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Is there a section to talk about Java ME? Apps, etc. (6)
to General by Kalatti - 6 days, 8 hrs ago - more...
ichmoimeyo |
2007-11-09
, 18:11
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Posts: 193 |
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@ Paia, Maui, Hawaii
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#51
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Originally Posted by ollywompus
Nice mockup olly - looks very good to me
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2007-11-09
, 18:24
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Joined on Feb 2007
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#52
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Originally Posted by ichmoimeyo
Thanks -- I think it gives the advantage of still being the same usable keyboard we know and love, but allowing for events to pop up in the background.... especially if you are typing a particularly long message, it's nice to be able to pause and take a quick look at what's going on behind the keyboard.
Nice mockup olly - looks very good to me
I'd love to see this implemented!
-olly
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2007-11-09
, 18:43
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Posts: 130 |
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Joined on Jul 2007
@ Maine & Florida - USA
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#53
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Some of the designs shown are clearly good for full tablets, but we only have a few inches and 800x480 px.
I do find the current on screen thumb keyboard lacking a bit, so here's a quick draft mockup of a thumb keyboard that would work better for me.
It is based on a picture, resized to 800x480px so it would be close to the real thing. I have a few extra keys available at the bottom left, that I haven't given a function yet. (trying to do this real quick)
Slightly wider keys (one column eliminated) prevent accidental misses. I find the height of the keys to be OK, but the width could be more, hence the squarer keys in this mockup.
Extra row (2 lines less text displayed at the top) of keys to allow for bigger space bar (accessible to both sides), shift buttons on both sides (quicker typing of single capital letters in names, foreign languages etc.)
Haven't tried transparency yet.
[Edit] The empty keys could be the location of some other things like:
horizonal stripe -
an @ sign
currency symbol $
or provide room to move some stuff around.
I just tried to closer resemble a common keyboard layout, which should help to type faster.
... And alternately we could just take an on screen version of the N810 's keyboard; with return and backspace shifted up. And forego the shifted spacing (row offsetting).
PS: Again it is a quick cut/copy/paste/resize draft. Far from as clean as Olly's work
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-09 at 19:02.
I do find the current on screen thumb keyboard lacking a bit, so here's a quick draft mockup of a thumb keyboard that would work better for me.
It is based on a picture, resized to 800x480px so it would be close to the real thing. I have a few extra keys available at the bottom left, that I haven't given a function yet. (trying to do this real quick)
Slightly wider keys (one column eliminated) prevent accidental misses. I find the height of the keys to be OK, but the width could be more, hence the squarer keys in this mockup.
Extra row (2 lines less text displayed at the top) of keys to allow for bigger space bar (accessible to both sides), shift buttons on both sides (quicker typing of single capital letters in names, foreign languages etc.)
Haven't tried transparency yet.
[Edit] The empty keys could be the location of some other things like:
horizonal stripe -
an @ sign
currency symbol $
or provide room to move some stuff around.
I just tried to closer resemble a common keyboard layout, which should help to type faster.
... And alternately we could just take an on screen version of the N810 's keyboard; with return and backspace shifted up. And forego the shifted spacing (row offsetting).
PS: Again it is a quick cut/copy/paste/resize draft. Far from as clean as Olly's work
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-09 at 19:02.
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2007-11-09
, 18:45
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Posts: 193 |
Thanked: 41 times |
Joined on Jan 2007
@ Paia, Maui, Hawaii
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#54
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Originally Posted by ollywompus
me too..
Thanks -- I think it gives the advantage of still being the same usable keyboard we know and love, but allowing for events to pop up in the background.... especially if you are typing a particularly long message, it's nice to be able to pause and take a quick look at what's going on behind the keyboard.
I'd love to see this implemented!
-olly
I'll second that... or speaking for the at present other 110 - 85.94% poll respondents I'll 110th that
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2007-11-09
, 18:55
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Posts: 130 |
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Joined on Jul 2007
@ Maine & Florida - USA
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#55
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Originally Posted by ollywompus
I like your design.
Ok, so after reading this thread I did some GIMP work with some old screenshots I had... this is more what I envision this as, and I think gives a better idea of how it could look then the other tablet transparent boards we've seen in the thread so far.... what do you all think?
-olly
I just got hung up a little with the layout aspect and some of things I'd like to improve on the original by Nokia
So in your design, would the text render simultaneously in the upper left corner, as well as in the background? Or only in the background?
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2007-11-09
, 19:24
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Posts: 6 |
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Joined on Feb 2007
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#56
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Originally Posted by icerabbit
I actually agree with you about the layout, at the very least about the space bar -- or at least I'd like to move the space bar to the right hand side (or have the option to switch it up, even better), since that's my primary space bar hand.
I like your design.
I just got hung up a little with the layout aspect and some of things I'd like to improve on the original by Nokia
So in your design, would the text render simultaneously in the upper left corner, as well as in the background? Or only in the background?
Too be honest I hadn't thought about the dual text issue. My preference would be that it would render in both places (for example when I'm typing blog posts, it'd be nice to see the formatting happening in real time).
However (keeping in mind I'm not a programmer at all), I'd be worried that a.) this might needlessly complicate the implementation of it, and b.) would I'm sure take more resources.
