Usability of Notebooks

Hi all,

we are doing an innovation project in cooperation with Copenhagen Business School, trying to find innovative solutions for a better usability of mobile PCs.

I'm interested in what you think about your notebook - are you satisfied or are there any problems when using it? I'm asking because existing notebooks haven't changed for decades when it comes to using them ... we still use a mouse, a keyboard, touchpad etc. There have been just slight improvements in the last years regarding the usability of notebooks.

So, have your already thought about new - maybe more intuitive - ways of using your notebooks? What exactly would you change if you could, how would you like to use your notebook in a more convenient or more intuitive way?

Can't wait to hear your opinions,

Karin

 

Reduce size/weight, improve battery life (what's about hydrogen?), improve display quality (higher resolution and resolution independent OS), improve display readability outdoors (like paper), free wireless access everywhere
(and as a tablet user, who wants an old outdated inflexible not mobile notebook? Tablets are the future)

But if you really want to be innovative:
My computer is my watch. It produces a holographic giant resizeable virtual display, wherever I want. I don't have to use my keyboard or mouse, I don't have to speak or whatever, it just reads my mind and interprets my gestures. So I only have to lie back in my chair, think about watching Matrix, and whusssshh, I watch it
Or I think about taking a few notes, and whussssh, the display moves, lies on a table like a sheet of paper and I take a pencil and draw on the holographic display.
Or it creates a small display around my arm which displays my planner.
And yes, the OS is not 2D anymore and not pseudo 3D like Vista or such crap, it has a real 3D GUI. And the programs are not too stupid anymore, they have an AI, which improves work flow.

 

They need to find a way to better produce longer lasting more durable batteries.

 

You should not overlook such variations as pointing sticks and touch screens......

 

Amped is absolutely correct that the achilles heal of notebooks is their short battery life. Screens too dim to read outdoors are clearly a second.

 

A laptop which opened with the screen sliding up would be cool ut I'm not sure how it would work.

 

Only in the past year, IMHO, has the usability gap been closed significantly between notebooks and desktops. A big impediment to moving to a notebook, for me, was the lack of dual processors in notebooks, and to a lesser extent, the amount of RAM I could install in a notebook.

These issues were resolved with the introduction of mobile dual-core CPU's, and chipsets that could support more than 2gb of RAM. No longer do I have to 'compromise' on much of anything to use a notebook versus a traditional desktop computer.

I believe the industry should move towards GPU's being just like CPU's -- socketed, and replaceable, in their standard designs. The only way to upgrade the graphics on an existing laptop currently is to replace the laptop itself. A socketed and replaceable GPU would give users an upgrade path without replacing all of their existing machinery, just as some users are now installing Penryn CPU's into their Merom-based laptops to give themselves a performance boost.

Here's another idea: a major ergonomic problem I'm suffering with my laptop is the fact that the screen's location relative to the keyboard is so low that I have to bend my neck to see the screen. This causes me neck and shoulder pain that severely limits the amount of time I can use my laptop without using an external screen. I wish that I was able to somehow 'telescope' my laptop's screen upwards maybe 7 or 8 inches, so the screen would be at eye level. I don't think this would be mechanically difficult to accomplish.

For example

Code:

 -------
| scrn  | 
|         |
 -------
|         |       <--- note extendible screen
*******             elevators
* laptop *
*  body  *
*******

 

how about touch sensitive keyboard instead of a clicky one? (honestly i love typing on a laptop lol)

touch screen should be standard. and display should be much better like HD already ^^

battery life would be cool if it could last a few more hours, without sacrificing weight

 

I think the problem with a "touch sensitive" keyboard is that it would offer no feedback, and it would also start adding alot of extra characters just putting your hands to it.

My old toughbook keyboard has three keys that are sensitive, and when you lightly brush the key it'll add 20 Z's, A's and S's. It gets old fast.

Touchscreens are cool though, and I love the one in mine. I barely use the trackpad on it honestly.

Batteries are a hard thing to deal with, because any good materials to make longer lasting batteries with can cause great harm if they are mis-used or mis-handled.

 

i suggest u have a look at http://www.ideastorm.com/

 

cool site kossel, its a nice read

 

Ditto. I enjoyed reading Dell's Ideastorm site. If you're gonna standardize laptop power plugs, I want the magsafe adapter.

