Not Mousing Around : Millions Spent to Develop the Perfect Computer Pointing Device

Forget the better mousetrap. Microsoft Corp. and Logitech Inc. would gladly settle for building a better mouse.

The two giants in mouse production have lately pumped millions of dollars into refining the shape and performance of this ubiquitous personal computer accessory, which rolls daily across millions of desktops. New products designed to improve users’ hand-to-mouse existence have landed in recent months on store shelves.

Computer makers are also pouring money and effort into better pointing devices for portable computers. Users of the increasingly popular laptops often don’t have a flat surface handy on which to move a mouse around, so computer companies have developed mini-trackballs (like regular mice, only upside down), tiny keyboard joysticks and other alternatives.

All this emphasis on the mouse marks a big change in computers: the realization, long in coming, that computer gadgetry must adapt to the people who use it, not vice versa.

Operating systems, once opaque to anyone who didn’t know a lot of arcane commands, are now visual. Personal computer programs offer look-alike pull-down menus so that buyers used to one can quickly pick up another. And most of these programs require far more “mousing” to move the pointer around the screen and set tasks in motion.

“Everybody is striving for the optimum solution,” said Steven T. Kaneko, an industrial design manager at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., who orchestrated a two-year, $10-million overhaul of the Microsoft mouse.

If that sounds like a lot of time and money to spend on something that comes with most computers right out of the box--a cheap mouse can be had for $10 retail--consider this: Logitech of Fremont, Calif., Microsoft’s chief rival, recently shipped its 30 millionth mouse, and the company estimates that more than 50 million mice have been produced worldwide. A mouse sits beside perhaps 40% of the world’s roughly 120 million PCs installed in homes and offices.

At Microsoft, mice bring in a tidy $250 million in annual sales. Logitech’s sales of $300 million a year come mostly from mice and other pointing devices. The new models list for as much as $129--or $149 for a cordless Logitech version that uses radio waves--and include software that lets users take computing shortcuts that reduce clicking.

A mouse with plenty of bells and whistles packs a tidy profit margin, although profit is only part of the motive, the companies say. Helping drive the search for a mouse that is easy to use is ergonomics, the science of making machines more comfortable, efficient and safe. Debilitating wrist and arm injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, caused by repeated motions have become common in the high-tech workplace.

To stave off or correct those ailments, manufacturers so far have focused mostly on chairs, desks and keyboards. Apple Computer Inc., for example, has a keyboard that splits apart and rotates into a position that some users consider more comfortable.

But mice can be dangerous too. They’ve been implicated in shoulder problems and “mouse finger,” a form of tendinitis caused by too much clicking with the index finger.

The question is, will users appreciate the changes enough to pop for these “improved” devices? Douglas Jefferson, manager of computers at the Whole Earth Access store in San Mateo, Calif., isn’t so sure.

“I already thought Microsoft had the best mouse in the world,” he said. “I don’t see there’s room for any change. A mouse is a mouse.”

Todd Ogasawara, on the other hand, was skeptical at first of Microsoft’s new “humped” design but has learned to appreciate it. The telecommunications analyst for an insurance company in Honolulu thinks the new mouse has helped ease his chronic wrist problem.

“It gives the palm and lower forearm a little more lift,” he said. “Previous mice didn’t have that support.”

Ogasawara, who owns half a dozen mice and trackballs, likes the idea that companies are investing in improved designs. “More people and firms will buy their product if it is known to be safe and comfortable to use,” he said.

The new ergonomic choices have come along at a good time for Ferdinand G. Rios, an independent software developer in Richmond, Calif., who uses a mouse all day long.

“Two of our mice just died, so we’re in the market to upgrade,” he said. Earlier Logitech models felt fat to Rios, so he is partial to Microsoft. But his partner plans to experiment with Logitech’s new cordless model.

The Logitech and Microsoft mice are quite different. Microsoft’s glossy, off-white, two-button Mouse 2.0 resembles a Christmas stocking whose toe is stuffed with presents. It replaces a less curvaceous version commonly known as the “Dove bar” because of its strong resemblance to a bar of soap.

Logitech’s MouseMan is shorter, with less of a hump, and comes in a putty-colored matte finish. Its three buttons (the middle one can be programmed) feature dimples that serve as a nest for the fingertips.

The first computer mouse, invented in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart and his team at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in Menlo Park, was a crude device made of wood.

Mice didn’t catch on in a big way until 1983, when Apple introduced its Lisa computer, the first to include a mouse. Some office users did not take it seriously, but with the introduction of Microsoft’s Windows operating system in late 1983, mice became a fact of computing life, and their importance has been amplified since.

Both Logitech and Microsoft hired industrial designers and researchers in kinesiology, office safety, biomechanics, hand anatomy and upper limb coordination. The experts analyzed users’ physical and emotional responses, studying how they gripped the mice, how much force it took to click the buttons, how their hands looked at rest and whether they liked how the devices looked. The scientists hooked users up to sensors and outfitted them with “data gloves” that measured hand positions.

Edie Adams, senior ergonomist at the Joyce Institute, a Seattle ergonomics training and consulting firm retained by Microsoft, said the new Mouse 2.0 is inviting. The firm tested more than 100 people. “We tried from the beginning to let the user figure out how to use it quickly,” she said.

Will mice continue to be an ideal tool for operating computers? Probably not, although increasingly popular voice-activation and pen-based systems show no signs of displacing them.

Nonetheless, the days of desktop mice could be numbered. Said Paul Montgomery of the San Francisco-based Montgomery Pfeifer design team that devised Logitech’s new product: “There will be a day when you look back at a mouse and laugh.”