The Design of the Sidekick

Communication is important. Many people use cell phones and electronic devices everyday to communicate with their families and friends. One type of cell phone that many hard of hearing or deaf people use, along with hearing people, is the T-Mobile Sidekick from Danger, Inc. They use it because not only it has a phone feature like all cell phones, but it also has an instant messaging program that serves as an alternative to a phone for people who cannot hear well. The Sidekick will be examined, to see if it is beneficial to a person who owns one, by following some of the main designing principles derived from Donald A. Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. The Sidekick has many things wrong about it that are often overlooked and it also has many great features, such as its email service that makes the device a cell phone/pager in one.

The Sidekick comes in a spiffy colorful box from T-Mobile and it includes a re-charger, a wrist strap and a cover. Does the Sidekick have an excellent sense of usability? That has yet to be determined in this paper. The appearance of the pager has customers vying for it. Its silver body with a swivel LCD screen that rotates clock

There exist a number of constraints regarding the Sidekick. For example, the whole device is shaped to be held on the user’s hands and it limits the movement of the user’s hands when using the device. The small buttons on the QWERTY keyboard makes it difficult for users with large and thick fingers whereas people with small and thin fingers are able to operate the device with less difficulty. The scroll wheel has constraints such as the limit on how many bumps it scrolls over and how hard the wheel is to be clicked down. The “BACK” button, since it is placed on a crowded corner under the scroll wheel, sometimes is hard to press on. The LCD screen size serves as a good constraint in this device because it helps the user to acknowledge where to look at. An important knowledge that the user develops will be the fact that the device can be carried in a pocket.

Generally, the Sidekick may not be useful for people who rely on the phone service too much. The Sidekick is mainly for people who like to go online and since going online is an alternative to a phone for deaf or hard of hearing people, the Sidekick has been popular. Overall, the general design needs some work – the device seems crowded with too many features. Donald A. Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things will be a helpful resource to anyone who is considering buying a technological device. The Sidekick pager has a sleek look to it but in this case, unfortunately, looks are deceiving.

The Sidekick has few aspects that support the principle of natural mapping. To begin typing on the pager, there is a clear label on the bottom right of the frame, which holds the LCD screen, that says “<>” is shown on the bottom right of the frame when at its upright position. The “<>” will give the user an idea of how it will rotate the screen before he or she uses it. The labels mentioned above helps to give the Sidekick a good sense of mapping.

The user knows the pager is an electronic device. The user knows that the buttons are meant to be pushed and that they will do something on the LCD screen. The visibility on this pager is excellent which makes it user-friendly. The LCD screen is first thing that a person will look at when they come upon the Sidekick. When there is good visibility, the user will be able to understand the us

Some topics in this essay:
Everyday Sidekick, Danger Inc, Sidekick Sidekick, E-Mail Arcades, Sidekick Communication, MB Flash, Ring Tones, Mobile Internet, lcd screen, Instant Messenger, MIDI Synthesizer, wrist strap, ring tones, standard features, bottom frame, cell phones, scroll wheel,