Asus EEE Netbook Computer

As many of my classmates have noticed (and been told many, many times), I just recently purchased a $350 10" netbook computer. Its specs include the new Intel Atom processor, a 160 GB standard hard drive, 1 gig of RAM, a 6 cell battery (claiming up to 7hrs of battery life), and it runs Windows XP. Even though the keyboard is not quite full-sized, I haven't had issues touch typing on it, except that the right shift button is positioned to the right of the up arrow which causes issues sometimes.

Rather than utilizing precious real estate, the keyboard employs a function key much more heavily than many I have seen. In fact, there is a full number pad contained within the standard keyboard activated by the function key. Other function keys include sleep, volume controls, screen settings, and internet activation.

The newest feature for me is the slightly increased versatility of the trackpad. The "Smart-Pad" which is protected by IP and owned by Elantech Devices Corporation offers "The magic of Multi-Fingers." It's nowhere near the capabilities of the iPod touch and iPhone, but since I don't own any multi-touch technology until now, the littlest features are somewhat exciting. So what are the capabilities?

1. Taping - 1 finger (left button), two-finger (middle button), and three-finger (pop-up menu, or right click)
2. Scrolling - using 2 fingers in a dragging motion will activate either vertical or horizontal scrolling
3. Zooming - a 2 finger gesture towards or away from each other will activate shrink and expand buttons which can be set to minimize/maximize windows, page up/down, zoom in/out
4. Rotation - a 2 finger rotation gesture can activate clockwise and counterclockwise buttons that can be set to rotate, page up/down, or minimize/maximize windows
5. Drag and Drop - gesture to drag an object
   
6. Magnifying Glass - a complicated two finger gesture (tap and hold with 1 finger, tap twice with the second) will activate a magnifying window on the screen
7. Swipe Page - a 3 finger gesture swipe either left or right will perform page up and page down operation
8. Fast Keys - a 3 finger gesture swipe either up or down will activiate the My Computer folder or tab between windows

My 17" laptop that I've had for 1.5 yrs, and even my laptop before that one, had the capability to allow clicking to be accomplished using the trackpad, but the feature annoyed me so much that I turned it off. I would consistently click things when I didn't mean to, and it would ultimately slow me down. But, I'm giving it a try on this new computer. I'm still accidently clicking when I don't intend to, but I'm getting better at it.

While I've being try to get used to the single tapping instead of clicking, many of the other touch-pad functions, while they seem somewhat intuitive, are very hard to keep straight. When trying to learn them, I often use the wrong number of fingers or the wrong direction. There has to be a better way to do it, I'm just not sure what it is.

Also, since I have the touchpad clicking on one computer and not the other, sometimes I get frustrated when it doesn't work on my 17" computer until I realize that it's not turned on and I don't want it to be.

Lastly, on the new netbook, the mouse buttons that are located just below the trackpad are actually clicked from the front of the netbook instead of from the top. I've found this, so far, to be much more ergonomic and comfortable.

Warning... crude language ahead.

If you can handle the amount of cursing in this video, I found it pretty hilarious:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5150189/so-mean-but-maybe-true-nsfw

Oh, interfaces... how you fail users sometimes.

Flashing It Up..

After a very long journey to finally install a version of Flash on my own computer to mock-up an interface, I discovered that the extra features I assumed I'd have in Flash versus Powerpoint (of which I had already mostly mocked-up a prototype) were either non-existent or very hidden (or impossible for someone of my skill level to accomplish).

Perhaps by using ActionScript 2.0 files, I am missing some magical usability improvements with the ActiveScript 3.0 files, but Flash is incredibly difficult to use. I think Chrysta summed it up pretty well, "its too complex to do simple stuff and not complex enough for anything really useful." It took me hours to get to a point that I reached in 1/3 or less of the time in powerpoint. When I wanted to do things that weren't immediately obvious in powerpoint, it took me significantly less time to browse through the necessary resources to figure it out. There are all these submenus and seemingly hidden resources within the program to help here and there, and if you can find the right ones and pay attention closely, you might get somewhere, but you might not.

If you get to a point where you can right-click and be launched online to look at help files there, you will realize that Adobe posted the absolute minimum description of the available features, and does not fully describe the full potential of options available. If you search online outside of the Adobe Flash website, you might be able to find something to help, but since there have been so many versions of the program and many of the features and advanced options are not consistent between them, you might just end up creating more problems for yourself.

Trying to design an interface using Flash makes me curious whether there are programs out there designed specifically for interface design. I know there are programs to help design a website using essentially drag and drop features, but I wonder if there are drag and drop knobs, buttons, screens, etc., and whether you could set-up a logic tree / decision tree to map out the various functions and conditions. Might be able to make a lot of money with a program like this?

Back to Flash.