The size of the display isn't the limitation, the angle of the diagonal is - size ratio if I want to over-simplify it. In my latter years as a device reviewer (BargainPDA, Brighthand, Nokia Blogger Program, etc.) that was one those ergonomic criteria points I used to evaluate. I'm weird... and have QA, accessibility, and usability experience beyond designing for the screen.

Yes.

Actually, on my N9, I do a lot of zooming (in and out) with just one finger. Part of the base-ability of multi-touch implementations is to act just like that. Pinch-zooming is for focused zoomming.

In terms of people whom I see typing with one hand, more than 60% if I want to be honest. I watch people and their mobiles about as much as Jan Chipchase and other design researchers. I tend to be very interested in the mobiles that women use - paying very much attention to using mobiles while shopping, handling children, etc. I've also got a sizable amount of male friends and associates who tend to be larger than average height. They usually find <4.5in screened devices too small to type with larger matt fingers, but small enough to utilize with one hand in a swinging motion after pulling it off of a belt clip.

The two handed folks I see usually have mobiles larger than 5in, or are heavier typers on auto-correct themed devices like the iPhone.

False - when I'm counting just my usage. I type with one hand only on the N9 using swype (and even those off times when I grab 'P' and switch to the regular QWERTY keyboard. Again, I'm weird, and have been typing on various mobiles more than I care to remember at times. The last device that made me use two hands was the N97 - and that was only when I used the QWERTY mode.

True/False - when I'm watching others. Smaller handed folks seem to want to default to two hands and leaning against something when text sessions get larger. But, that's also how current auto-correct QWERTY solutions are designed. BB10 is a better designed 1-handed solution, but for those folks (aside from Gerbick) usually have had the Q10 - which has the hardware keyboard.

You didn't have the best QWERTY (ergonomically) as your first touchscreen device - not a pure opinion either, the N97, while designed similar, was tweaked for better typing - the N900 was designed for writing code not sentences. You didn't have a device that was designed to be used in portrait for composition in that device either. The C7 was better, but by that point, I'd assume you were a bit more skewed towards QWERTY as a basis for typing than you were T9. That's just an assumption. Such a device move usually speaks of aquesing to the state of the market and budget, not necessarily getting the best solution available. Not meant as a slight, but I also know a good deal about the psychology of mobile usage patterns. Its part of what I do for my own mobile efforts.


Does that kind of observational ability help determine some of why I make the statements I do?