When Dell Usability Engineering Goes Horribly Wrong
Today I was reading Engadget like I normally do in the morning to check out all the latest gadgets that they scour the internet for. And I happened across this new keyboard design that Dell is releasing with their Vostro models in the UK. I don’t know about you, but I specifically stay clear of keyboards where the backspace key is crunched down to add the backslash key on the top row. (This is my personal preference, apparently I have to point this out to some of the commentors, because it is not clear by saying “I specifically”) But I have never seen this keyboard layout before, where the backslash key is on the bottom left of the keyboard where the “Z” key is suppose to be. I think the usability engineer that designed this keyboard should be fired, that is assuming that Dell didn’t randomly toss keys at the keyboard and let them stay where they fell.
This design has to be experienced because me describing it doesn’t do it justice for how bad of a design it is.
US Version
UK Version
Somebody may want to mention this blunder on Dell Idea Storm.
Note (2008-10-14): The US keyboard layout is my personal preference because I like a spacious LEFT SHIFT key and I don’t like my RETURN key so big. There are some people on the internet who think I am taking a shot at the UK by saying “I personally don’t like their keyboard layout”, this is not the case, and it really baffels me that I have to write this statement on my blog. So once and for all, this is my blog, my preferences, and anything above that I say about keyboard layout and design are my preferences.
Tags: Bad Design, Dell, Useability
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May 1st, 2008 at 8:07 am
When Dell Usability Engineering Goes Horribly Wrong…
You’ve been kicked (a good thing) – Trackback from DotNetKicks.com…
May 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
US keyboard… notice the lack of “Alt Gr” and you might understand why.
Nothing wrong, your simply lack knowlegde about keyboards :p
May 1st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
… and yes, product images are in 9/10 cases with american keyboard layout.
May 2nd, 2008 at 5:58 am
Claus,
As you will notice the “Alt Gr” key is still on that keyboard, it just replaces the right ALT key on all non-US keyboards. So again I assert, why did they move the backslash key on the keyboard and change the international standard for the QWERTY keyboard layout. The issue here is that Z key is under the S and D instead of the standardized A and S keys, check out all the keyboard layouts for your self: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout
And it is pretty offensive to me that you assume that I know nothing about the international keyboard layouts, it is very narrow minded of you and you should be ashamed of yourself. I have many friends through out Europe and we constantly talk about the different perceptions of Europe vs. the US. And your narrow minded rants seem to justify how Americans feel about Europeans. Congratulations on being a stereotype.
Personally I like the extra room on the bottom row and the bigger shift key, and the enter key on the US keyboards is very comfortable, even though it is smaller. Plus for touch typists it maps well to DVORAK.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hi Nick,
I’m a developer in the UK and I can confirm that both my Dell laptop and desktop workstation have the
backslash bottom-left, next to the Z key. I’m not suggesting that this is a good thing or anything-
it’s just something that we’ve been forced to get used to in the UK :-s
The crazy thing for a developer is that Apple UK keyboards have the backslash above the right shift,
and they @ symbol is swapped with the ” key (compared to UK PC keyboards)… This is a pain for
developers switching between the two – don’t even ask about #.
Perhaps Claus was a little unnecessarily short with you.
– Scott
August 20th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Well, a true UK keyboard layout would look like this:
http://digitalconsumption.com/userfiles/1_img_4346_F_WOI1acTxzsc05S.jpg
We usually have a narrow left-shift key (even on laptops sometimes), which makes room for the backslash key to the bottom-left of “A”.
For some reason though, most laptop manufacturers prefer to keep the wide left-shift of US layouts, even for a UK keyboard, and then just move the backslash/pipe key somewhere else.
October 13th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Dear Mr. Berardi,
Hate to say it, but America (and by extension, the US 101-key layout) is not the centre of the universe: key placement is as locale-specific as a codepage or encoding. If there is a “usability issue” here, it is your staunch belief that the US layout is the *only* layout.
You claim to have worldly knowledge about international keyboards, but as both Nick D. and Scott point out, the placement of the ‘\’ key in the lower left is UK STANDARD… so I think you owe Claus a bit of an apology because, in this case, your international knowledge is not quite up to snuff and you, as an American, basically insulted the UK by claiming their layout as “bad design” and “randomly tossed”.
What IS perhaps wrong, however, is the fact that the lower row of keys is translated to the left by one key, such that the “Z” key stradles the “S” and “D” keys instead of the “A” and “S” keys. THAT seems pretty non-standard to me (and I apologize — instead of insult — to anybody whose locale uses this key layout intentionally).
- Victor
October 14th, 2008 at 2:51 am
So Victor you decided to pile on with Nick D and Scott to point something out that has already been pointed out? Seems like a waste of time to me. If you go back and re-read my post, instead of creating your opinions based off of Nick D and Scott you would actually realize that I made no claim about international standards being wrong or bad.
My statements had everything to do with my personal preferences, this is my blog after all. And my personal preference is not to have a slash key were my “Z” is suppose to be. Also while we are on the subject I like a spacious LEFT SHIFT key. So apart from any international keyboard standards, I as a touch typist would hate this keyboard, even if the slash was in the right place internationally.
I just don’t understand why you guys are so sensitive about this? I didn’t call your country names, I didn’t call you names, I didn’t stomp on your flag, I didn’t do anything but claim my preference for the US keyboard layout. If that makes me a ill-informed bigot, you should really reexamine your definition.
P.S. by the very fact of you apologizing at the end of your statement, about a flaw that Dell has sense openly admitted and corrected, shows that you are in fact overly sensitive about your keyboard layout and very concerned that somebody might disagree with you about something as stupid as a keyboard layout. It is an interface to a computer nothing more and nothing less, people have their preferences, just like in operating systems and shoes.