If the real goal here is to be able to see as events happen behind the keyboard (such as new IM messages), it's not totally necessary to have the text duplicated both in the text box above AND behind the screen.
I'd be perfectly happy if the text didn't actually appear behind the screen until you submitted it... just using the transparency to see the new IM message that has come in, or an email alert, etc.
-olly
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2007-11-09
, 20:12
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Posts: 130 |
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Joined on Jul 2007
@ Maine & Florida - USA
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#57
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I certainly would see benefits for IM where you can see incoming messages in the background and type right along.
Alternate colors could be needed for the character color and the key color. When you try a mockup with the keyboard set to high transparency, it can get difficult where the site is dark and the key characters are. An alternate color might help. But, I guess, this could still work (25%)
Of course IM generally don't use a dark theme, do they?
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-09 at 20:14.
Alternate colors could be needed for the character color and the key color. When you try a mockup with the keyboard set to high transparency, it can get difficult where the site is dark and the key characters are. An alternate color might help. But, I guess, this could still work (25%)
Of course IM generally don't use a dark theme, do they?
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-09 at 20:14.
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2007-11-09
, 20:19
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Posts: 6 |
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Joined on Feb 2007
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#58
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Originally Posted by icerabbit
The biggest thing I would say is give the user the control over the opacity of the keyboard. Certainly alternate text colors would be beneficial, but not necessarily necessary (phew, say that three times!).
I certainly would see benefits for IM where you can see incoming messages in the background and type right along.
Alternate colors could be needed for the character color and the key color. When you try a mockup with the keyboard set to high transparency, it can get difficult where the site is dark and the key characters are. An alternate color might help. But, I guess, this could still work (25%)
Of course IM generally don't use a dark theme, do they?
If you've ever played with transparency in KDE before, you know that opacity control makes a huge difference (I mention KDE because I personally like their implementation of transparency better than anyone else's).
No matter what the background, with the right balance of transparent/opacity, you can see the lettering just fine.
-olly
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2007-11-09
, 20:21
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Posts: 201 |
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Joined on Aug 2007
@ San Francisco, CA
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#59
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I love the fact that Icerabbit's design has shift keys instead of just a caps-lock. (Am I missing something with the current thumb board?) It would be neat to be able to install different layouts, too, to veer slightly off topic... and to get back on:
Originally Posted by ollywompus
That's why I really want this feature, too, so I feel the same way. Right now, I type something on the thumb board, deactivate it, activate the stylus board with my thumbnail, then use that to press "enter" if there haven't been any changes -- but it isn't very easy or slick as far as ways of replying go.
If the real goal here is to be able to see as events happen behind the keyboard (such as new IM messages), it's not totally necessary to have the text duplicated both in the text box above AND behind the screen.
I'd be perfectly happy if the text didn't actually appear behind the screen until you submitted it... just using the transparency to see the new IM message that has come in, or an email alert, etc.
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2007-11-09
, 23:07
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Posts: 130 |
Thanked: 5 times |
Joined on Jul 2007
@ Maine & Florida - USA
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#60
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Thanks ldrn.
I am gradually doing a bit more typing on the IT and I miss quick access to some keys (along with the fact that I find them a bit too narrow resulting in typos and a lot of backspacing) so that's why I added them.
The more I think about transparency, the more I think it is a good thing.
It would probably need some button, that when pressed, brings up a little slider to adjust the level of transparency on the fly.
Updating. For websites & email, I concur that the text the user types should only move from the upper text entry area into the respective form box, when the user hits enter.
To keep things easy and consistent it is probably better to stick to the same mechanism for IM ... though I will say, that when I was active on ICQ daily, I loved the fact that it would send character per character through. It really sped up the conversation compared to other protocols. By the way: my wife and I had a transatlantic relationship for a long time and my ISP in Europe billed by the minute. I found ICQ to be the most direct, live and efficient time wise.
I don't know what the status of IM is on the ITs, as I am pretty new still. But, you couldn't transmit character per character, if the IM client doesn't get a live update of what you are typing. Obviously classic IM (send upon enter) is fine in and by itself. Just my extra thought on that live updating thing, with relation to live IM.
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-10 at 02:06.
I am gradually doing a bit more typing on the IT and I miss quick access to some keys (along with the fact that I find them a bit too narrow resulting in typos and a lot of backspacing) so that's why I added them.
The more I think about transparency, the more I think it is a good thing.
It would probably need some button, that when pressed, brings up a little slider to adjust the level of transparency on the fly.
Updating. For websites & email, I concur that the text the user types should only move from the upper text entry area into the respective form box, when the user hits enter.
To keep things easy and consistent it is probably better to stick to the same mechanism for IM ... though I will say, that when I was active on ICQ daily, I loved the fact that it would send character per character through. It really sped up the conversation compared to other protocols. By the way: my wife and I had a transatlantic relationship for a long time and my ISP in Europe billed by the minute. I found ICQ to be the most direct, live and efficient time wise.
I don't know what the status of IM is on the ITs, as I am pretty new still. But, you couldn't transmit character per character, if the IM client doesn't get a live update of what you are typing. Obviously classic IM (send upon enter) is fine in and by itself. Just my extra thought on that live updating thing, with relation to live IM.
Last edited by icerabbit; 2007-11-10 at 02:06.