Talk:OLPC Human Interface Guidelines/The Sugar Interface/Input Systems

Keyboard: audio feedback

The membrane keyboard (with small inter-key spacing for any adult users) can make typing problematic. For decades, audio feedback has been used to verify keypresses on pesky input devices. Is there any way to sound a click when a key is pressed? I failed in trying to search the wiki for "keyboard driver", to post in a place where someone might be better able to DO something. - Docdtv 23:28, 23 March 2008 (EDT)

Please, I would like this also. Normally I touch type, but with this small keyboard I must constantly go back and forth between looking at keyboard <hit key> look at screen -- look at keyboard... The lack of autorepeat on most but NOT all keys makes this worse. Are there different configurations for children with disabilities such as hearing or sight difficulties? I am color blind and the "single" battery light with "different" colors does me little good. - Old color blind Bob.

Trackpad as mouse

Trackpad as mouse--Would it make more sense for the rightmost button below the trackpad to be the primary button? It is closer to the right hand, and most people are right handed. 24.19.6.204 16:44, 11 December 2006 (EST)

When you think about it, in order to position the index finger centrally on the trackpad, the thumb of a right-handed individual will naturally rest either directly in the middle, or perhaps even moreso over the left mouse button than the right, especially due to the small size of the trackpads on the laptops. - Eben 13:10, 22 December 2006 (EST)

Uhm, I need to respond to this assumption. What should be done first is selecting 30 or 50 or 100 random users and OBSERVE how they place their hand(s). For this keyboard, I usually have my little fingers near the screen and my thumbs near the mouse buttons. I usually use my second finger on the trackpad, and use that finger or my index finger to click the mouse button. (Some of the time, lifting and placing my finger off/on the trackpad causes the mouse to jump so far off screen it gets truncated to the corner. When this happens I notice I can sometimes drag the mouse with my finger a couple of mm above the trackpad. But this is discussed elsewhere, search four fingered salute). I just thought about "should consistency be required?" between trackpad buttons and external mouse buttons. food for thought - Old Bob

Trackpad as Mouse - right button

From what I understand, the clicking on the right mouse will bring up the contextual menu. Fine. But why from the element underneath? In the land of Smalltalk the contextual menu is relative to the selection, not the position of the mouse. One annoying thing about some interfaces, is that the context-click is also a select-click making the interface counter-intuitive.

Actually, I would argue the opposite on this point. One of the things we've tried hard to do is make things strongly contextual: information relevant to a particular object or control is accessed and displayed contextually, and positioned spatially on screen to support that. As such, clicking on an object (right-click or otherwise) should always have a reaction that's contextual to the element clicked upon. The idea that the previous selection is the target of any right-click, regardless of the cursor position when the click is made, supports a modal approach where there is first a selection action, followed by a "give me more info" action. - Eben 15:26, 20 February 2007 (EST)

If the objective is to place a way to ask things like 'what is this element', then it could be done when there's no selection (or is nil). --Xavi 11:15, 20 February 2007 (EST)

This is true inasmuch as the clicked upon element needn't be selected at all prior to clicking, which supports the "select-click" you mentioned above. - Eben 15:26, 20 February 2007 (EST)

Description of Keys - Editing Keys

I don't know the culture of the target countries, but to me it seems that some cultural differences may have been overlooked when selecting symbols for the 'enter' and 'escape' keys. Where I come from (Sweden) a tick indicates error, while an x indicates selection. I know this difference has confused more than one user. Is this an intentional design choice, to make the users accustomed to the anglic culture used throughout the internet? -- Mohjive 05:27, 20 March 2007 (EDT)

Really? Swedes read them that way? Ouch... as far as I can tell, in the 'derived' cultures I've seen of spanish, english and french they all use the tick/check as ok, and the cross as wrong... This is not to say that I may have been immersed in a sub-culture that interpreted that way while the rest did otherwise ;)

It's a good point, but most certainly the issue will be raised when trying to determine the keyboard layouts on a per-country base—as I know it has been going on— but if that's the case, then the visuals-on-screen will/should also be parameterized... --Xavi 12:09, 20 March 2007 (EDT)

Trackpad: tap for mouse click?

Is there any provision to configure a single tap on the trackpad to generate a mouse click? --IanOsgood 13:48, 30 December 2007 (EST)

.. double-tap for mouse click

Actually, when I gave my XO laptop to my 8 year old nephew and my 12 year old niece.. interesting observations. The first thing they did was play with the camera for hours on end (made up their own commercials and product endorsements.. it was a blast.

However, they constantly tried to 'double-tap' the touch-pad for mouse-click/selection. They were so used to the method from using other laptops in the house.

I few times, I swear it caused the 'mouse is trapped in the lower right hand corner' issue, and had to re-start the laptop to get the mouse to behave better.

Food for thought, --ixo 22:16, 30 December 2007 (EST)