Computer Mouse
Computer Mouse: Consumer Driven Innovation The computer mouse controls the pointer on a computer screen, allowing a user to navigate throughout programs, websites, etc. The mouse is moved around a surface by the user’s hand in order to translate that movement to the pointer on the computer screen. Computers were only invented shortly before the earliest mice were developed, and there were very few computers around. There was little demand for an invention like this, but before the mouse was invented computer users could use joysticks to control the on-screen pointer. Before the mouse was invented user’s wanted a more efficient way to navigate around a computer screen. The problem to be solved was that the method of navigating pointers onscreen was slow and tedious so a more elegant method was wanted. There were competitions between designs which exploited different body movements and the hand powered mouse came out on top. Customer’s concluded that it was much easier to move their hand around to control a pointer than another body part. Keep in mind this still only applied to a small amount of people who had access to early computers. The customer’s did have ideas similar to the current product but they did not have the technology to develop it right away. They wanted more comfortable ways to maneuver the pointer. So the main factor that may have come into play was decreasing the size to fit into someone’s hands. In the last two decades the mouse has evolved into a product that is widely available and widely used by the public. Since computers themselves were becoming smaller, cheaper, and more common in households, it allowed mouse developers a reason to dedicate more resources to innovate the product. During this time there were many different prototypes being produced that more directly addressed the problems of the time compared to initial developments of the product. For example, some of the first commercially sold mice made use a rubber ball to facilitate