Natural Task Support™: The Human Factor

Your Mobile Workers Deserve The Best Tools For The Job

The device you give your mobile workers to help them do their jobs says a lot about your company. If you cut corners, they will too. If you show them that you don’t care, they won’t care either.

But if you give them a rugged handheld computer that sits perfectly in their hands; one that’s easy to use and intuitive to learn; one that makes their jobs easier – there’s nothing they can’t do.

Psion makes mobile computers designed for human beings. We test every dimension – from balance, hand feel and keypad touch to screen clarity and interface design – to make the front-line mobile worker more comfortable and more efficient.

We call it Natural Task Support™ and it’s the sum of ergonomics, interface design and key performance metrics (such as battery life and radio performance). Our devices complement your mobile workers and support the way they want to work. We design hardware for comfort, interfaces for touch, devices for wear and solutions for performance. And it shows.

Beyond Ergonomics

Every Psion device goes through dozens of prototypes so we can get the ergonomics right. The goal: a comfortable, natural user experience, even when using the device one-handed.

Ask any mobile worker: our devices just feel right. Here’s why:

Great hand-feel – Slip-resistant grip areas feel better and result in fewer drops; and we test and design for a broad range of hand sizes;
High-performance keyboards – They’re uncluttered, color coded and easy to read – we experiment extensively to determine the best key shapes and positions (for example, on Ikôn, we put the big, yellow scan button where the user’s thumb naturally rests). Keys are hard-capped and printed on the back surface so they don’t wear off.
Balance and weight – Extra grams feel like extra kilos at the end of a long shift. We cut weight in dozens of ways. And balance is just as important – a heavier well-balanced device will feel better than a lighter, poorly balanced one.
Bright, clear screens – Choose from transmissive screens (for indoor use), reflective (for outdoors) or transflective (for versatility). Plus glare coatings to ease the eyes in all conditions. For NEO, we angled the screen to make it ideal for scanning.
Intuitive interfaces – Users don’t need a manual to find their way around a Psion device. Microsoft Windows^® operating systems and our own utilities make it simple.
The little things – like a scanner beeper placed on the top of the device so the user can hear it better. Or a ridge on the battery cover for small hands to grip…

Streamlining the Tasks at Hand

Psion devices are all about giving workers the information they need, at the precise moment they need it. We work closely with our application partners to design whole solutions that deliver this ‘instant intelligence’.

If a worker can complete a transaction where he is, instead of stopping what he’s doing to get to a terminal, he can shave hours from a shift.

And if he can stay connected to the mobile network even in fringe areas, he maintains his lifeline to information (our famous radio technologies keep workers connected longer).

Battery Life is a Way of Life

The most ergonomic device on the planet is no use if it’s out of power. Psion spends an enormous amount of time squeezing every last coulomb of energy from our batteries. Our team developed our own program to map power flows in use – allowing us to achieve 16-18 hours of real use for some devices and applications.

Our engineers tweak the operating system to earn more power. One of them is even nicknamed ‘Ebeneezer Coulomb’ because he’s such a stickler for cutting power consumption (and such a brilliant designer).

Our software utilities optimize the power profile – with accessories turned on for the minimum time required; or using the minimum power to do a task, then ramping up automatically if needed if you need more; or adjusting the scanning intensity to the environment.

For Ikôn, we chose cylindrical Lithium Ion batteries, the most efficient form of cell in the world, and designed around it. The result: mobile workers typically get over ten hours full-on use.

If battery power ever does run down, our Total Recall^™ software has already automatically backed up the session so no data or work is lost.

Constantly Improving

Psion never stops adding to our Natural Task Support™ programs. We capture user feedback form all over the world to iterate and improve our designs and materials.

A series of Product Advisory Councils composed of real users from different regions help us hone our designs early in the development process.