Usability Issue - My Keyboard's "Logout" Button
There are three shortcut buttons on my keyboard which are linked to the calculator, logout command, and sleep command respectively. They are next to each other. I like this design since these shortcut buttons have saved me a lot of times for these activities, especially for the calculator.
However, one day when I try to use the calculator, I mistakenly pressed the "logout" button. My system immediately logs out without double checking with me. I didn't lost my work, but logging back-in and open up the applications I need takes time.
I consider this as a usability issue. The three buttons are placed very close to each other, so there will be chances for the users to accidently press the wrong button. Actions like "logout" and "sleep" are not like just launching a program, a double check with the user is a quite necessary routine.
The User Interface or Experience Designers of the keyboard should realize about this; design usability studies to test the users; and make improvements. The usability study should be detailed enough to test every possible interaction between the user and the interface. For example, it shouldn't only testing whether the user can find the button which executes the logout activity, but also need to test the scenario that the action has been done by accident. In this case, a relatively long term test by the users may also help in collecting more valuable feedbacks.