Product Design | 2018
Nowadays, portable smart devices play a vital role in our daily lives. Smartphones and their larger-screened versions, tablets, are almost always within reach and have become our personal assistants. These devices have surpassed many average computers in terms of hardware capabilities. Windows versions released for smartphones not only fail to provide the convenience of a computer, but also become even more difficult to use than current operating systems. Similarly, Windows designed for computers becomes impractical on touchscreen devices, as virtual buttons controlled by touch can lead to accidental clicks, buttons disappearing when the system freezes, or difficulty touching small buttons. Hard buttons that are fixed on the device provide users with a sense of security as they are always accessible. In addition, having buttons on the screen reduces the viewing area and creates a loss of viewing space, such as when browsing a website where buttons such as the address bar, forward, back, and tabs take up valuable screen space.