This is a wireless mouse from Technika (a brand owned by Tesco).
I bought it a couple of years ago, and it broke fairly quick. Judging from the fact that if you type "technika mouse" into Google, it returns a page full of people complaining and asking why it isn't working, it probably isn't the greatest product out there.
However, they have used a variety of materials and textures in its design, which makes it quite interesting to actually touch and use. Whilst it isn't a beautiful or simple design, its not bad. Check out Mouse Designs for comparison. The Apple Pro Mouse and the Microsoft Arc are hot sh*t.
Mouse dissection time
You can see here there is a dot texture right about where your thumb would be. Nice ergonomic touch, feels quite grippy, although some of my classmates weren't too keen on it, as it had a slightly tacky feel. Perhaps if the dots had a soft touch coating it would be nicer? However, this ergonomic styling doesn't work for left handers (whereas both the Apple and Microsoft examples above are neutral in this respect)
The main body in the middle has a soft touch coating.
Batteries slot in the back. Note the release mechanism for the battery pack is fairly minimal - just a slot in the plastic. I remember when battery releases always used to look like this
The new slot design uses less material = cheaper. Hooray!
Technical info.
They've hidden the assembly screws behind a panel. Tricky to find.
Stuck in.
Might've accidentally broken 2 pillars though...
See broken pillars above on the right. In addition to holding the mouse together with screws, they contribute to the structural strength (not anymore).
The bottom piece is made from a single piece of injection moulded plastic, with a rectangular hole for the optical subassembly.
The roller ball has a hex shape axle, which fits into a digital converter to measure the amount you scroll. It is also balanced on a push button (see below), the same component as used for the left and right mouse clickers.
Note the 3 wires leading to two side push buttons.
The optical refractor
Clever combination of polished and finely textured surfaces to manipulate the light.
This is the ring insert around the scroll wheel. This feels soft and elastic, and is probably a moulded piece of polychloroprene or possibly natural or butyl rubber.
Mouse guts.
The casing in total is made from 10 components (not including electronics or screws). Apart from the elastomer used for the scroll wheel insert, they are all ABS injection moulded parts.
The main part (above centre) has been sprayed with a metallic paint.
To the far right, the soft touch component is still ABS, however on the business side it has a layer of polyurethane to create the soft touch (for more info check out Bayer Material Science).
A translucent effect has been created in the "rib" piece (2nd from right), but personally I think they misjudged this one. I only noticed its dark brown translucency when the light of dissassembly was able to shine through it. Whilst it was assembled, I assumed it was shiny black plastic.
The bottom is simple black ABS with no finish, similar to the battery case, cover, and side buttons. They have put more effort into ensuring that there is a smooth and shiny finish on any plastic that is visible from the side, whereas the bottom has a fine texture.
In order to get a shiny finish on the plastic, the injection mould itself has to be polished to a high degree, which takes time and money. The bottom is not often visible, therefore this part of the mould was textured rather than polished.
Polishing a steel mould for a high grade shiny finish.
Further questions
- Things that made me go hmmm
- How exactly does a company obtain the CE marking on a product? What does this signify? What are the associated costs? What does this mean for the user? Can you sell a product without CE marking? What types of products does it cover. How does this standard differ between countries?
- The big cross through the bin symbol. Does anyone actually pay attention to this? I know this mouse would have hit the bin if I hadn't wanted to have a closer look at it in PDE. How can we change this user behaviour? Maybe there's too much ambiguity. So what are we supposed to do with it? Could the correct action be displayed as a symbol instead of a symbol for a prohibitive action?
- Q.C. passed. What does this mean exactly? Who does the Quality Control testing? Is it effective?
Interesting thoughts about the cross through the bin situation....... what does that mean!?
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