We use a computer mouse constantly this day in age. When I started thinking about this, I realized that the overall design of the mouse hasn't changed that much since its inception. This is a very early mouse used by Douglas Englebart in "The Mother of all Demos" where he showed off many new technologies on a personal computer such as word processing, video conferencing, hypertext and various other things. Anyway, this is the mouse.
Now sure, this does look a lot different than the mice that we use today, but all of the basics were there and this was shown in the 60's. But in the 80's we had the standard two-button mouse and that has remained intact ever since then. The mouse I use today is a logitech wireless mouse. This is it.
I'm not saying that the design and the ergonomic aspects haven't evolved over the years, but the basic blocky shape with buttons are still there. The overall navigation aspects haven't changed that much with moving a cursor on a screen by moving the mouse. I think it's one of those, "if it isn't broke, don't fix it," type of deals, but the basic design has remained the same for forty years. I think it's time to evolve to touch screens, but if we have to stick to mice, I found a couple of cool examples on the web. Although these aren't very practical, they are certainly imaginative and change up the standard mouse quite a bit. Here they are.
Clearly the designs still have the functionality of a mouse but instead of being just an average mouse, they are also a handgrenade and a spaceship. I'm actually quite surprised that this idea hasn't caught on more. It seems that companies have been very profitable selling computer acessories so why hasn't this taken off? Well, I can't really answer that question but I do like to think that things that I see everyday and would consider their designs as boring, or at least have become boring over time, can be spiced up this easily.
Now sure, this does look a lot different than the mice that we use today, but all of the basics were there and this was shown in the 60's. But in the 80's we had the standard two-button mouse and that has remained intact ever since then. The mouse I use today is a logitech wireless mouse. This is it.
I'm not saying that the design and the ergonomic aspects haven't evolved over the years, but the basic blocky shape with buttons are still there. The overall navigation aspects haven't changed that much with moving a cursor on a screen by moving the mouse. I think it's one of those, "if it isn't broke, don't fix it," type of deals, but the basic design has remained the same for forty years. I think it's time to evolve to touch screens, but if we have to stick to mice, I found a couple of cool examples on the web. Although these aren't very practical, they are certainly imaginative and change up the standard mouse quite a bit. Here they are.
Clearly the designs still have the functionality of a mouse but instead of being just an average mouse, they are also a handgrenade and a spaceship. I'm actually quite surprised that this idea hasn't caught on more. It seems that companies have been very profitable selling computer acessories so why hasn't this taken off? Well, I can't really answer that question but I do like to think that things that I see everyday and would consider their designs as boring, or at least have become boring over time, can be spiced up this easily.
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