The new keyboard – A “Wow” Layout -
Now that you know about the new TrackPoint buttons from my last entry, it’s time to take a look at the new keyboard.
The new keyboard now has a very unique characteristic in its key layout.
Luckily, our 7-row ThinkPad keyboard has been widely appreciated by our customers, and it hasn’t been changed much since its birth. Still, it never hurts to set higher goals, and therefore based on our research, we are striving for an even higher level of usability.
This new layout was proposed by our Design team, and I have to admit, when I saw it, my first reaction was “Wow!” It just had an incredible visual impact. It also included the things that I wanted to have improved most, and I knew that I wanted to do whatever I could to promote it. Of course, we understand that it’s important to only make changes after thorough research and assessment, and therefore a patent is currently being requested for the new layout.
As you know, the ThinkPad keyboard has always tried to stay as true as possible to the desktop keyboard layout. The challenge is squeezing those keys onto the limited space of a notebook PC. Designers must bend their creativity towards providing the best user experience possible within limited space. During this process, we often find ourselves thinking, “the desktop keyboard might not actually be the ideal layout.” “There should be a keyboard layout that is ideal for smaller spaces.”
We look forward to our customers enjoying the new keyboard.
June 19th, 2009 at 19:53
Can you point out the differences between the old and new keyboards? Or is the picture above an image of the old layout? I don’t see any differences.
Thanks!
June 19th, 2009 at 21:25
I am with Wyles Vance, I don’t know what it is that I’m looking at, old or new? If the above image is the new keyboard than I don’t see anything different/major/’wow’ about it either. Looks like a solid keyboard to be sure, but nothing revolutionary.
June 19th, 2009 at 21:29
I guess the ‘tease’ is that the new keyboard (and trackpoint in the previous article) are the black-on-outline images that say “NEW”, and are below the keyboard photo. This isn’t really a tease though, it’s just ambiguous. Tease implies I’d actually get to see/experience a little bit of something….
June 19th, 2009 at 21:44
The main difference is that the new keyboard satisfies the designers’ commitment to “set higher goals” by taking minimalism to a new level
It’s actually a brilliant decision because now there will no longer be any more debates on whether we need a Windows key or about the best placement of keys. I commend the designers.
June 19th, 2009 at 22:25
I can’t wait to see what you’re actually doing here. I love all of my ThinkPad X300 except for the keyboard. I hate the keyboard layout with such a passion that I blogged about it:
http://bi-polar23.blogspot.com.....dness.html
Hopefully your redesign will incorporate this feedback (which has been echoed by dozens of other disgruntled ThinkPad customers on various web sites, blogs and forums) and you will actually show us what the new layout looks like instead of simply posting “teaser” images. If you are truly solving this usability problem, I will gladly buy another ThinkPad. If not, I never will.
June 19th, 2009 at 22:38
Hopefully it’s not the giant ESC and DEL key.
The giant ESC key is nice, but I would prefer having the DEL and INS keys vertically aligned. Ctrl ins/del conveniently pastes and copies, respectively, which is useful when working in certain programs and consoles.
June 23rd, 2009 at 00:57
the new keyboard looks like it has one giant key. it reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noe3kR8KqJc
that video really puts the esc and delete key debate into perspective.
August 3rd, 2009 at 13:22
Alas, Home and End are at the top of the keyboard, while the cursor keys are at the bottom. So much for easy editing. Doesn’t anyone there edit text?
tOM
August 3rd, 2009 at 16:06
How about looking forward to your customers enjoying the old keyboard?
August 11th, 2009 at 04:40
Matthew, don’t be silly regarding the fn/ctrl key positions.
Recently I had to use a 15″ T61 as replacement for my faulty X61 Tablet, until I got a new X61 Tablet.
The tablet keyboard is much smaller than the T61 keyboard and I type a lot on my laptop.
I must admit that it took some time to get used to the new key locations on the T61 but I can tell you, only 1 day of working on the new T61 and the error rate was almost negligible.
On the bigger keyboard, when trying to hit ctrl I very often hit the windows key but after the second day on the new keyboard, the error rate was nil.
When changing back to the small keyboard, it took only one day to get used to the former key locations.
So what’s your problem with ctrl and fn? No need to write a long rant on your blog and proclaiming that a lot of users share your thoughts.
The poll showed about 40% do share the same thoughts and lenovo even dedicates development ressources to provide a technical workaround for those 40% (instead of using these ressources to improve their products to get back to earlier levels of quality and customer satisfaction)
August 24th, 2009 at 00:23
Am I missing something? The “new” keyboard is all black with a red dot in the middle, there are no keys shown. Is that supposed to mean the user can rearrange the keys however they like? Move the keycaps and build a remapping table in some Thinkpad utility? Or is this a designer’s idea of a joke – a keyboard with no keys (or one big one)?