Comments on: Origami Touch Improvements: do you use ‘em? http://jkontherun.com/2006/09/19/origami_touch_t/ Using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:10:32 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Kevin C. Tofel http://jkontherun.com/2006/09/19/origami_touch_t/#comment-29728 Kevin C. Tofel Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:46:03 +0000 http://jkontherun.wordpress.com/2006/09/19/origami_touch_t#comment-29728 <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Great question / solicitation for feedback Dustin! Here's my rundown, which of course is a personal choice:</p> <p>1. Wider scrollbars. I do make use of these; they definitely make the user experience more positive, especially when not using a stylus. In the future, it might be worthwhile if the actual width were easily customizable by the user within the TE. Perhaps a few set choices of widths could be provided for a wider (no pun intended) range of widths.</p> <p>2. Larger screen text. I tend to play with font sizes (and DPI) directly through the Display Properties dialog in XP, however, I see no issue with having this change in the TE.</p> <p>3. Single tap. Unlike most, I do keep this feature active. Less taps means more productivity over time. For instances when I need to see the properties of a file, I simply tap away from the icon and drag my stylus to the file. After a second, I get the right-click menu without activating the file.</p> <p>4. Thumbnail view of files. I'm OK with this in general as it better supports #3 above. Users can always adjust to Detail or any other view. I tend to use Thumbnail the most, but again, that's personal preference.</p> <p>5. Fewer Start men programs; I'm all for this feature and you can always change as needed very simply.</p> <p>6. Applications menu: not a fan of the scrolling program menu, so I change that back. I'd prefer to better manage my program shortcut groups and have them all on one screen; difficult but doable.</p> <p>7. IE full screen. Again, not a fan, but conceptually this is good for most folks to maximize the screen.</p> <p>Although any of these settings can be modified outside the TE, I'd love to see the option to modify / add / remove from WITHIN the TE, which shouldn't be difficult to do; all of the functionality is available, but you have to go different places to modify. I'd also like to recommend that the Tools app itself be a higher level menu item. It's a safe bet that not every UMPC owner knows about this as it feels hidden from a user standpoint. Perhaps it can be a sub-menu under "Microsoft Touch Pack for Tablet PC"?<br /> </p></div>

Great question / solicitation for feedback Dustin! Here’s my rundown, which of course is a personal choice:

1. Wider scrollbars. I do make use of these; they definitely make the user experience more positive, especially when not using a stylus. In the future, it might be worthwhile if the actual width were easily customizable by the user within the TE. Perhaps a few set choices of widths could be provided for a wider (no pun intended) range of widths.

2. Larger screen text. I tend to play with font sizes (and DPI) directly through the Display Properties dialog in XP, however, I see no issue with having this change in the TE.

3. Single tap. Unlike most, I do keep this feature active. Less taps means more productivity over time. For instances when I need to see the properties of a file, I simply tap away from the icon and drag my stylus to the file. After a second, I get the right-click menu without activating the file.

4. Thumbnail view of files. I’m OK with this in general as it better supports #3 above. Users can always adjust to Detail or any other view. I tend to use Thumbnail the most, but again, that’s personal preference.

5. Fewer Start men programs; I’m all for this feature and you can always change as needed very simply.

6. Applications menu: not a fan of the scrolling program menu, so I change that back. I’d prefer to better manage my program shortcut groups and have them all on one screen; difficult but doable.

7. IE full screen. Again, not a fan, but conceptually this is good for most folks to maximize the screen.

Although any of these settings can be modified outside the TE, I’d love to see the option to modify / add / remove from WITHIN the TE, which shouldn’t be difficult to do; all of the functionality is available, but you have to go different places to modify. I’d also like to recommend that the Tools app itself be a higher level menu item. It’s a safe bet that not every UMPC owner knows about this as it feels hidden from a user standpoint. Perhaps it can be a sub-menu under “Microsoft Touch Pack for Tablet PC”?

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