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All thumbs?
Dec. 21st, 2009 02:53 pmThere is a numeric keypad on the door to our lab, and I was intrigued to watch one of the students operate it this afternoon. It's the type of keypad where you press it once, and it displays the numbers randomly arranged. Press the right four keys, hit the enter # sign, and it flashes okay and let's you in. The thing is... he operated it with both thumbs hitting spots. Me, I do the old-fashioned one-finger dance.
I realized that he was operating it the same way that they operate their cell phones for text messages. Both thumbs working away.
Then I got to thinking about the parallel to the older touchtyping versus two-finger (or one-finger) typists. Hunt-and-peck. Or my friend who uses a Dvorak keyboard layout, and says the QWERTY is old-fashioned.
Back when I was doing a fair amount of phone calling, I learned to use three-finger dialing on the touchtone pad. And I've seen clerks playing tunes on their adding machines, while reading the figures from the spreadsheet.
It's kind of intriguing considering the ways that we adjust to our mechanical interfaces. But in the meantime, I'm just going to continue working the keypad with one finger.
I realized that he was operating it the same way that they operate their cell phones for text messages. Both thumbs working away.
Then I got to thinking about the parallel to the older touchtyping versus two-finger (or one-finger) typists. Hunt-and-peck. Or my friend who uses a Dvorak keyboard layout, and says the QWERTY is old-fashioned.
Back when I was doing a fair amount of phone calling, I learned to use three-finger dialing on the touchtone pad. And I've seen clerks playing tunes on their adding machines, while reading the figures from the spreadsheet.
It's kind of intriguing considering the ways that we adjust to our mechanical interfaces. But in the meantime, I'm just going to continue working the keypad with one finger.
