back-of-device interfaces  I was poking around the other day and
I found this coverage of CHI 2009. A bunch of my friends are HCI
researchers and were there, so I’ll need to hit them up for more
details, but the back-of-device interfaces are looking way
cooler than they did the last time I saw them.  With the
preponderance of touchscreen things happening these days, I can
say that it’s really hard to hit any button that’s smaller than
about a dime, which is a pretty big space given how small the
devices are.  It seems to really present a better technique to
get control over using touchscreen devices. I can’t tell you how
often I can’t quite get the right spot on my Palm Centro and it
takes me two or 3 silly stabs with my finger to press the link
or button that I want.  I’m curious what the constraints on the
device be though when both the front and back surface matter for
input and output. It’s essentially removing a degree of freedom
from the design of the device by requiring that the back be
touch sensitive