Input Device Musings (Concept/Physical attribute Prototypes)

Input and output devices have a very significant role in any product. This is mainly because these two components directly interact with the user. It is fair to say I/O devices provide a "vessel" for the user's experience. Very often product designers get things wrong because insufficient attention is paid to designing I/O devices. In this post I would like to concentrate on the design of certain aspects of an input device.

Let us start by considering some of the commonly used devices today.

• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Joy Stick
• Touch pad/screen
• Light pen
• TV Remote

Of course this list is by no means exhaustive, but my point is that there is a large variety of input devices available which are there to serve different groups of users. For example a joy stick is mainly there to assist the gaming community; it gives the user an increased manoeuvrability. Likewise, at each stage of building prototypes, it would be wise to identify a user-centred requirement that we wish to address.

For the first prototype, the user centred requirement I wish to address is "Familiarity". It seems to me that through the personas we created as well as from other research documents, that older people in general find it difficult to adapt to new technologies and most of the time they feel intimidated and frustrated dealing with hi-tech gadgets.

Therefore, an input device should be something familiar to the users and from the list above the obvious option is the the TV remote controller. Of course not all of the 60+ people are familiar with all the function keys available in an average remote controller. But undoubtedly they all are comfortable at least with the physical attributes of a remote controller i.e. shape, weight...etc. This a perfect place to start.

It must be pointed out at this stage we can assume that our "NetBox" has its own remote controller (input device), at a later stage we can consider an integrated input device that can be used both for the normal TV functions as well as NetBox functions.

After researching several popular remote controllers the following physical attributes were identified as key.

• Width: 5 - 8cm
• Length: 12 - 24cm
• Height: 1 - 3cm
• Weight: 25 - 75g

The colour of the remote controllers vary hugely but most popular ones are white, silver, gray and navy blue. Presently the outer cover of a remote controller is made of plastic or rubber. In parallel with the existing remote controllers at least for a primary prototype the power is supplied by 2 or 3 1.5V batteries.

I have thought that we could perhaps present a few potential users with an initial prototype in order to determine the best physical attributes. Perhaps it would be something along the lines of the following:

A questionnairre that could help us determine the optimum attributes that people are comfortable with, could be the following:

Input Device Questionaire

Question1:

What colour is your TV remote controller (not the button colour)?

• Black
• Dark Grey
• Dark Blue (Navy Blue)
• White
• Silver
• Other - please specify
  

Question2:

Is the colour of your remote controller important to you?

• Yes
• No

Question3:

How wide is your remote controller?

• 1 - 4cm ( 2 inches or two fingers)
• 5 - 8cm (2 - 3 inches or four fingers)
• 9 - 12cm (4 - 5 inches)
  

Question4:

How long is your remote controller?

• 1- 10cm(1 - 4 inches)
• 12 - 24cm (5 - 9 inches)
• over 24cm (over 9 inches)

Question5:

How thick is your remote controller?

• 1 - 3cm ( 1 inch)
• 4 - 6cm ( 2 - 3 inches)
• Over than 6cm (over 3inches)
  

Question6:

Do you find the size make it easy for you to use the remote controller?

• Yes
• No

Question7

How often do you change batteries?

• Once a week
• Once a month
• 2 - 3 months
• Never

Question8:

Do you have buttons on your remote?

• Yes (Answer 8A)
• No (Go to end)

Question8A:

What shape are the buttons on your remote?

• Square
• Triangle
• Circle
• Other - Specify

Question 8B:

How big are the buttons on your remote?

• Size of a green pea
• Size of a marble
• Size of a tennis ball
• Other - please specify

Question 8C:

Does the size of the buttons make it easy for you to use the remote?

• Yes
• No

Question 8D:

What would you say about the size of your buttons?

• Too small
• Perfect
• Too big

Question 8E:

What would say about the feel of the buttons?

• Too hard to press
• Perfect
• Too soft

Question 8F:

If you were to replace the button based remote with one of the following, which one will you choose?

• One with a touch screen
  
• One with a roller-ball
• A Laser pointer
  
• Computer Mouse
• Electronic writing pad
• Voice recognition device
• I am happy with my button based remote
• None of the above (please give reasons)

Thank you very much for taking time to fill this questionnaire!

The next stage of designing the input device would be to add functionality to the remote controller. This depends mainly on the content available for the user to interact with.