Concern for usability and ergonomics

Kito Berg-Taylor kito at xingl.net
Mon Jun 11 21:13:33 CEST 2007


While I don't agree with several points in your post, I'll just point  
out some that have been refuted in the past.

microSD is a format that has been up and coming for years, and it is  
extremely popular as a phone storage format. I think that taking up  
valuable space with a full SD card would merely be a waste of space,  
as there is little to be gained here.

Regarding the camera, there have been several people who have pointed  
out that cameras are not welcome in many places, and the number of  
people who would rather not have a camera on their phone is  
surprisingly large. Of course it applies the other way too, as there  
are many people who are very vocal about their desire for a camera  
with an ever-increasing MP count. As someone who actually does  
photography as a hobby, I find myself in the former category due to  
the eternally abysmal performance of cameras small enough to fit in a  
phone.

The one point that I do agree on however is the presence of a volume  
switch. It seems to me that no matter how easy it is to adjust the  
volume on a device, nothing beats having a hardware volume button for  
those situations when you need to silence a device quickly. Something  
that you can reach into your pocket and find instinctively (despite  
embarrassment, as the case may be) seems to be very important,  
especially on a phone. However, I think for maximum effect the layout  
of the neo should stay uncluttered.

I am a big fan of the interface that the neo has. Perhaps this is  
because I do not use my phone for writing emails and SMS very often.  
But the neo will give me much versatility to use the device for tasks  
which I find useful (mobile sensor interfacing, most likely), and not  
clutter the device with things I don't necessarily need all the time  
(keyboard).

cheers,
--

Wer nicht vorwärts geht, der kommt zurücke.
-Goethe, Hermann und Dorothea


On Jun 11, 2007, at 12:00 PM, neo1973-hardware- 
request at lists.openmoko.org wrote:

> Concern for usability and ergonomics

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