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Since the dawn of time (in Personal Computer time at least) there has been a clear separation, or should that be chasm?, between PC users and Apple users. The differences are not only philosophical there are practical differences.
Each of the O/S's has it its own quirks and usability paradigms. The classic example has always been the mouse. Apple users have always been happy with a single button, while PC users have always wanted more buttons...
The iPhone has introduced yet another paradigm, with its all touch screen design.
The Citrix Receiver for iPhone is being created to allow access to windows applications, through an Apple device which uses this new user experience. As the designers and builders of this software we need to "Bridge the gap" between all three interaction methods.
I have to say this has led to some "vigorous" debates on the various suggestions to build this bridge. Currently we have a few gestures and we think we can do almost everything a windows user would want to do.
However, I see scope for improvement. I would like to hear you ideas on how a Windows user would like to interact, how a Mac user would like to interact and even how a Linux user would like to interact.
Now I don't want to start an OS war.
What I am looking for are real suggestions and ideas.
To kick things off:-
Question 1
Does the Citrix Receiver for iPhone need to have "extra" keyboard keys? For example would Alt, Ctrl, Tab, Delete etc be useful?
Question 2
If these keys are useful, what keys are needed?
I look forward to your responses.
Colin Warren
Lead Strategic Services Analyst
Advanced Products, Sydney
Comments (13)
Dec 17, 2008
Jason Greenberg says:
Yeah, I think the functionality of "extra" keys are a must. After all, the idea ...Yeah, I think the functionality of "extra" keys are a must. After all, the idea is to allow all the functionality of a PC, or Mac, or Linux box in the palm of my hand, right? So I need some way to emulate the tab key, control characters, and even function keys (especially function keys for the software we use over XenApp).
My experience with the iPhone is that the tab key, in particular, would be very helpful. When filling out forms in Mobile Safari, for instance, the "previous" and "next" buttons are a godsend. You could try to program similar buttons into the Receiver, but I suspect there'd be major advantages to emulating standard keyboard input as closely as possible. You could do that with gestures or pop-ups or pull-down menus, but I think the more sparse the interface (e.g. the fewer menus the user needs to remember the contents of) the better.
I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys come up with. I'm hoping that using the Receiver will be the first time I use gestures when interfacing with a PC without associated anger and frustration!
Dec 17, 2008
Colin Warren says:
Hi Jason Thanks for your thoughts. The thing to consider with keyboards i...Hi Jason
Thanks for your thoughts. The thing to consider with keyboards is how usable would they be? Having multiple layers becomes awkward and adding keys to an existing keyboard eats up valuable screen real-estate.
The other thing to consider is the iPhone is a Touch-Driven paradigm, so is keyboard navigation relevant?
I am not advocating one method over the other, I am trying explain the problem so we can work out a usable solution.
The five gestures that are currently being implemented actually allow you to navigate all around a Windows App. However the real question (for me at least) is this good enough?
Again thanks for your contribution!
Regards
CW
Dec 18, 2008
Rene Vester says:
Hey Jason and Colin, Perhaps i am a non-believer(though i am looking to get my ...Hey Jason and Colin,
Perhaps i am a non-believer(though i am looking to get my own iphone
) but.. I think it might be a bit too much to go for extra control characters. The reason i think so is that for me anyway, the Iphone will never replace my laptop og powerbook. What i hope Iphone will be for me and my customers is a way to extend the company infrastructure so that i can view my office products while i am on the road.
When i say view i mean get my outlook, be able to read new mails by pulling outlook around, zooming in where the important information is placed. I think as it is now, the resolution of the IPhone doesnt really give us what we need to be able to use the IPhone as a one off device, but i do think it will give us the option to extend our single platform instead of having 1 platform for apps, 1 platform for synchronizing mail and calender to our phones and so on.
Full access to our apps, zero footprint on the client device, that will do it for me for sure
however anything you guys come up with in terms of extra gadgets will be used i am sure
Rene Vester
Dec 23, 2008
Simon Bramfitt says:
Colin There's a small part of me that want to ask 'Cool aside is the iPhone tha...Colin
There's a small part of me that want to ask 'Cool aside is the iPhone that important, will Citrix actually close a single deal on the strength of a client for a faddish mobile device with a screen only slightly larger than a postage stamp, and no keyboard?'
But I'll skip that and just say, if you can meet 80% of people's needs with 5 gestures and the standard keyboard, then that's more than good enough for a 1.0 product. If the remaining 20% care enough they'll let you know in time for r 1.1; in the interim get working on a new client for the Blackberry or that Google phone - at least they have keyboards.
