Designing for Keyboard-Free Scenarios

While some Ultra-Mobile PCs have built-in keyboards, and all are keyboard-extensible, you shouldn't assume that users will always have access to a conventional keyboard. Even when a keyboard is available, using it can inhibit the kind of spontaneous, flexible command and control users expect from their UMPCs.

Security authentication is a further consideration in a keyboard-free environment. In mobile situations, it can be challenging for users to manage authentication dialog boxes with or without a keyboard. Password entry is a process that requires the user's full attention to complete successfully. Password security may be compromised by visual feedback from soft key events. For these reasons, you should think about how, when, and where your application requires security authentication.

Keyboard-Free Recommendations:

Text Input

• Provide on-screen alternatives to commonly used keyboard shortcuts, such as Copy, Paste, Undo, Save, and Open.
• Provide on-screen alternatives to keyboard modifier keys, such as CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT.
• Where text is required, offer user assistance, such as auto-complete from history, MRUs, or pre-defined "quick text."
• Investigate ways in which alternate control functionality, such as speech recognition, might replace keyboard input as well as expand your application's capabilities.
• Consider providing specialized features, such as GPS navigation and video conferencing, through peripheral hardware accessories and OEM-installed hardware.
• Use hardware control buttons to simplify user navigation tasks; however, hardware buttons may be specific to a particular OEM-configuration, as in the following illustration:

Examples of Ultra-Mobile PC Hardware Controls

 

 

Security and Login

• Use authentication dialogs as sparingly as your application's security requirements allow.
• Make your authentication requests predictable. Avoid prompting users during tasks or at other times when they do not expect a security prompt.

Examples of Ultra-Mobile PC Hardware Controls

 

 

Security and Login

• Use authentication dialogs as sparingly as your application's security requirements allow.
• Make your authentication requests predictable. Avoid prompting users during tasks or at other times when they do not expect a security prompt.

 

 

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Build date: 2/8/2011