Word of the Day
Flighty (adj., FLI-tee)
Skittish, sometimes irresponsipbly so. You know that friend that always was super-interested in doing something and then canceled at the last minute? Yeah.
Gif of the Day
Power RangersWait for it1990s kid TVTeamwork!Black and yellow?
Link of the Day
A brief history of the numerical keypad
How it's made stories are always interesting, but why it's made stories are even better. Francesco Bertelli's got a good one: why are the numbers on your calculator and phone arranged in different orders? Turns out there's a lot of fascinating history going back to the 1800s:
Another interesting explanation — from a modern design standpoint — goes beyond the mechanical reasons. According to the Comptometer Manual, operators were meant to input numbers by using the lowest values on the keyboard. For instance, in order to enter “9 cents”, the operator was not supposed to press the 9 key at the very right column. Instead, they were to press, in sequence, the 4 and 5 key. The machine would do the math. Reaching for the “9” key was deprecated because it decreased the figuring speed if users had to move their right hand from the bottom. Felt was all about efficiency, which meant keeping commonly used keys within the fingers’ reach. It seems this need for efficiency led to this user-centered design layout, but it was still not considered a user-friendly interface (Meehan, 1952).
The Comptometer and its competitors required highly-trained users to attain maximum productivity. It was also difficult to do with one hand, especially when it came to multiplications.
You can read the whole history over at UXdesign.com.
ArticlesWhy it's madeKeypadsBecause of the numbersThe AT&T of articles?