To TIP or not to TIP, on tablet-enabling my application

I'm in the process of tablet-enabling my application. It's a general drawing
program. I am debating whether to use TIP for all my input text controls, or
use InkEdit controls, or something more custom. TIP seems to offer a whole
lot of capabilities, and it's attractive to offer an interface control that's
consistent with other applications (that also use (or default to) TIP), but I
do hear some people complaining about it. I would be interested in hearing
people's opinions.

Thanks in advance.

Steve Niles

 

You should always give the user as many options for inputting as
possible. So your input fields would be best if they allowed handwriting
or text. Then make them TIP enabled so the user can just type or use the
TIP as they choose.

Whatever you do DON'T make it modal as I have seen some apps. Users don't
want to have to choose some menu item to tell the program that they are
going to enter handwriting or text. Just let them enter whichever they
feel like at the time just like the headers in OneNote.

 

I agree with Grant.

But I will say this. Tablet PC users do not like the TIP. No matter how good
the TIP is, and it's good, it makes an application feel like a legacy app.

Take a look at what I did with my app. The fields are large but since it's
just for tablet users, this is ok. If your app is for both tablet and
non-tablet, you may want to make scalable controls. But my controls allow
inking directly on them or you can just click in it and start typing and you
get a text box.

I strongly believe that automatic recognition is a bad user experience.
Therefore, I despise the InkEdit control. Three things I feel strongly about
that are reflected in my controls:

1) Context awareness. Don't use a single control for all data types. Fine
tune your controls with subclassing to optimize for a specific data type.
For example, if a field takes a date, use a date/time input scope but also
have a context menu or something to select a date with a picker.
2) Explicit recognition step. Once they've entered text, it's not up to you
to decide when they're done inking and want it converted to text. Let them
click something, preferably in the control itself, to "commit" the ink and
get text out of it.
3) Ample writing area and rule lines to help guide the user in writing.

Hope this helps.