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acknowledge and correct blunders in the Mini's keyboard By bpm,  Sep 17, 2008

As Edmund Burke knew, radical thinking is dangerous if not tempered by a powerful awareness of the value of what is right in tradition - and a consequent devout determination to be sure that harm inadvertently done does not exceed conscious gains. Howls have greeted the radical keyboard innovations of the Mini, because people have invested heavily in mastering a traditional arrangement. Well, OK, one might think - change hurts, eggs must be broken to make an omelette; but in fact the most radical change was just gratuitous, and the second most radical was in pursuit of a need which could be met in a less disruptive way.

Elimination of the entire row of function keys is an extraordinarily bold measure - yet if you actually look at the device (here's a picture: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36304.jpg) it was not needed or even useful. There was no constraint on HEIGHT, only on width - there's tons of unused room above the keyboard, plenty of space for the function key row, even room for two rows - now empty. What happened? It would seem that people got confused. Here's product manager John New (interview: http://blog.laptopmag.com/dell-inspiron-mini-9-product-manager-goes-unplugged ): "We spent a lot of engineering resources and did a lot of usability studies on the keyboard design. For example, the way we relocated the function keys enabled us to expand the key size to ensure the alpha keys and the home rows were more useful... That key placement gave us the best usability results." But that's just not true. Abolishing the row didn't help a bit with width, and didn't have anything to do with permitting expansion of key size. (Excuse me for noticing; sorry if anyone's feelings are hurt - but I went to MIT, and just can't stop myself from assessing logic.) So if we work on the principle that any disruption of the familiar system which discomfits users has to be justified by major benefit, this move was a blunder - and the function row should be restored. (Incidentally, I would agree that creating the function row in the first place was also a blunder, and that folks back in the early days would have wiser to do it like the Mini does; they weren't tuned in to the freedoms of computers and chorded gestures, and had a Victorian mechanical one-key-per-output paradigm going. But that's water under the bridge now. Dell isn't trying to teach lessons, but to satisfy the customers chaotic history has provided. )

The second most disruptive innovation was moving the quote/apostrophe key from the home row to a new spot, two rows down. And there was a less traumatic way to meet the need. A key width had to be eliminated from each row somehow, true; and the measures adopted were in many cases insightful (shrinking the Tab and Caps keys for example: their position at the edge means they can't be missed, and can be overlapped harmlessly: Fitts' Law is not violated). But moving a common punctuation key is a brutal measure... so why not radically narrow the Enter key instead? That done, all the home row keys could stay put. The extravagant width of the traditional Enter key is of no functional benefit, except to make the key prominent through its uniqueness - and in a width-challenged device this could be done in a way that doesn't consume width - for example by putting a set of ridges on its face. To tactile perception, that is actually more prominent than an unusual shape. That done, the change to be assimilated would be superficial. Hardwon touch-typist reflexes would not be trashed and relearning would not be needed.

So Dell can have a keyboard that fits its tiny machine and requires far less adjustment. Isn't that enough to make it the correct solution?
bpm200.0
  Wed Sep 17 09:33:56 GMT 2008
Comments: 11
Categories: Inspiron  
Status:Acknowledged


