OpenMoko - SoC--- is there a mentor?

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Karsten,

i agree with you about the layout of the chars ( on my example they was put
aleatory )! but at this point I'm just introducing another concept of a
finger based keyboard. I'm not able to know whats the better place for each
char optimized for English, Germany or even to Portuguese (my native
language, I'm Brazilian...).

For this use cases I'll try to implement some way to easy develop/change the
layout of keys (like i said at bottom of my page). Anyone could make their
own layout optimized for his language, share with community then you
download to your phone, when you need it probably you press some predefined
key on this keyboard, select what layout you want and dynamically change to
it. This concept is already presents in phones, like when you change the
input method to letters, number, symbols, t9...


what do you think?

Guy


PS:don't worry I'm still encouraged to submit it to SoC : )

2007/3/24, Karsten Ensinger <karsten.at.openmoko at onlinehome.de>:
>
> Hi Guy,
>
> following your explanation, I will get "c", "z", "g" and "q" as
> characters when tapping on "1", dragging to "3" and dragging back
> to "1". When I want to have "c", "g" and "q", I have to tap on
> "1", drag to "2", lift the finger, tap on "3" and drag to "1".
> If I want to have "c", "g" and "c", I have to tap on "1", drag to
> "2", lift the finger, tap on "3", drag to "2", lift the finger,
> tap on "1" and drag to "2".
> Depending on the needed character sequence, your "new" concept
> can result in the same amount of taps and drags as the original
> "finger splash" concept.
> So everthing depends on the intelligent placement of the characters
> on the keyboard layout.
> Let's come to the usability aspects.
> If I look at the "finger splash", the tapping on "1" will result
> in a button overlay which will hide the complete "2" at least
> (maybe also some parts of "3", depending on size). So there is no
> way for the user to see what is on the right side of the "2"
> button. This leads to a drag into the blind to get the "z".
> This seems to me as not user friendly enough to get accepted
> widely. One has to remember the whole keyboard layout in mind
> while typing.
> This would lead to the idea to NOT enlarge the buttons when one
> taps them. The user would be able to see what he gets, when
> dragging to the next button.
> Unfortunately the size of the buttons can't get big enough to
> hold characters with an easy readable fontsize due to limited
> physical screen size. This seems to be a dilemma. Making the
> buttons bigger means less buttons per row and column, means
> less benefit from the "dragging feature".
> Maybe the KISS pattern matches here (KISS = Keep It Small and
> Simple). Although the ability to type more than one letter with
> a single stroke has charming aspects, the learning curve of the
> keyboard usage should be as steep as possible and to me, the
> current concept seems to be to much in need of an explanation.
> What I have only shortly mentioned before, is the fact that you
> have to analyse the inherent syllables of the language the user
> will use. You have to place the characters in a way, that one can
> type as much words with one or two strokes as possible. So the
> keyboard layout will vary from language to language.
> What about users using two different languages at the same time?
> They will have to pay the price for this. One language will
> fit perfectly to the keyboard while the other will not (most
> of the times).
> I myself will definitely use german and english at the same
> time every day, and I think most of the non-english natives
> will do the same. German and english do not have a lot of
> syllables in common when counting the frequency with which
> they appear in day to day communications vocabulary.
>
> But whatever I comment here, it's my personal and therefore
> biased opinion. I do NOT want to discourage you to start your
> own implementation, because an old man think he found a fly
> in the ointment.
> Take my comments as food for thoughts and nothing else.
>
> Regards
> Karsten
>
> --- gsilva.85 wrote:
> > Karsten,
> >
> > you are right except for one thing on my idea: you are considering only
> > a row and only a drag from left to right (or right to left..) in this
> > case only 2 characters will be draw. But think if you press the '1' drag
> > to '3' and drag again to '1' we got one press with four characters at
> > output but on finger splash to produce 4 characters (in the better case)
> > we have to press 4 times. And you can drag not only to left or right but
> > up, down...
> > did you understood?
> >
> > I thought to adapt this to fingers splash: when the 'splash' appear if
> > you continue dragging over the buttons of the splash it possible
> > continues  writing that chars (like the speed script concept) but even
> > with this we stay limited to only 7 different chars in a drag...
> >
> > please fell free to comment...
> >
> >
> > thanks
> > Guy
> >
> > [...]
>
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