What's available today - Even on the most advanced mobile phones, they have a minimum of 3 buttons to operate eg. back button, volume up and down buttons, power button. This is sometimes inconvenient for some of the user and decreases the usability and also it's an overhead on the mobile board to give place for these buttons.
The Idea - Idea is to put multi-purpose button for mobile and use it for different purposes depending upon the time duration for which it is pushed and/or number of times it has been pushed. Mobile manufacturers can make a one button mobile out of it if want to. It will not only increase the user experience as he/she doesn't have to look for buttons all around the mobile but will also reduce the overhead of extra buttons on the mobile board inside. See the example pic below:
As a use case, that single button can be used for different functionalities as mentioned below:
Technical Advantages:
The Idea - Idea is to put multi-purpose button for mobile and use it for different purposes depending upon the time duration for which it is pushed and/or number of times it has been pushed. Mobile manufacturers can make a one button mobile out of it if want to. It will not only increase the user experience as he/she doesn't have to look for buttons all around the mobile but will also reduce the overhead of extra buttons on the mobile board inside. See the example pic below:
As a use case, that single button can be used for different functionalities as mentioned below:
- Unlock the phone: Press the button for a short duration (0.5-1 sec) once to unlock the phone.
- Go back from the app: Press the button for a short duration (0.5-1 sec) once to go back in the menu/app.
- Lock the phone: Press the button twice for a short duration with a short gap in between (0.5-1sec) to lock the phone.
- Take picture from camera: Press the button once when the camera app is ON to take the pic or press long or twice to start recording.
- Switch OFF/ON the mobile: Press the button once for a long duration (5-10 sec) to switch OFF/ON the phone.
- Increase/Decrease volume: If the button is made like a roller then scrolling up/down can increase/decrease he volume or if it has sensor attached to it then moving figure on it up/down will also increase/decrease the volume. Else it can be made like what's there on ipods so that moving figure clockwise/anticlockwise can increase/decrease the volume.
- Play games: Press the button for longer duration (greater than what put for switch OFF the mobile, may be close to a min) and use it for gaming purpose.
- Launch an app: Can be configured to launch the favorite app say browser or app store or GPS to be launched when pressed thrice. …etc.
Technical Advantages:
- Less space to be given on the hardware board of the mobile for many buttons.
- More realstate for the UI on the phone, infact whole of the phone can be made as a Touch Screen without having any button in the front.
- Increase in usability for some users.