Design Matters

I thought it would be useful to follow up on the sneak peek blog I published earlier in the week  with more information . Now that the product has officially announced, I can share a lot more of the research methodology and creative thinking that drove the changes to the keyboard. The video is  just too short and a bit vague, by design, to  share all the details. After all it was a bit of a teaser. Much of  the footage ended up on the cutting room floor due to pre-announce concerns from legal and others.

My team felt there was a great opportunity to take the ThinkPad keyboard design and user experience to the next level with the introduction of the T400s. It only made sense, this was to be the best T series ever made. Achieving such a goal was not easy, however,  it required a lot of hard work, creative thinking , and most importantly information about how people used their exisiting keyboards.

We thought that taking an updated look at key frequency of use would be a good place to start in order to uncover innovation opportunity. Things do change over the years. Who would ever have predicted the increased use of the @ and tab keys prior to the internet. To gather this kind of critical information we solicited agreement from several dozen internal users to install a special keyboard tracker on their ThinkPad.  The request to install a keyboard tracker on peoples’  laptops sounded a bit odd at first,  but eventually volunteers lined up once they understood exactly what we were trying to accomplish. We really didn’t want to peer into their lives, we just wanted frequency of use data. After an extended period of time the data was translated into what we call a “heat map”. The more frequently used the key, the more red we used to color it. This visual mapping technique quickly revealed patterns that suggested design changes.

Portion of the heat map based on collected data

The QWERTY section of the keyboard is highly controlled for obvious touch typing reasons. Outside of the QWERTY section,  some frequently used keys have larger than normal key tops. Enter, backspace, tab, caps lock, shift, control, and of course the space bar fall into this category. Surprisingly enough this idea has never made it past the 5th row. Frequency of use is not the only driver of increased key size. The style of gesture or stroke used for the function also comes into play. Enter falls into the category of a clear and deliberate action, a sort of salute to completion. There is a certain fervor of emotion connected to it’s use. Sounds very similar to the delete key. Who doesn’t enjoy hammering that one home when the boss sends you some ridiculous note that requires no action. When looking at frequency of use and gesture the delete key became an obvious candidate for increased size.  The upward trajectory of  movement towards the delete and escape keys also suggested making them taller rather than wider.  For example, the enter key is wider for a similar reason,  but with a more lateral trajectory.

We didn’t just rely on the frequency of use data collection technique. We also cross checked the data regarding  frequency of key use against the occurance of letters in language. For instance e is the most frequently occuring letter in language and it is the  most commonly used alphanumeric key. For those of you who are curious, space bar is the overall frequency of use winner by a wide margin. We also did visual inspections of numerous used ThinkPad keyboards to determine wear patterns. If you want  to check your own system the glossier the key the more frequently it has been used. The tilde key on my system has no visible wear.  Additionally we analyzed responses to a survey  that I posted on this topic that allowed us to get even richer data, including respondant comments. Thanks to all who participated.

In the end we decided to change the keyboard for what believe is the better. We increased the size of the delete and escape keys to make them more comfortable to use and mapped the shape to the vertical trajectory of the stroke. Okay we had to move the insert key to make way for a larger delete key, but our data indicated it was far less frequently used. We tested early hardware with real people  and have used prototype machines with the keyboard modifications for over a year. As a side benefit we also think that we improved  accidental striking of the F1 key by moving it to the right. Nice fix to a known reported issue. 

This has been quite a journey for my team, but I think it was worth it. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading  about the detailed thinking that went into these changes, and more importantly,  like the resulting experience we created.

David Hill

It’s not often that we give the public a sneak peek at a forthcoming ThinkPad. Typically we’ve kept our cards pretty close to the vest on this topic. I personally like the updates we have made so much I just can’t resist breaking the rules. Here is a short video we made that shows a few of my favorite design features and the thinking that went into creating them.

David Hill

Lately I have been seeing some competitive machines in the 15″ wide aspect ratio category adding a dedicated number pad. Not sure if they are doing this because they are trying to fill up the negative space, or if they think there is a true user benefit. Adding one increases cost, and adds some weight,  but it also changes the typing experience. The dedicated pad  moves the home row  further to the left than normal, perhaps as much as 50mm. We included one on the W700 because our research indicated the target users of this type of machine like them. We also had plenty of room for it  : )

Comparison of home row position relative to screen

I wrote a blog about our embeded number pad quite some time ago and even posted a poll on the topic. Seems like the time is right to ask similar questions about a dedicated number pad being added to  15″  or larger ThinkPads. Take the poll and lets see where people stand on this.  As always, thanks for the feedback.