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By bpm  Sep 19, 2008
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PC World's take: 3 stars out of 5; headline "Dell Mini discriminates against apostrophes" "It's a solidly built unit and it looks quite good, but its keyboard is the most awkward we've seen on a netbook device GÇö not only because it's cramped to type on, but also because the layout of the keys isn't standard. Faced with the prospect of implementing a full-sized keyboard in 22cm, Dell has had to move the apostrophe key down to the last low of keys, as there was no space for it next to the Enter key. As you can see, we've used the apostrophe key six times in the last two paragraphs alone, and there would be no way in (profanity deleted) that we would have been able to do that on the Mini 9 without hurling it out onto the road and waiting for a big rig to bear down on it. There's also no room for dedicated function keys on the Mini 9, so they are the secondary function on the middle row of keys. What's befuddling is that F11 and F12 have been hung out to dry... "All up, the best things about the Mini 9 are its size and practically silent operation. Its specifications are similar to offerings from Acer and ASUS. If its keyboard didn't have a misplaced apostrophe key, which makes typing a chore, then we'd give it a higher score." http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/taxid;2136212930;pid;6661;pt;1 So they see what's wrong, but don't see the falsity of Dell's claim that it was necessary.
By bpm  Sep 19, 2008
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http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/dell-inspiron-mini-9-linux.aspx?page=1 "Dell took its time releasing its own netbook, and it is clear they spent the extra days and hours getting (nearly) everything just right... all the specs to make it one of our favorite netbooks... However, we wish Dell had spent a bit more time on the keyboard." http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4578 "The only 'major' complaint I have about the keyboard on the Mini 9 is that the function keys are all located in the middle of the keyboard rather than the top row. Also, there is no F11 or F12 key ... which is bad for people who use F11 to maximize their web browser window or use F12 as a programmed shortcut key. Please, Dell, give us F11 and F12 on the next generation of this netbook!"
By susanna777  Sep 19, 2008
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I was wondering how removing the function keys would help with width. And moving the apostrophe quote key is awful! I'm an author and I use that key a LOT!!!
By jimh12345  Sep 23, 2008
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I considered buying this one until I read about the function keys. When browsing I use Alt-F4 and F11 constantly. The lack of F11 in particular is a total deal-breaker.
By nathannola  Sep 24, 2008
Comment Link   
Something must change to make the keyboard have a smaller depth on top of the device. For people who have not noticed, that area above the keyboard is the _battery_ and cannot hold an extension to the keyboard. You can see the seam where the battery plastic meets: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36308.jpg The speakers and dell logo on the screen are visible when the battery is removed: http://www.notebookreview.com/assets/36310.jpg Still, the keyboard is the Mini 9's main problem in most reviews. The movement in the home-row [;:] ['"] [Enter] keys is listed as the most noticeable change. The enter key could simply become the size of a regular key (half the current width) to allow room for the return of ['"]. The elimination of the F11 and F12 keys are unnecessary, if the row contains the ['"] key again. With the ['"] key back in the row, the F1 could fall on the [CapsLk] and the F12 would fall on the ['"]. Perhaps there is a technical reason the function key for F1 can't be on [CapsLk] ...
By atxmob  Dec 1, 2008
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i want all my function keys! everyone else has one, why not the dell mini? num lock?
By n6mod  Dec 24, 2008
Comment Link   
The loss of the Fkeys doesn
t bother me much, since I
m not a Windows user. As you can see, though, I am an English user, and therefore the displacement of the apostrophe is catastrophic. I
ve gotten used to the right shift key problem, though I would still prefer a half-height inverted-T. And the prominence of forward-delete at the expense of the hyphen is odd.

As I
ve said elsewhere, it seems the target group for Dell
s alleged testing on the keyboard was composed of people moving up from text messaging, and e e cummings

Dell has said that it doesn
t take long to adapt to the Mini9 layout, and that would probably be true if the Mini9 were my only machine. But I use normal keyboards most of the time, and unless I break all of them, I
m just not going to adapt to the apostrophe.

As a linux user, I
m none too thrilled about the relocation of backtick and tilde, either.
By badblood  Dec 24, 2008
Comment Link   
A total travesty; the work of a two fingered designer I'd suspect! Here's the Lenovo S10 netbook keyboard by comparison - please note the apostrophe and the Fkeys and OMG no windows key!

User-added image
By GeekMommy  Feb 18, 2009
Comment Link   
n6mod's comment illustrates perfectly why I'm so adamant that moving the apostrophe/quote key was a huge mistake...

I touch type. I use contractions (like most of the English-speaking world.) I prefer not to hit the Enter key every time I try to use common words like don't, can't, won't, it's... I could go on.

I've been told by more than one person at Dell that the keyboard was "highly tested" and the only thing I can imagine is that it was tested by those who neither touch-type, nor type quickly.  Even if I could teach my fingers to find the new key, it's impossible to swing them around to hit the apostrophe without losing my finger postion.  

Sadly, I went into the nearest Microcenter to compare 9" mini keyboards of other manufacturers and the ONLY one that seemed to feel the need to relocate the apostrophe/quote key was Dell.  C'mon guys.  I'm an ardent Dell supporter - but I can't recommend the mini just because of this one issue. If everyone had to do it? I'd assume it was a size issue... but everyone else gets that you can't go moving common keys and expect customer satisfaction.

:(

Please fix it in the 9" minis in the future.
By JennFowler  Feb 19, 2009
Comment Link   
I am also a touch typist, and the apostrophe issue drives me insane.  Not only does it interfere with and slow considerably my typing when I'm using the Mini (typicaly I accidentally hit enter, have to hit backspace, then lift my hands off the keyboard, look for the apostrophe, hit the correct key, then put my hands back on the jkl;) but then when I switch back to a traditional keyboard my touch typing skills are confused which slows me down as well. . .

I have been using the mini frequently for the last 3 months and the issue has yet to improve with use.

I can deal with the loss of the function keys, but please folks, fix the appostrophe.  Make the enter smaller and put it back where it goes.
By gabrieljosh  Jul 9, 2009
Comment Link   
I always love a mini keyboardbecause it can help you escape the pain and other effects of carpal tunnel syndrome.

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