A friend and UX colleague of mine was involved in the research and design of the Swiftpoint mouse. This is a New Zealand adaption of the traditional mouse that is aimed at people who get frustrated with using their laptop’s touchpad. I ended up buying a Swiftpoint mouse, really to support NZ innovation and to add to my collection of UX gadgetry; to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be become a well-used gadget as I am not someone who really has a problem with their laptop touchpad.
Interestingly I have become a bit of a fan of the Swiftpoint mainly because within a couple of minutes of playing/using it I suddenly found it just worked for me. I don’t actually use the Swiftpoint as intended (ie when you don’t have a decent surface to put your laptop on), instead it has become my de facto device when I am at a desk or table.
So the motto of this post…user-centered design does work…and sometimes in a wider context than intended if the design is really good.
Anyway, if you are interested I recommend reading about the user centered design process the Swiftpoint emerged from.