David Hill

Vibratory plow circa 1980

I’ve said it often, but it’s worth repeating. Design is much more than a styling exercise. Design solves problems. Understanding what problems exist, however, can be a challenge for the designer. We’ve all read market research reports, peered through the two way mirror at a focus group, or talked directly to customers. These are all great tools, but in the world of design research, more is more. One of my favorite methods for gathering insight is good old fashioned field work. The power of direct observation is enormous.

Years ago I was working on the design of a underground trencher manufactured by a company in Perry Oklahoma. It was a curious walk behind device that sliced a narrow slit in the ground to bury television cables. It was powered by a gasoline engine that spun a large eccentric weight that caused a huge sharpened blade to vibrate wildly slicing through the Earth like butter. The designers involved, including myself, were invited to meet with the engineering team. They were a friendly bunch and quickly showed off their thinking about how to improve the efficiency of the mechanism while saving cost. Our challenge was to bend metal around the innards and make it look “presentable”. The customer for these machines is actually the cable television installers who lay the cable through your backyard. My immediate question was where can we see these machines in use or better yet use one? We were quickly offered to test drive one of the earlier generation machines in the field behind the plant, which we did. It was challenging to use but we certainly learned a lot. I wanted more.

I suggested that we meet with a real operator of the current machine. We called the local cable television company and  to our surprise were granted an audience with a experienced operator, Larry. We met Larry in the equipment yard near the end of the day and were prepared with pads and pencils to record the feedback we were expecting. During the interview he nearly immediately told us that the design of the machine was fine, in fact he liked it. We kept pushing on him for more insight, but got the same answer over and over again. It was fine. Finally I asked him if we could see the machine in question. Larry happily led us to a tin shed at the back of the yard and opened the sliding door to reveal a well worn mechanical marvel. Immediately I spotted three modifications that had been made to the machine by someone. Was it Larry? It really didn’t matter, this was exactly what we were looking for!

The most obvious modification was a  make-shift support structure that  had been welded to the outside of the machine to hold the battery. The machine as manufactured hides the battery inside a steel enclosure with a snarl of  hydraulic valves, hoses and assorted wiring. It was crude in execution, but appeared to substantially made. I immediately asked Larry why he moved the battery.  His response was that the machine is not used  in the winter because the ground is too hard to slice through. Every spring when they fire it up the battery is dead from sitting dormant. With the battery buried behind an access panel and 8 bolts it is a huge pain in the neck to attatch the jumper cables. “Much easier to jump the thing if the battery is on the outside” , quiped Larry.

We also found a hole cut into the side of a shroud to peek through and see hydraulic levels, and a  crudely  crafted cable spool holder that used a cast off broom stick as an axle. Without the spool holder they had to employ another operator to hold the spool on the broom stick above his head while walking backwards. I can only imagine what that must have been like. 

The lesson here is that asking questions only goes so far. Nothing can beat field observation when it comes to uncovering innovation opportunity. In case you’re curious,  we made battery access  far easier and built in a cable spool holder on the design concept we created.

David Hill

Recently selected poster design for 2009

Later this month is World Industrial Design day as sponsored by ICSID. This recognition was first established in 2007 as a way to draw attention to the importance of the profession at it’s contribution to society.

Here is an excerpt from the ICSID site describing the recognition:

World Industrial Design Day (WIDD) is an international day of observance in recognition of the profession of industrial design. First declared on June 29, 2007 on the occasion of Icsid’s 50th anniversary, World Industrial Design Day has been established as an occasion to mark the development and evolution of industrial design throughout the course of its history.

World Industrial Design Day is a special project introduced by Icsid with the aim to promote solidarity and collaboration amongst designers through a collective appreciation and recognition of industrial design, its evolution over the years, as well as its progression into the future. Furthermore, World Industrial Design Day seeks to highlight the contribution designers and academics have made to the discipline of industrial design relative to the study of design theory, research, and practice, as well as providing a window of opportunity to address key issues such as the safeguarding and protection of intellectual property.

Through a series of international events on June 29, World Industrial Design Day provides designers and like-minded design enthusiasts from a wide spectrum of professions with a channel to engage with one another. This is an opportunity to accentuate industrial design’s role in improving the economic, social, cultural and environmental quality of life around the world. Consequently, it is an affirmative step towards fostering a global understanding of design and all that it encompasses.

As a professional designer, I am thrilled to see such continued recognition and support for design. Lets all make design matter.

David Hill