In Praise of Minimal Design

A few days ago my two year old gained unfettered access to the small area of my abode that houses the computer and it’s various peripherals. Not being one to miss a chance at causing irreparable damage the two year old seized the moment and poured the remnants of several beer cans into the keyboard. Most people would view such an incident with an eye towards severe corporal punishment or at least a sense of diminished self esteem (since the damage can also be laid completely at the feet of the person who failed to dispose of the beer cans). I merely blamed the dog (always blame the dog) and went about finding a replacement keyboard. In my efforts to find a suitable replacement I learned two things: minimalist industrial design is more about ease of use than coolness of looks and I really owe my dog an apology.

The natural destination, if you live in Knoxville Tennessee and want a new Mac compatible keyboard, is the local CompUSA.  While keyboards are fairly standard many of them still use the PS 2 connector and you’re only half likely to find a compatible keyboard at, say, Wal-Mart. CompUSA guarantees a keyboard what with the Apple Store within a Store strategy. The drill never changes, walk to the back corner of the computer retailing giant and begin shopping. Unexpectedly, I found the pickings slim. I had assumed that there would be a ton of keyboards to choose from ranging in price from 9.99 to 149.99. Instead I was treated to a selection of five keyboards starting at 39.99 and ranging upwards in price to 79.99. Actually that is a bit misleading, two of the models were out of stock so I was basically being forced to choose between the Apple keyboard and some boogie board sized wireless monstrosities. I didn’t like any of these options, after all Mr. Share My Drinks isn’t moving out anytime soon so there’s no telling how many keyboards I’m going to end up going through, hence cheaper is better. I thought about it for a moment and decided that while there were only five keyboards in the Mac section that was not necessarily the limit of Mac compatible keyboards to be found inside the store. I strolled over to the PC keyboard section to see if there were any Mac/Win compatible keyboards lying about.

The PC keyboard section took an entire aisle plus end caps, keyboards were stacked like cordwood there was definitely no shortage of options on the PC side. The choices were truly astounding. You could buy a Memorex keyboard (presumably made entirely out of unsold cassette tapes) for fewer than ten dollars or you scale all the way up to a Microsoft Wireless Keyboard Mouse combo deal for a cool one hundred and fifty dollars. Because keyboard makers like to sell keyboards a good many of these were Mac compatible. I went with a Microsoft keyboard for twenty-nine bucks; I can absorb that kind of financial hit on a fairly regular basis.

Since I was shopping solely on price/compatibility I didn’t really pay too much attention to the features displayed on the side of the box. Who am I kidding? I paid zero attention to anything but the price tag. After all I, like most Mac users, have become so accustomed to using stuff without reading the manual I don’t even bother to look at boxes any longer. Apple has spoiled me. My confidence turned out to be misplaced. I got the keyboard home and unpacked it. It looked fairly nice with a silver chassis and black keys. I did feature an odd semi bulbous shape but I dismissed that as some ergonomic necessity. It was then I noticed the buttons, not the keys, the buttons. For those of you only familiar with the seemingly stripped down keyboards from Apple the use of the term buttons may cause some confusion. When I say buttons I’m not talking about the keys with letters and numbers that everyone is used to, I am talking about buttons with little pictures dedicated to a particular task and this keyboard has a ton of them. In fact the keyboard looks as though someone filled their mouth up with tic tack sized buttons and let out a mighty, wet, unrestricted sneeze. The engineers looked at the placement of the buttons post discharge and called it a wrap.

Now I’ll grant that upon first inspection the buttons seem as though they might be useful, well at least some of them. You’ve got a “My Documents” button, a Mail button, a “Web/Home” button to name but a few (there are a bunch). You naturally think “Hey that will save me some time because I can just hit the “Calculator” button. You’d be mistaken. Sure if there were just a few buttons they probably would be time savers but with buttons so abundant it appeared that that quarter’s bonus was based on just how many of the annoying things could be crammed on the keyboard confusion, not convenience, quickly becomes the norm. Note that the keyboard also features a row of keys, smaller than normal, called “favorites.” These keys are designed with a so you can associate them with your favorite folders or programs. Which would be useful if the keyboard did not also feature the ubiquitous function keys that duplicate the utility. To use all the function keys and the favorites keys you’ll be forced to remember seventeen separate uses (without using modifiers). That amount key memorization could constipate a concert pianist.

You’d think that adding an extra 24 buttons/keys/sliders would satisfy any designers lust for over an over populated typing area. Apparently, however, once you add one supposed time saving area of mashing you get a little over zealous. I say this because the mavens of design also felt compelled to add tiny hard to read labels on the front side of several keys. This would seem nice if you were using the keyboard with Windows instead of guessing that that bold was ctrl+b you could just look at the keyboard and see the helpful little note on the front that says “*Bold.”  Except that you have to have just the right viewing angle to read the caption. I actually plugged the keyboard into my Wife’s computer and attempted to take advantage of “*Undrln” but my gyrations just to read the keys left me resembling nothing so much as an over stimulated Weeble.

Now I have always criticized Apple for the one button mouse, smallish keyboards and lack of ports on the front of their computers. My arguments usually centered around some feature I would find useful, say a card reader built into an easily accessible area. This experience has changed my mind. Once you start adding stuff a few people use adding more “features” less people will avail themselves of becomes an easy mistake. Very soon the design becomes overly complex with features that no one will really use because the truly useful ones are hidden by the highly annoying features. It is much better to minimize the clutter and confusion for ninety percent of the users than to cater to the odd disparate yearnings of ten percent of the consumer base. Trust me when I say that people who actually require a “Messenger” button on their keyboard or a sixth button on their mouse will seek out and find an aftermarket solution. For those of us with more generalized needs Apple’s minimal design actually increases the efficiency of the product. Thanks keyboard engineers, you made me a believer.