Apartment Therapy Unplugged | The Zero Mouse Concept: The Lightest Mouse Design

The Zero Mouse Concept: The Lightest Mouse Design

The general concept of a mouse hasn't really changed much since it's inception by Apple. It's evolved and more buttons have appeared, but the essential form is almost immediately recognizable. It makes us wonder if there will ever be a better input device than a mouse. Sure, keyboards are great and trackpads are just a natural extension. The Zero Mouse isn't something revolutionary, it's just a normal mouse that's really nicely designed.

The mouse was conceived by German designer Oliver Rosito. In an era where multi-touch trackpads and screens are slowly becoming the norm, it's nice to realize that some designers know that almost everyone uses a mouse when interfacing with their computer. That and a keyboard. We think that this design is pretty nifty. It's sleek and elegant.

The only question we have, is where do the batteries go? A mouse is something that is pretty small to start out with. There isn't much wasted space. From this design, you can see that where the charger or batteries usually sit, there is a hole. This would mean either teeny tiny batteries or a charger that would be molded into a specific form. Otherwise, we think that this concept would work well. The Microsoft Arc Mouse used a similar concept to create a full-sized travel mouse. small>[via Fubiz, pictures by Oliver Rosito]

MORE MICE
Microsoft Arc Mouse

Comments (5)

as a left-handed mouser, I like anything that's pretty and isn't molded to be used with the right hand.

http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

posted by EmmieB on March 9th 2009 at 5:28pm
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apple didn't invent the mouse - it was invented by a man named Doug Englebart at the Stanford Research Institute in the 60's. SRI licensed the technology to apple for next to nothing.

posted by dr_geekette on March 9th 2009 at 11:18pm
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Really nice design, but I think the touch pad buttons are a bad choice. Part of what almost every mouse user likes is the physical "clicking" action when selecting something. This is why you have certain people that don't mind using the small touch pad on their laptop and others (like myself) that can not stand them...

posted by jpriley75 on March 10th 2009 at 9:48am
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dr_geekette: I think Range was referring to the consumer release of the mouse (though there was a horrible $400 Xerox brand that hardly registered). But your note and credit to Doug Englebart and SRI is worth mentioning also because of the story behind how it was developed further...the industrial design improvement proves an idea is just half the battle.

posted by gregory on March 10th 2009 at 2:30pm
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gregory: Nice article! There is also an interesting chapter in Designing Interactions on the process that went on at Microsoft with the design of their mouse. The website has some good accompanying interviews.

posted by dr_geekette on March 11th 2009 at 5:55pm
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