LIMITED KEYS,
LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES.

PROJECT FOCUS

SOFTWARE & HARDWARE // PROTOTYPING // USER RESEARCH // VISUAL DESIGN

TIMEFRAME
3 weeks
ROLE
Research
Ideation
Prototyping
Creative Coding
3D Modeling
TOOL
Processing
Arduino
Figma
PremierPro
Blender
TEAM
Isra Safawi
Sarah Young
Pierluigi Dalla Rosa (Mentor)

*reimagining the typing experience.

Shout out to Pier*
‍FOR an AMAZING BRIEF.

Did you just see how many keys there were?

i just counted and there are:

37KEYS INCLUDING
FULL STOP.

Overview
The brief was to make a working keyboard using only 5 buttons & 1 continuous control for ‘Teenage Engineering’. It should be possible to edit the text on a screen.

We only had 3 weeks to learn physical computing and be able to apply it to our prototypes.
✹ Skip to THE JUCY PART✹

YES.




We are going to make it work.

5 buttons are enough. First, lets start with the HMW Statement.

*How might we reimagine typing using only 5 keys and still allow for a satisfying experience?

01/ Research

Like we always do, our team started with researching about history of a keyboard. There were a lot of people trying to make this happen. It was interesting to see different types of forms and their own way of typing.

Chorded Keyboard (1968)

by Douglas Engelbart

Chording system // One handed // Encoded Alphabet
‍
‍
Each key is mapped to a number and then can be mapped to a corresponding letter or command. By pressing two or more keys together the user can generate many combinations.

Twiddler (1992)

by HandyKey Corporation

One handed // 19 keys // Bluetooth // For all device


Twiddler has 19-key (Letters, characters, symbols and commands)30 - 60 words/min (Practiced average user).

Connects via Bluetooth access to mobile phone, tablet, or wearable type in any language nano-capacity USB storage device

Microwriter (1978)

by Cy Endfield

Chording system // One handed // Encoded Alphabet

‍
Micro writer General-purpose text entry system a device with input+output. It was the first portable digital word processor.

Tap Strap (2018)

by Dovid Schick & Sabrina Kemeny

Future of keyboard

‍
Operates in 3 modes: keyboard, mouse, and air. It automatically activated based on position of the users hand.

Can type letters, characters, symbols and commands. From their testing, average typist with training taps at 25 words/min. It can be connected via Bluetooth with HID input.

Supported to VR/AR environments, laptop/PC, smartphone, and tablets. Currently the product are optimized for English, but can use other language keyboards using user customizable Tap Mapper tool.

Key Insight*

01/
Constraints & Creativity
5 keys to type all the alphabet? We laughed. However, this forced us to rethink and encouraged us to think creatively and experimental in our approach.
02/
Use Tools to define ideas
Understanding the materials to create what we need and want to make was the key. We spent time with the new tools so that we could understand the limitations as well as potential.
03/
Re-Imagine
It was important for us to define what success looked like to us in this project. We wanted to reimagine typing and test our hypothesis, and adapt our prototype along the way.

“Design is not just what it looks & feels like. Design is how it works.”

02/ Ideation

For ideating phase, each one of us came up with five ideas each and we started building ideas on top of each other's idea.

Once we narrowed down on three directions, we quickly prototyped the interface on processing. While for the form explorations we used a combination of rapid prototyping and sketching to inform our final decision.
Circular

Based on our criteria of success, our circular interface was very easy to understand and fun to use. It performed lower in the speed of typing but the interface was much simpler than the table we had created. We ended up prototyping this using processing and were pleased with the results.

However, we wanted to push ourselves as this reminded us of existing typing mechanisms in cars.
Chorded

Inspired by the pattern in our research, we developed a chorded mechanism. We recognized the cognitive load it would have on a user, so we tried to devise a new method which had a higher correlation between the letter being typed and the buttons being pressed.

Ultimately, we concluded that it would take more effort for people to recall what keys they needed to press rather than being able to focus on what they actually wanted to type.
Tabular

Our circular layout only used one button, while the chorded keyboard used all five. The tabular keyboard exploration used three buttons and had a unique, but intuitive interface.

We prototyped this on Processing and found it to be the most successful option of the three.
Sketches

Parallel to our lo-fi prototypes, we sketched out a few form explorations to consider the different functions the keyboard could provide and what materials may be required to create it.
Rapid Prototyping

We created several lo-fi prototypes to explore the form of the keyboard.

