Lenovo makes buttons larger.

"Remove" and "Escape" are now twice as big as before, at least on the keyboards of some notebooks. The PC manufacturer Lenovo dares this design change with a small revolution - and is also planning the next.

 

It may be a minor detail to listen to, but for the PC industry, it is a small revolution, which PC manufacturer Lenovo has now announced. On some keyboards, the new Lenovo notebooks are two buttons designed larger than usual: "Remove" and "Escape". At first glance, the change hardly. But Lenovo's manager David Hill seems to focus on his anger. "Every time you herumbastelt on the keyboard, the people are nervous," says Hill.

AP
Lenovo Notebook: More room for escape and removal

Well, therefore, it was dealing with the changes are not made easy. Almost a year of research invested Lenovo developer, at the end with a simple insight to be able to wait. "Do you know how many times per week the 'Entfernen' button use? We know it. There are on average 700 times," says Hill. This was "Escape and deleting the two most commonly used keys on a keyboard."

This result owes it about 30 volunteers, which is a so-called keylogger software on their computers to install them. The program drew little hair on which keys to use them as often. One result of the experiment, it is also that the two keys in the height and the width is not stretched because this is the natural movement of the finger better.

Who needs "pause"?

Experiments, the fundamental design of computer keyboards to change, there were already numerous, and all have failed. The first IBM PC, the developers were about the shift key then compared with the normal typewriter layout built a bit smaller and a little moved. The result was an outcry of indignation. Already in the next version was submitted to a standard PC-compatible keyboard attached.

In the nineties caused processes against keyboard manufacturers for another wave of design experiments. The rigid layout of the keyboards was ascribed to that great writer on the carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful nerve injury at the wrist, ill. It was the era in which many companies to new keyboard concepts researched. Some of them were proven better suited for quick typing, as until now the usual QWERTY keyboard with letter order.

Their design was already more than 100 years, little changed since then. And if they do, then were introduced as new features continue uncritically from one generation to the next does. For example, special keys that have come from the time when you worked at terminals, their performance in terms of large computers. Why do we need today about a "pause" - or "roll" button (unless you are programmer, is moving in Basic or Unix worlds)?

Without a crumb case

A key but there is still a continuing source of concern to him ready, betrayed Lenovo Manager Hill news agency AP. The Caps Lock key is a remnant of frustrating the typewriter era, which always results in erroneous entries lead. This switch actually superfluous, it should one day go to the collar, and proposes Hill again but warns that there could be resistance from users indicate that their Caps Lock key from unexplained reasons, have fond.

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An innovation of the new Lenovo keyboards, but hardly anyone is likely to disturb the reduced space between the keys. Finally, the Hill, many people were at work on the computer to eat, which also saves time. To prevent the crumbs on the keyboard while the case is, the designers have the spacing between the keys is minimized. The cars would be fission of small dimensions speak. So nothing can fall through and be nobody transition. That nobody can have something to suspend.