Lenovo bold attempt to change ThinkPad keyboard design

"Sina Science and Technology," Beijing time June 29 Evening news, according to foreign media reports, Lenovo this week published a year-long study of the two ThinkPad notebook computer design, the "Delete" and "Escape" keys are adjusted to oversized design.

The two changes seem unremarkable, but David Hill, vice president of Lenovo's corporate logo and design, said: "Every time you start to ' David Hill ' the keyboard, people get nervous." ”

Computers are becoming smaller and faster, but keyboard design has remained at the 19th century level. Lenovo, which acquired IBM's PC business in 2006, plans to improve the keyboard in the ThinkPad t400s. The product is located in business people, priced at more than 1600 dollars. But Lenovo is also clear that it needs to be more careful.

To understand Lenovo's concerns, it is going back to 19th century. At that time, in order to avoid typing speed too fast and appear card keys, someone invented the current keyboard arrangement. For example, you would design the commonly used a key to the position of the left pinky to knock.

Then, with the development of typewriter technology, there are also large machines, and finally, the advent of the PC era. However, many of the rules for keyboard layouts still remain unchanged, such as the 19 mm spacing between the letter keys.

The IBM PC, launched in 1981, was designed by Tom Hardy (Tom Hardy), who says many companies have tried to change the size of the keyboard several times. For example, the SHIFT key for the first PC is smaller than the SHIFT key for the IBM Selectric typewriter, and the key is designed in a different place, in part because industry insiders thought the computer could not replace the typewriter in a large number of typing tasks.

To quell the public opposition of professional typists, IBM changed the practice in subsequent versions.

The user's objections did not prevent companies from trying and producing new keyboards. Some designs have been shown to be faster typing than standard QWERTY keyboards. In the "Hardy era" IBM has also launched a spherical single hand keyboard. It is reported that the product input speed than the standard keyboard is also faster.

In the design of the new ThinkPad, Lenovo installed the keystroke tracking software on its 30-member computer. Although "Escape" and "Delete" are located outside the main keyboard and are not letter keys, they are still up to 700 times a week on average for these two keystrokes.

In Lenovo's latest design, the vertical length of the two keys is extended by one fold to suit the way people use them. In addition, the new design reduces the chance that users will accidentally tap the "end" and "Insert" keys.