
create a "wand" you recharge with the correct time then wave at the
microwave or any other non-portable device to update its clock.

3. Could every product be given a UPC number or equivalent so that you
can find an online manual for any device without fuss. Software too
should get such numbers so you can automatically track the latest
version, the replacement or the author. Software then could keep
track of your possessions (software and otherwise) and periodically
poll for a recall message, an important update etc.




--
Bush crime family lost/embezzled $3 trillion from Pentagon.
Complicit Bush-friendly media keeps mum. Rumsfeld confesses on video.
http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/mckinney_grills_rumsfeld.htm

Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
See http://mindprod.com/iraq.html photos of Bush's war crimes
 
Andrew Ward





PostPosted: 2005-7-15 4:36:00 Top

java-programmer >> Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use > 2. could it be possible to have a universal charging stand so that you
> can wall mount it and put any device in it for a recharging by
> induction. Another feature of the charging stand is it would also
> tell and device in it the latest accurate atomic time. You could then
> create a "wand" you recharge with the correct time then wave at the
> microwave or any other non-portable device to update its clock.

I read an article in New Scientist magazine a while back about a team
developing a charging mat. It was a flexible mat you layed on a flat
surface like your desk, then to charge compatible devices, you simply
placed then on the mat.

 
Oliver Wong





PostPosted: 2005-9-2 2:49:00 Top

java-programmer >> Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use
Making devices easier to use is a noble goal, and I fully support it.
However, the ideas you suggest here have some obvious (to me at least)
problems which you don't seem to address at all. If I am right in my
assumption that these problems are obvious, people may infer that you
haven't put much thought into these ideas and thus not them all that
seriously.

"Roedy Green" <email***@***.com> wrote in message
news:email***@***.com...
> Imagine a cellphone I could hand to my 4 year old grandson and say
> "hit 7 to call me, hit 8 to call your mother, hit the red button for
> an emergency" Nothing else the child could do would hurt or confuse
> the phone.

The phone would need to be programmable somehow, or else how would it
know that pressing 7 should dial your phone number and not somebody elses?
Since it is programmable, that means that there exists a set of operations
that the grandson could perform to program it. This programming may "hurt or
confuse" the phone in the sense that it could change the behaviour of the
phone in such a way so that pressing 7 no longer calls you.

> Imagine I cellphone I could give to my mother. I say "When you want
> to call make a call, hit the call button, use the up down arrows to
> select a person from your friends list. If you get to the bottom and
> it still not there, choose new person, and they will automatically be
> added to the end of your list, but will drop off automatically
> eventually if you don't call them.

I haven't done the market research, but I think a lot of people won't
like the "will drop off automatically eventually if you don't call them".
People I call regularly, I tend to remember their phone numbers. It's
specifically the people I don't call for a long time whom I REALLY want in
my address book.

> Imagine a digital tape recorder I could give to a child. I restrict it
> so that there are only buttons, record, play, fast forward, rewind.
> you can't overwrite anything recorded. There is no erase button.

What do you do when you run out of memory?

> Imagine a PDA that starts allowing only the simplest functions.
> Everything else is hidden. Once you have used and apparently mastered
> those functions it offers to teach you yet another function. You can
> decline or ask to lean something else. It never reveals too much of
> its functionality at a time. It remembers the learning state of
> several users.

I've hard-reset my PDA several times over its lifetime (perhaps once
every 3 or 4 months). Every time I do this, I have to re-calibrate the touch
screen by tapping in the center and the 4 corners. This is annoying, but
tolerable. What would be intolerable for me is not having access to advanced
features that I know about, but that the PDA forgot that I knew about.

- Oliver


 
 
Roedy Green





PostPosted: 2005-9-2 7:31:00 Top

java-programmer >> Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:49:28 GMT, "Oliver Wong" <email***@***.com>
wrote or quoted :

> The phone would need to be programmable somehow, or else how would it
>know that pressing 7 should dial your phone number and not somebody elses?
>Since it is programmable, that means that there exists a set of operations
>that the grandson could perform to program it. This programming may "hurt or
>confuse" the phone in the sense that it could change the behaviour of the
>phone in such a way so that pressing 7 no longer calls you.

Yes, the phone would need to be programmable, but not by the 7 year
old. He would use the phone in a locked simplified mode. To get back
in to programmable mode he would have to do something like enter a
password which effectively keeps him from accidentally changing the
programming.

The problem most novices, not just 7 year olds, have is getting off in
the weeds in some irrelevant feature. A competent person should be
able to set up a safe sandbox for them to play in where they can't get
lost in advanced features.


--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
http://mindprod.com Again taking new Java programming contracts.
 
 
Roedy Green





PostPosted: 2005-9-2 7:35:00 Top

java-programmer >> Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:49:28 GMT, "Oliver Wong" <email***@***.com>
wrote or quoted :

>le may infer that you
>haven't put much thought into these ideas and thus not them all that
>seriously.

I find debate about ideas rather then the supposed competence of the
debaters, or their internal thoughts or unseen actions is more
fruitful. Starting out with an insult is a guaranteed way to get
someone to disagree with you.

I have thought a lot about phones over the years. You can read my main
essay on the topic:
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jphone.html
I am pleased to discover than many of the ideas from this old essay
are now commonplace, at least in cellphones.

There is a closely related essay on home appliances interfaces,
especially stereos: http://mindprod.com/jgloss/dark.html



--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
http://mindprod.com Again taking new Java programming contracts.
 
 
Oliver Wong





PostPosted: 2005-9-2 23:30:00 Top

java-programmer >> Making hand Hand Held Devices Easier to Use
"Roedy Green" <email***@***.com> wrote in message
news:email***@***.com...
> On Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:49:28 GMT, "Oliver Wong" <email***@***.com>
> wrote or quoted :
>
>>le may infer that you
>>haven't put much thought into these ideas and thus not them all that
>>seriously.
>
> I find debate about ideas rather then the supposed competence of the
> debaters, or their internal thoughts or unseen actions is more
> fruitful. Starting out with an insult is a guaranteed way to get
> someone to disagree with you.

Okay, I apologize. I agree that it's more important to talk about the
merit of ideas than the merit of the person who came up with the ideas. I
was trying to point out that I had this first impression of "Is this guy
serious about hand held devices?"; I was concerned that maybe other people
had this same first impression and might dismiss your otherwise good ideas
as being unworkable. I thought maybe if I pointed this out to you, you could
take more precautions to look for the problems in your ideas and offer
suggestions of workarounds and the such, so that in the future, more people
will take your ideas seriously, and more people will participate, leading to
better brainstorming sessions, and better ideas.

I really didn't mean to offend, though in retrospect, I guess the way I
phrased it did come off as an insult.

- Oliver