Regards
Simon
Dec 23, 2008
Colin Warren says:
Hi Simon "Is the iPhone that important?" Some people think so. Will it cl...Hi Simon
"Is the iPhone that important?" Some people think so. Will it close a deal? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing that you need to remember is that one of the Citrix engineering mantras is "Any Any Any" - Any Application, Any Device, Any Where. So the iPhone is a logical path. We are a reasonably large company and although I have no knowledge of it, it would surprise me if someone hasn't evaluated the need for Blackberry and Android support.
As for the rest of your first paragraph, let just say if you are trolling for a OS war or mobile device war, you have come to the wrong team. The Advanced Products team in Sydney are pretty much agnostic when is comes to platforms and devices. For example the Sydney team has worked at Windows Kernel level, we have worked on Linux appliances, we have worked on XenServer and XenSource and some years ago we even developed the ICA client for O/S2 and now we are doing some Apple stuff. So we actually don't go in for one OS or Device is better than another, they are all just software or tools.
FWIW, regarding the Blackberry - have a quick squint at this:
http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=32014407
Regards
Colin W
Dec 24, 2008
Simon Bramfitt says:
Hi Colin and Happy Christmas You must forgive the tongue in cheek attempt to ra...Hi Colin and Happy Christmas
You must forgive the tongue in cheek attempt to raise the ire of the iPhone zealots (it's difficult not to). And I'm sure there will be sufficient adoption of the newer Blackberries and Android based phones to warrant similar clients for them at some point.
For the record, as far as the iPone goes, I stick by my initial comments - deliver a stable simple 1.0 release ASAP and allow the community to uncover any deficits. Which very nicely leads to what really interests me.
I can't think of any other product development program within Citrix where an open social media platform has been used to bridge the gap between customers and developers. I think what you are doing here is far more interesting than the client. Is this a one off response to the fact that you are developing a client for a platform that is closely linked in peoples' minds to the Web 2.0 world of perpetual betas where new releases are delivered in weeks rather than years. Or is this experiment to see if Citrix can leverage this approach more broadly?
Bridging the gap between user and developer is a much bigger deal than bridging the gap between PC users and Apple users. I can't wait to see where this goes...
Regards
Simon
Dec 18, 2008
Martin Hodgson says:
As a user I'd want to have my cake and eat it don't we always. I'd suggest tha...As a user I'd want to have my cake and eat it
don't we always.
I'd suggest that there needs to be some way of sending control keys, although these could be accessible through some sort of sub menu option, that might take a second or two to get to. This way you can have most of the keys you need, without junking too much space.
Perfect solution would be to allow all of them, and then the end user select those they need frequently?
Thanks,
Martin
Anonymous replies:
Dec 18, 2008
Colin Warren says:
I like the idea of a user selected set of extra keys... I wonder about the impl...I like the idea of a user selected set of extra keys...
I wonder about the implementation - I will bring this up at one of our (frequent) design discussions
Thanks!
Colin
Dec 18, 2008
Anonymous says:
I would like to see all of the keys available. They do not need to be readily ac...I would like to see all of the keys available. They do not need to be readily accessible. The reason being: how often are they really used? Also, using Citrix on the iPhone shouldn't be your main interface to Citrix but rather something to have should you need it. Going through sub-menus may not be the easiest way to do things, but if it can meet your needs while you are on the go, then it should suffice.
I can't wait for this to come out!
Dec 18, 2008
Anonymous says:
First let me say how excited I am about the development of a Citrix receiver app...First let me say how excited I am about the development of a Citrix receiver app for the iPhone. I am a CPA at a firm under the Xcentric infrastructure and this will be a great tool for using out in the field with clients.
One app that might be a good starting point as far as interfact goes is Jaadu. Jaadu is a VNC app that can connect to Windows and Mac. I really like the mouse and keyboard shortcuts the program gives the user access to. Thanks.
Dec 18, 2008
Arjan Beijer says:
Hi, As a Iphone user for over a year now i really would like to see this ...Hi,
As a Iphone user for over a year now i really would like to see this extra keys added. Don't forget that this device is also capable to
connect to a larger device like a beamer or a tft-screen with it's video-out feature. So giving a "live" presentation is one option i can think of.
.
Regards,
Arjan
Dec 18, 2008
Colin Warren says:
Could this be a solution??? Keyboard for iPhone from macrumours forum (A...Could this be a solution???
Keyboard for iPhone from macrumours forum
(And before you ask, no we aren't thinking of doing this!!!)
Colin
Dec 19, 2008
Rene Vester says:
In my oppinion it is a better solution, more usable, than making it a submenu yo...In my oppinion it is a better solution, more usable, than making it a submenu you have to find your way into.. but again, it might be awesome to have to option to find a control character, for those few times you need it. And as it most likely wont be too often, i guess sub-menuing wont be too big of a deal
Rene Vester
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