David, narrowing the key pad from its present size could be a problem
for some and especially in that you would destroy the relationship
between the keys which are not reasonably equal distance between the up
and down and the right to left axis. I won't go so far as to say that
all our research supports this, but there is a trend. In addition, I
wonder if changing one dimension without changing the other one would
make it difficult for those who use the key pad as a braille keyboard.
Just a thought.
Neal
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Allen
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 4:59 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: New Bookport ideas
Hi Neal and list:
Have you found this to be true when proxemity is narrowed as well?
I believe making a unit any smaller will result in it being more easily
lost, which is hardly a gain.
Cheers,
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neal Ewers" <neal.ewers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2006 6:24 AM
Subject: [bookport] Re: New Bookport ideas
I think you will have a really hard time making the keys smaller. The
testing we have done at Trace for various phone projects, A T M
machines and other products I can't mention has lead us to believe
that you start leaving out vast segments of the older population plus
a number of other people when you make the keys too small to use. As
it is now, the keys are just about the dimensions of a standard
telephone, plus or minus. Well, and what is a standard telephone these
days anyway, so perhaps that is not a good example. But I would
caution against making them any smaller than they are now.
Neal
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bruce Toews
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 1:15 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: New Bookport ideas
What about keeping the keys the same size, but just moving them a
touch closer together? My preference would be for much smaller keys
much closer together, but I agree this would be a problem to people
without the finger
dexterity or precision.
Bruce
--
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave
the right to become children of God. John 1:12 NIV
Bruce Toews
E-mail and MSN/Windows Messenger: DogRiver@xxxxxxxx
Radio Show and Podcast: http://www.totw.net
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On Sun, 23 Apr 2006, Russ & Valerie wrote:
I agree that smaller keys will be a challenge for some.
My aunt is using a BP, and she can just manage the buttons as she is
a
bit
frail and her fingers not always steady.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Walt Smith" <walt@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, 23 April, 2006 11 21
Subject: [bookport] Re: New Bookport ideas
A BP with smaller keys might be okay, but I do wonder about the
elderly or multi-handicapped user's ability to manipulate something
that would enable a design of the size you mention here--a
cigarette pack. While I don't know this to have been the case when
the original device was designed, the present keypad certainly
looks
as if this section of the potential market was considered. I know
from experience and observation that many elderly users just can't
cope very well with buttons the size most of us find usable. Since
NLS, from what I gather, isn't planning to produce a truly portable
player when they move to digital Talking Books, I can imagine APH
wanting to fill this gap, provided they can work with NLS to get the
necessary permissions and work out the technology, so these folks
would absolutely have to be taken into account in any design
considerations.
I think that on balance, I also like the idea of moving to SD cards
from CompactFlash, particularly if industry forecasts indicate that
even higher-capacity SD cards may be forthcoming in the future and
if NLS decides to move in that direction. Right now, 4 gig is the
largest available size and if APH succeeds in removing all card
size
limitations, I can see that some folks may very well want to buy
even larger-capacity cards. My sole concern about using SD cards is
their relative fragility when compared to CompactFlash--I just see
them as being too easy to damage or lose. CompactFlash is certainly
going to continue to be around for a long, long time, given the
number of devices that are dependent on them, but using SD would
certainly aid in designing a smaller player.
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Tanner"
<david-tanner@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, April 22, 2006 8:20 PM
Subject: [bookport] Re: New Bookport ideas
It's size is about half to two thirds an inch thick, about 2 inches
wide, and about 5 inches high. I am guessing it would need to be a
bit larger than this unit in order to have decent size keys, but it
would be nice if the BP could be a bit smaller; say the size of a
cigarette pack.
--
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