Our final device was a sleek sandwich of opaque and transparent sections that revealed the multi-colored circuits powering the prototype.
Evaluating our Explorations

We created our criteria of success for the keyboard based on four parameters and mapped our 5 ideas against them - physical comfort, typing efficiency, ease of learning and approachable interface.

This framework allowed us to be very practical about our work and justify our final choices.

03/ build

This project gave our team and myself to challenge and push ourselves in many different ways. The most beautiful thing about this project was that we got to learn many new concepts and tools and put them to use immediately.

We were able to use 3D printers so that we may be able to elevate our final prototypes. However, no one in our group knew how to do 3D modelling. This was a great opportunity to learn how to and apply it.
00/ Start from the 0
‍
We started from the basics. One button to Two to Three.
01/ Make it Compact & Precise

To make our prototype compact we sketched and mapped out the wires before soldering
02/ Print & Polish

3D printing our handle and polishing with an airbrush
03/ Rendering of the 3D model
‍
Using 3D model, we were able to print our handle and use it for our video prototype
REST IN PEACE

This project was the embodiment of what it means to prototype. We worked tirelessly to think of new ways to make our circuit more compact and more efficient. We made a lot of mistakes along the way and constantly adapted our strategies as we began understanding the materials we were working with more deeply. I would like to claim we became professional solderers by the end of it. This is a tiny gallery of some of our trials that didn’t make it to the final prototype.

05/ Result

Communication
by Elements.

Beginning of this project, we read Bill Verplank’s IxD Sketchbook. We learned about the difference between a button and a handle. A handle allows for expression, through continuous control both in space and time. Whereas a button is more symbolic affects precision.

For our prototype we used 5 buttons and 1 rotary dial. By using physical computing, we were able to make a working prototype of the software and hardware.

Reasonable
Choices.

‘Designers are continually faced with this choice of suggestion or clarity, metaphor or model, poetry or law.’

As we deciding all these choices, we considered how people can experience every single moment differently from other keyboards.

We wanted to focus on ‘seeing’ and ‘touching’. One of the aspect of the design is the orange handle. While we were testing, we observed people using only one finger to type instead of 4 fingers on each button. That caused a lot of spelling errors and inefficiency of typing. To solve this, we decided to design a hand support that also can be used as a handle.

Thoughtful
& Purposeful.

Our final prototype was informed by the design of the keyboard interface. We grouped alphabets into threes and used a dial to move through the multiple rows.

As you can see on the physical prototype, We wanted to build from what we are used to and reduce learning curves. For example, 3 white buttons allows you to select an alphabet in the corresponding position. We added a red button for deleting text and a long key for space bar.

Demo.

We were honored to have the chance to demo our prototype to Ken Kocienda (the creator of iOS keyboard, Safari and much more).

06/ Reflection

VISION 1

DIVERSITY

Our focus for 3 weeks was to make a functioning prototype. While prototyping, there were some key nuggets from my brain. We have discussed we wanted our prototype to be used by people who are left or right handed.

Thinking about 'diversity' was a challenge but meaningful to explore.

VISION 2

AUTO SUGGESTION

The first question that Ken Kocienda asked was 'What is the next step?'

To speed up the typing process and reduce scrolling from A to Z repeatedly, we want to add a auto suggest to let people to select what they are typing.

VISION 3

GOING FURTHER

We prototyped over 20 different types of form. I would love to stretch the idea and explore even more on the form.

TAKEAWAY 1

TEAM

We would've not done without our team. There were many failing points and stresses. Words that are coming out from our team cheered me to stretch my abilities. Every moment we putting our heads together, I realized the power of teamwork. It was all about sharing value and vision.

Special thanks to Isra, Sarah and Pier.

"Alone we struggle; Together we thrive."

TAKEAWAY 2

ACCESSIBILITY

The first question that Ken Kocienda asked was 'What is the next step?' Our exploration was non-stoppable and we considered.

One of the most important things I have learned from this class was how you deliver your thoughts and process to people.

Through the process we met a lot of challenges and constantly adapted our prototype based on the tests we conducted.

TAKEAWAY 3

LIMITLESS POSSIBILITY & PROTOTYPE

Pier taught us how to think creatively with constraints. I truly learned nothing is impossible and there are no limits in possibility. At the end of the day, it is all about making a right decision from the possibilities.

Our exploration was non-stoppable and realized how exciting to test and iterate repeatedly.

☜ PLAY YOUR MOOD

"SPOOF" ☞

CONTACT
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LAST UPDATED
08. 20. 2024

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