4 ms·

I definitely concur about the handwriting recognition being terrific, but the interface being terrible. I wrote a little prototype of how I thought it should w

I definitely concur about the handwriting recognition being terrific, but the interface being terrible. I wrote a little prototype of how I thought it should work a few months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhn6EdN3Vvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhn6EdN3Vvw

LukasMathis 13y ago
This is pretty cool!
manilafolder 13y ago
Great demo. That's exactly how the handwriting UI should have been designed. I have one small suggestion, if you don't mind: How about making the input box increase in size (maybe double in size) so you don't have to write so small? The resizing wouldn't need to reflow the rest of the page; it could turn into a modal textbox in the same location as the original textbox. It would make it easier for children, the elderly and people who aren't native speakers of the language, etc.
- LukasMathis 13y ago
  Another option would be to set the text caret inside the text box, but allow people to write anywhere, while the focus is on a text field. This is probably something where you'd have to do a ton of different prototypes, and see which one feels best.
  - satyrnein 13y ago
    Agreed that there are plenty of ideas that warrant prototyping, but I think there is special value in not having a text cursor to manage at all, similar to how touchscreens obviated mouse cursors for certain tasks.
    - LukasMathis 13y ago
      Yes, if you can pull that off, it's a huge win.
- satyrnein 13y ago
  Actually, my plan was to have the recognition area expand beyond the visual size of the input box as soon as your pen touched the input box, so as not to penalize the user for wandering out of the box a bit, while not having any visually jarring effect, but it's worth experimenting. And of course, there is still the option of scaling the page overall. It's possible the audiences that would want bigger input boxes would also want the text and images to be bigger as well, but it needs research to confirm.
bhauer 13y ago
I love it! Microsoft, please take note, hire this guy, and get this into Windows 8.2, 9, or whatever is next. As the OP points out, the pop-over handwriting "keyboard" is far from ideal. So far, in fact, that I feel it neuters the appeal of the pen on my Surface Pro. I don't want to lose half my screen real-estate to a special-purpose input area, be it a virtual keyboard or a special handwriting panel. Losing half the screen for input reeks of the iPad.
com2kid 13y ago
Making special ink only controls is actually pretty easy, I've seen AWESOME demos all the way back to the original Windows XP Tablet PC Edition days. The real problem is making inking work with any arbitrary control! That is what the current input panel is for. Remember it has to work anyplace anyone could ever enter text, wherever a cursor appears. So that includes Bob's Janky Control Factory DLL version 1.32a last updated on October 3rd of 2008. If you search MSDN, there are plenty of examples of some really awesome ink enabled controls! Designing a system for ink first would be a lot of fun! I remember controls published for web pages that supporting inking, forums you could just draw right into the reply box on. Really cool stuff. There is also usability concerns, not everyone has hand writing small enough to fit inside of a single line input box! Increasing the area to outside the box only works until the tip has been picked up, if you make the user always start the inking inside the box maybe something could be worked out, but that'd be a very unnatural way of writing.
- satyrnein 13y ago
  Good to hear from another old school enthusiast! Perhaps Metro apps were an opportunity to change the behavior and shed legacy compatibility requirements. Another possibility is to target just the web browser; the web has a defined set of controls which allowed Apple to define touch behavior for just those. I agree tackling compatibility for everything that has ever been created in Windows is not feasible, but I think there are alternatives. Regarding size of input box, remember how small people write on typical ruled paper. It's much smaller than the handwriting recognition area! The reason I thought just letting people wander outside the box might work is that most of the time, it's for letters like 'g' or 'j' where part of the letter hangs 'below the line'. Characters don't typically start below the line. In general, yes, there are many potential usability concerns. However, the bar is low, as most people don't consider the current system usable to start with.

LukasMathis 13y ago

This is pretty cool!

manilafolder 13y ago

Great demo. That's exactly how the handwriting UI should have been designed. I have one small suggestion, if you don't mind: How about making the input box increase in size (maybe double in size) so you don't have to write so small? The resizing wouldn't need to reflow the rest of the page; it could turn into a modal textbox in the same location as the original textbox. It would make it easier for children, the elderly and people who aren't native speakers of the language, etc.

LukasMathis 13y ago
Another option would be to set the text caret inside the text box, but allow people to write anywhere, while the focus is on a text field. This is probably something where you'd have to do a ton of different prototypes, and see which one feels best.
- satyrnein 13y ago
  Agreed that there are plenty of ideas that warrant prototyping, but I think there is special value in not having a text cursor to manage at all, similar to how touchscreens obviated mouse cursors for certain tasks.
  - LukasMathis 13y ago
    Yes, if you can pull that off, it's a huge win.
satyrnein 13y ago
Actually, my plan was to have the recognition area expand beyond the visual size of the input box as soon as your pen touched the input box, so as not to penalize the user for wandering out of the box a bit, while not having any visually jarring effect, but it's worth experimenting. And of course, there is still the option of scaling the page overall. It's possible the audiences that would want bigger input boxes would also want the text and images to be bigger as well, but it needs research to confirm.

bhauer 13y ago

I love it! Microsoft, please take note, hire this guy, and get this into Windows 8.2, 9, or whatever is next. As the OP points out, the pop-over handwriting "keyboard" is far from ideal. So far, in fact, that I feel it neuters the appeal of the pen on my Surface Pro. I don't want to lose half my screen real-estate to a special-purpose input area, be it a virtual keyboard or a special handwriting panel. Losing half the screen for input reeks of the iPad.

com2kid 13y ago

Making special ink only controls is actually pretty easy, I've seen AWESOME demos all the way back to the original Windows XP Tablet PC Edition days. The real problem is making inking work with any arbitrary control! That is what the current input panel is for. Remember it has to work anyplace anyone could ever enter text, wherever a cursor appears. So that includes Bob's Janky Control Factory DLL version 1.32a last updated on October 3rd of 2008. If you search MSDN, there are plenty of examples of some really awesome ink enabled controls! Designing a system for ink first would be a lot of fun! I remember controls published for web pages that supporting inking, forums you could just draw right into the reply box on. Really cool stuff. There is also usability concerns, not everyone has hand writing small enough to fit inside of a single line input box! Increasing the area to outside the box only works until the tip has been picked up, if you make the user always start the inking inside the box maybe something could be worked out, but that'd be a very unnatural way of writing.

satyrnein 13y ago
Good to hear from another old school enthusiast! Perhaps Metro apps were an opportunity to change the behavior and shed legacy compatibility requirements. Another possibility is to target just the web browser; the web has a defined set of controls which allowed Apple to define touch behavior for just those. I agree tackling compatibility for everything that has ever been created in Windows is not feasible, but I think there are alternatives. Regarding size of input box, remember how small people write on typical ruled paper. It's much smaller than the handwriting recognition area! The reason I thought just letting people wander outside the box might work is that most of the time, it's for letters like 'g' or 'j' where part of the letter hangs 'below the line'. Characters don't typically start below the line. In general, yes, there are many potential usability concerns. However, the bar is low, as most people don't consider the current system usable to start with.