Mobile Handset DesignLine Blog
How small is too small?
Gregory Quirk
7/27/2009 11:35 AM EDT
Phones have been getting smaller and smaller all the time, even with more features being implemented. In the 80s phones were huge, but that was largely due to the excessive (and still short lasting) battery packs and large components inside.
As technology has increased, in every aspect, phones have been getting smaller and smaller. Process lithography is now in the 40nm range and shrinking every year. Battery power has been getting longer in smaller spaces, and is even going to be paper thin.
I laughed when I saw the cell phone in Zoolander, but it is getting to be almost to that point now. Samsung has demonstrated a cell phone watch which is only 11.98 millimeters thick, and it still has Bluetooth, e-mail synching, an MP3 player, voice recognition and a speaker. The touch screen is 1.76 inches with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels.
There is always a trade off between making a smaller product and still making it usable for the consumers. Can you imagine reading your e-mail on a 1.76 inch screen? How about pushing the buttons on a touch screen to make a call.
Sure, I know I had a calculator watch growing up, but my fingers were also a lot smaller than they are now. I am not sure I would be able to hit the buttons properly any more, let alone read anything more than one line on the LCD screen.
Are we at a point where we have to say "stop" to the ever increasing shrink of products, or should we keep designing to see how far we can push the envelope?
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wirelessguy
7/28/2009 7:47 AM EDT
I agree that it's gotten too hard to dial a number on these tiny devices. I have a Blackberry, and it's very difficult just to see the letters on the keys. Pressing just one key at a time is another matter.
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clicklead
7/28/2009 7:51 PM EDT
Without glsses I see clearly at 8 feet. I need the phone to be small enough to be part of my pace maker so my brain can operate it. GB.
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Hampus Jakobsson
8/1/2009 7:42 AM EDT
I think you are right. The smallest mobile phones were done around 2002, with for example the Sony Premini being the pinnacle of smallness.
The size constraint is a human factors constraint just as you mention, and size used to be a technical issue. Now it is really depending on how you interact with the device.
As long as mobile phones can't "transform" (look at the classical Nokia N93) or let the user interface be more adaptive (why not have a device which can only answer and call via voice recognition looking like a handsfree) they will be limited by the accuracy of our eyes and size of fingers.
As voice recognition, projected user interfaces, adaptive user interfaces, dedicated devices matures we will have more useful and smaller devices. One day we might not have to look at technology any more, but it will be invisible or super natural - think of how mucn credit cards for example have abstracted in technology and fuss.
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