Lenovo put nearly a year of research into two design changes that debuted on an updated ThinkPad laptop this week. No, not the thinner, lighter form or the textured touchpad — rather, the extra-large Delete and Escape keys.
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It may seem like a small change, but David Hill, vice president of corporate identity and design at Lenovo, points out, Any time you start messing around with the keyboard, people get nervous.
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Computers get smaller and faster every year, but keyboard design remains largely stuck in the 19th century. When Beijing-based Lenovo, which bought IBM Corp.’s personal-computer business in 2005, looked into improving the keyboard on the new ThinkPad T400s, a $1,600-and-up laptop for businesspeople, it knew it had to proceed with caution.
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To understand Lenovo’s concern, turn the clock back to the 1800s.
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Back then, fast typing would jam typewriters, so a keyboard layout that slowed down flying fingers was devised. The commonly used A key, for example, was banished to the spot under the relatively uncoordinated left pinky.
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Typewriter technology evolved. Mainframe computing led to function keys and others of uncertain use today. The PC era dawned. Yet many laws of keyboard layout remain sacred, like the 19-millimeter distance between the centers of the letter keys.
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Tom Hardy, who designed the original IBM PC of 1981, said companies have tried many times to change the sizes of keys. That first PC had a smaller Shift key than IBM’s popular Selectric typewriter did, and it was placed in a different spot, in part because the industry didn’t think computers would replace typewriters for high-volume typing tasks.
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IBM reversed course with the next version to quiet the outcry from skilled touch-typists.
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Customers have responded with a resounding, ‘Don’t fool with the key unless you can you can improve it,’ said Hardy, now a design strategist based in Atlanta.
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PC makers…