Apple
I've seen some tweakovation from Apple. It's not groundbreaking but it does offer some minor improvement. The new multi-touch pad, while a minor tweak does offer some interesting new interaction. I have the base macbook, so I don't get the multitouch, but I've seen and used it. Pinching to zoom and grabbing things to rotate them is more than just cool. It does improve interaction. Now if only all notebooks were as thin and light as the Macbook Air but priced affordably. A huge area for improvement is size and weight. Clearly Apple has been the leader in this area.

The only "Big Box" they still sell is the Mac Pro and it sits on a shelf by itself in the Apple store next to all those thin iMacs, Mac Minis and notebooks and it looks like an anachronism. It has 8 cores (4 core duos) and its price tag is downright frightening by today's standards. Meanwhile, the iMac has the pc built into a 20 or 24 inch screen and while somewhat expensive is still affordable. Then there are the macbooks. The base and pro are as heavy as their pc counterparts but the Air is a breath of fresh are for all of us lugging notebooks around. Lastly, there is the Mac Mini. I own 3. I gradually replaced all those Dell and HP tower boxes with Minis and the towers are down in the basement waiting for wipe and ebay.

PC's
But if you go down the street to Best Buy, Staples, etc and you see that small and light is the exception. The fact that there is a market for Mac hardware to run windows is a clear sign that Apple knows a thing or two about miniaturization and usability. Now if they'd only expand on the 'Air line of notebooks and offer more variety and a better entry-level price point.

Fujitsu has done some interesting things with usability. A lot of the lifebooks have touchscreens or are extremely light. The idea that the screen is always a touchscreen and there is no need for a trackpad has a certain appeal. I really do want more resolution. I don't mind a small screen for portability but I think I could stand switching it into a mode that was 1200 pixels high at times to do detailed work.

I'm also impressed with the small Sony notebooks but their price is too high. Sony has found a way to do a sub 3 pounder with an internal optical drive. Dell isn't irrelavent, but they are bordering on it.

Like the Macbook Air, the smaller Dells haven't got room inside for an optical drive. Come on already. As far as I'm concerned, leaving out the optical drive so I can carry around an extra pound external drive is cheating. I'm not giving up on Dell, but they have had a long time to figure this out and have not done so.

Then there's Lenovo. I'm very impressed with their lightweight offerings with the built-in accelerometer to park the drive if you drop the machine. A Lenovo rep showed me a video where they dropped a notebook from the third floor of a parking deck and it was still working on the ground. They also had a notebook in a crash test dummy's lap for a 35mph crash into a wall. It was still running after the crash. Toughness is definitely something I want in future notebooks.

Another lightweight solution is the Asus EEE. It is impressive only in one area: Price. Light weight and sub $400. Yeah, baby.

Pipe Dream
For years, I have longed for a machine that would read keystrokes from a piece of paper extending from the front and project a 1600x1200 pixel screen on the wall. The unit would be about the size of a pda. Now that's progress but I'm afraid it will be a while.

Software
While I'm at it, I should address software usability. I'm ready for the base OS to always be Linux and either OSX or Windows or Gnome gets layered on top according to user preference. Drivers would all be written for Linux and the graphical wrapper would be a non-issue.

Vista is the biggest favor M$ has done for Apple in many years. Telling people they must buy a machine with 2 gig of RAM just to make the OS work means they will start looking at all their alternatives and a lot of them are picking Apple. Now that SP1 is out, the erosion may slow but happily the trend was already set in motion when M$ announced they would stop selling XP. At the time the XP EOL announcement was made, I had 4 XP machines and one Mac. I now have 4 Macs and only one XP machine remains powered on until we can get the last of our files off the thing.

Conclusion
To summarize, I expect size, weight and usability leadership to remain Apple's domain for some time to come but Dell, Fujutsu, Sony and Acer and Lenovo aren't to be ignored either. On the OS side, Apple and Linux offer the most promise of reduced bloat to usefulness ratio. I'm looking for improvements in all these areas: small size, light weight, low price, ease of use, and stability.

 

As far as a notebook being a portable computer I really don't see anything but the rugged computers with indoor/outdoor screens as worth it. Everything else is too flimsy for me. I'd like to see better battery life of course.