For all its failures, the Blackberry Storm’s clickable screen was an innovation ahead of its time. Roundly criticized for inhibiting typing speed by adding the need to depress the screen-button before clicking it again, it dared to add a whole other layer of tactile communication to what was originally just a visual display. Reversing this fundamental concept and throwing in a dash of technological whimsy, I present the first MozPhone Throw-away Concept: OLED Blackberry.
But this is no great innovation, it’s an Optimus Keyboard + a Blackberry 7130. What I do think is significant is the goal it works toward and the channels of communication it opens up. If the greatest challenge to phones are their limited ability to receive and provide information (see thumboard, see 3″ display), then it follows that every square inch of the phone must eventually be utilized in as many different ways as possible. What if instead of predictive text, a predictive keyboard displayed the expected characters, allowing the user to preempt a mistake rather than fixing it after the fact.
Another interesting way of looking at this solution is how the content is separated from the interface. No screen real estate is sacrificed for “New Tab” or “Back” buttons, each channel of communication perfectly tailored for the purpose it serves best. It takes what was a maddeningly soft interface and makes it hard.
So where does this idea go? How can every square millimeter of a phone both input and output information to the user? How can our buttons, screens, speakers and trackballs communicate to more of our senses? How about a volume wheel that gets harder to turn the louder it goes? Lets see some comments below.