From the blogs: CB Droege on Zboards

CB Droege 7 Oct, 2008 at 6:37pm ET Article published in Tech

This originally appeared in the Icrontic Blogs:

I really like the functionality of my ZBoard. In fact: ZBoard is the wheelbarrow that carries the otherwise useless FPS gamer in me through late night sessions of TF2. However, the ZBoard could be much more than it is, for the user, and for its distributor, Ideazon.

If you’re not familiar with this product, it’s essentially a keyboard with interchangeable keysets. It comes with two inserts: a standard layout insert and a FPS gaming insert with a “butterfly” control pad on the left side to make WASD controls more intuitive. Beyond this, you can also purchase additional inserts for other games. I bought two of them (“Guild Wars” and “Age of Empires”) before I realized that all of the inserts are just restickered iterations of the same three keysets: The standard (of which there is only the one version), the FPS, and the strategy. These are then programmable per game, so that each key does exactly what you want it to do for each game.

The Guild Wars keyset is a good example of the Strategic-style keyset.

The Battlefield keyset is an example of the FPS style, which its homerow-murdering QWERTY reconfiguration.

This is the first place where Ideazon could really increase the potential of the ZBoard. Since it’s all programmable, there is never a reason for me to buy more boards for more games. I don’t think that the programmable engine should be scaled back; I think that they could come up with more than 3 layouts. Once the user realizes that the only difference between the Guild Wars keyset and the Warcraft keyset is the stickers, they are much less likely to want more than one. A few keys in some very different places would vastly improve the potential sales.

However, that’s not the biggest area of potential. The primary thing that Ideazon could do to improve the potential usability, and increase the user base, is simple: Make inserts for programs other than just games. Imagine a keyboard that has a different layout for Microsoft Office, another for Photoshop, and yet another for AViD or AutoDesk or whatever you use regularly. If Ideazon were to make some deals and tap the market of professional PC users, I think they could really have something universally appealing, as opposed to their current image as little more than a toy or gimmick.

Ideally, these inserts would be designed by the people who make the software, those companies could buy the inserts from Ideazon, and then companies could bundle them with their software. If retail CS4 came with a custom ZBoard insert, not only would it give CS4 users more reason to obtain the software legally, but it would create new customers for Ideazon. Are there any applications you use regularly that you think could benefit from a unique ZBoard insert?

Comments

1. 
   8 Oct 2008 ~ 4:17pm Winga I have an Adobe Photoshop Z Board interface. The inset cost me an arm and a leg but it has every little trick and short cut clearly marked on the keys, which for a Photoshop noob like me comes in very handy. So I supose that's one use other than gaming that can be used to great advantage. There must be many software applications out there that can be applied the same way.
2. 
   8 Oct 2008 ~ 4:41pm BuddyJ I'd love something like it for Quark. I bet most design programs would benefit from it.
3. 
   8 Oct 2008 ~ 4:49pm CB

   Winga wrote:

   I have an Adobe Photoshop Z Board interface. The inset cost me an arm and a leg but it has every little trick and short cut clearly marked on the keys, which for a Photoshop noob like me comes in very handy. So I supose that's one use other than gaming that can be used to great advantage. There must be many software applications out there that can be applied the same way.

   
   
   I didn't see that a Photoshop version existed before now because it not anywhere on the Ideazon site. The only inserts that they list are for games.
   
   Edit: Now that you mentioned that one, and I did some more in-depth searching, I found that they have made a few inserts for non-gaming apps. They are all still just stickered variations of the standard set. I find it to be poor marketing that these were not anywhere to be found on the page for ZBoard inserts (which is where I have been going periodically for a couple years to see if they will finally release some non-gaming inserts)
4. 
   8 Oct 2008 ~ 6:59pm Sidekicksol I do get what your saying, but lots of the customers for these cool looking keyboards are teens and under 18 gamers, who frankly don't notice that the boards are the same. They(we) also care much more about those precious stickers.
5. 
   9 Oct 2008 ~ 3:16am CrazyJoe If you do a Google search for Zboard Insert the first two results that come up are IC. We rock!!