Jason Dunn
08-07-2002, 05:00 PM
Several months ago, Think Outside contacted me about publishing a column written by their executive team. I'm always looking for good content, but I wanted it to be different than the articles that had been published on other sites - and I didn't want it to be a "marketing piece". I asked them to focus on what went into creating the Stowaway, because having used several keyboard solutions on the market, the difference really is in the details - even subtle flaws can ruin a good keyboard solution.<br /><br />And remember, if you want to order a Stowaway keyboard for your Pocket PC, you can <a href="http://store.yahoo.com/thinkoutside/ ">order one online</a> and get $30 off the price by using the coupon code "pocketpcthoughts" - and Stowaway gives a few bucks to Thoughts. But back to the article - dive in!<!><br /><br />Everything we love about technology begins with innovation – but innovation for its own sake can be too much of a good thing. Take a classic PDA challenge as an example: You want a PDA because it’s so small and mobile, yet at the same time you’d like it to do "everything" for you. Things like software and chips can be amazingly small, and there’s essentially no down side. But when it comes to input and output – the points at which we humans and our real-world physiology come into play – innovations have to make sense in our human-size, three-dimensional, sensory-driven world.<br /><br />A case in point: PDA keyboards. It seems like every month, someone is introducing yet another keyboard or keyboard-substitute or keyboard-equivalent product for PDAs. Some of the approaches are so innovative that they go beyond good sense, while others merely compromise on important functionality in order to squeeze themselves ever smaller.<br /><br />As the makers of the Stowaway, a 100% full-size, touch-typeable, foldable mobile keyboard, we have evaluated or run up against every trade-off imaginable. Here's a look at why we made the design decisions we did when creating the Stowaway Portable Keyboard.<br /><br />Full-size keyboard when unfolded: There’s quite a bit of confusion about what it means to be a "full-size" keyboard, and why that’s important. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a worldwide federation for national standards, has defined what qualifies as a full-size keyboard. Any keyboard claiming to be full size according to the ISO definition must have, among other characteristics, 19 mm ± 1 mm of spacing between keys. The Stowaway keyboard’s keys are spaced 19 mm apart, both horizontally and vertically.<br /><br />What’s the big deal about a millimeter here or there? It might not seem like much to our eyes, but our fingers can really tell the difference. The notebook landscape is littered with models that tried to compromise on their keyboard size. Cheating on the distance by as little as 2 mm makes it much more difficult for human-sized fingers to hit the right keys accurately. Not to mention that full size is what we originally learned to type on – making it second nature, like riding a bike. <br /><br />Less-than-full-size keyboards all fall below the international size standard. This decrease in spacing allows the keyboards to be smaller when opened and sometimes when folded, but by sacrificing touch-typeability. While they work well as a substitute for graffiti or the on-screen keyboard for entering small amounts of text (as in To Do items), or for quick and easy look-up of a phone number, they do not provide the ability to comfortably and quickly enter large amounts of text into these devices, a feature that would limit the usability of a handheld device. But if you plan to use a PDA-and-keyboard combination as an alternative to a laptop while on the go – i.e., to type real e-mail messages, memos, reports, notes, etc. – then you need to seriously consider the trade-off of not being able to touch type comfortably or accurately: In other words, the ability to take true advantage of a handheld device’s mobility.<br /><br />In creating the Stowaway keyboard, we made full size a necessary design goal, and invented an innovative, patented folding mechanism to enable the full-size keyboard to collapse into a package about the size of a PDA. Able to fold to pocket size: Although we weren’t willing to skimp on the full size of the Stowaway keyboard, we also weren’t willing to sacrifice the <br />concept of true mobility. For us, that meant a full-size keyboard with the keys in all the right places and one that could fold to PDA size.<br /><br />We spent five years researching input technologies, including voice recognition and various forms of non-traditional keyboards including position sensing, membrane, fabric, and shorthand-type keypads, and concluded that for high-speed touch-typing, a full-size mechanical keyboard would provide the only real solution. It was usable right out of the box, requiring no training and no adaptation from what users already knew. We also realized that portability was a key design goal, as handhelds themselves are ultra-portable. One of the big challenges was getting the keys to compress during storage, yet still maintain the proper tactile feel and force curves. No other keyboard, to our knowledge, has solved this problem.<br /><br />Tactile feel similar to laptop keyboards: We all know what it feels like to type on a desktop or laptop keyboard. An important part of the tactile feedback that lets you know (without looking at your fingers or the screen) if you’ve hit a key is the key travel, or the distance a key depresses when you push it. The ISO full-size keyboard definition calls for a key travel (also known as key displacement) of 2.0 to 4.0 mm, with 3.0 mm being the "magic" number for desktop and laptop keyboards. Not coincidentally, the key travel of the Stowaway keyboard is 3.0 mm.<br /><br />Size and layout of the keys: Along with key spacing and key travel, the size and shape of the keys, and how they’re laid out, makes a tremendous difference to the typing experience. This was an easy decision for us: Just replicate what has become standard in the best high-end notebook keyboards. <br /><br />In other words, no compromises…whatsoever.<br /><br />Metal housing: Sturdiness was an important consideration, especially for a keyboard intended for frequent and extensive typing. The Stowaway was designed using steel, aluminum, glass, and carbon-filled plastic – all of which offer the best in terms of durability and reliability. Aluminum is a lightweight, sturdy material that still lets the keyboard weigh a mere 7.9 ounces – an aspect that is crucial to mobility. Additionally, this design offers the lasting value of 8-10 years of daily use and withstands a variety of durability tests including dropping, temperature, humidity, and wear. The keys, for example, last more than seven million cycles each. <br /><br />Which platforms the keyboard supports: People often wonder how Think Outside chooses which devices to support, and what goes into that decision-making process. It's really a simple matter of supply and demand. We look at where the demand is from the consumer standpoint, what will get shelf space on the retail side, and so on. Because it takes several months to develop a new keyboard and software, obviously we look where we will get some return on our initial investment. We also have to consider our internal resources – for instance, it takes more time and effort for devices needing software for a new operating system – and match that effort to the expected demand. It's also important to note that all of Think Outside's development is done in conjunction with our marketing partners (Targus) and our partner device manufacturers (Kyocera, Motorola, Palm). So we work closely with our partners and rely on their input to help us decide the best avenues for new keyboard products.<br /><br />Creating the Stowaway keyboard certainly would have been easier without considering the realities of things like the size of human hands, the tactile feedback we expect to let us know if we’re hitting the keys correctly, the importance of easy mobility for a product meant to be used with a mobile computing and communications device, and the necessity of touch typing for "serious" input of information into PDAs. When we say the Stowaway keyboard is a "no-compromise" keyboard, we mean that it offers true full-size keyboard functionality in a truly mobile package. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves for future products, but you can bet that any keyboards we introduce will also be no-compromise in terms of touch-typeability and mobility.