[IxDA Discuss] notepads and creative tools

[Jeff Axup]

Thanks for all the links and comments everyone.

To respond to a few of them:
- the device I'm proposing is significantly different from an ultra-light
tablet (as they are currently offered), a digital pen, and a paper notepad
that records notes digitally. the tablets suck power, have full-blown OSs,
have hard drives, and have back-lighted LCDs. Pens offer digital entry, but
not real-time digital editing, review, transfer, etc. The digimemo is a
strange beast! Part normal paper pad and part digital pen. This doesn't
allow many of the editing functions, and no real-time conversion to text
options. I wish they made the border surrounding the pad smaller. The 6x9"
option is actually 8x11 when you get the clipboard onto it. The price is
right on it though.

- Regarding digitizing notes: I do sometimes take "brainstorming" notes
which nobody else can read or understand. But mostly I want to take notes in
meetings or design reviews, flag things for following up, and then drop it
directly into an e-mail to send out as meeting notes for the company. This
sometimes means bringing both a notepad (to sketch visual ideas) and a
laptop (to take textual notes), and a camera, to take pictures of diagrams
on the whiteboard that we do for collective visualization tasks. This is
ridiculous. There must be a better solution for a device that supports all
of these (or atleast the first two), in a way that is quiet, compact and
rapid to use.

- Also I frequently use digital prototyping tools, and I'm not convinced
that any of them is as fast as sketching on whiteboard when you're in early
conceptualization stages. So we're stuck with analog for the moment.

-Jeff

On 7/4/07, Will Parker <wparker at channelingdesign.com> wrote:
>
> On Jul 3, 2007, at 10:20 PM, Jim Drew wrote:
> >
> > On Jul 3, 2007, at 3:07 PM, Grady Kelly wrote:
> >
> >> This seems to have the best of both worlds.  If you are in to that
> >> sorta
> >> thing ... :o)
> >>
> >>      http://www.compamerica.com/digimemo/dm692.html
> >>
> > Wow, I forgot all about those things.  I have an earlier digitizer
> > tablet like this that I bought back in 1999.  In a box somewhere.  I
> > don't think I ever got around to actually using it.
> >
> > To my eternal shame.  My name is Jim, and I'm a gadgetaholic.
>
> Well, perhaps we should explore that a bit. I know that's a long
> while back, but can you recall what you intended to do with the
> digitizer and why you didn't actually do that? If your missing
> digitizer magically showed up on your desk this afternoon with
> software that worked with your current favorite OS, would you bother
> to open the box?
>
> > It's  been two months since my last gadget purchase -- a Bluetooth
> > keyboard
> > for my Nokia N800 (which I used tonight, waiting for to get to the
> > airport to pick up my mother; the N800, that is) -- and I have not
> > bought an iPhone... yet.
>
> I'm both a gadgetaholic and a softwareholic. My coping mechanism is
> that I insist the bloody stuff works.
>
> - Will
>
> Will Parker
> wparker at ChannelingDesign.com
>
> "I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If
> that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products." -
> Steve Jobs
>
>
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-- 
Thanks,
Jeff
____________________________________________________________________________
Jeff Axup, Ph.D.
Principal Consultant, Mobile Community Design Consulting, San Diego

Research:    Mobile Group Research Methods, Social Networks, Group Usability
E-mail:        axup <at> userdesign.com
Blog:           http://mobilecommunitydesign.com
Moblog:       http://memeaddict.blogspot.com
____________________________________________________________________________