Hi there, community!
Time goes so fast, and we are heading toward the end of the year. But, some things still stay the same even when we move forward in time. Here, we want to talk about port placement and the experience of finding them. Sometimes, ports are a bit difficult to find, aren’t they?
Undoubtedly, they are designed to be hidden to keep all those connected devices and cables hidden from view. This design principle has been an industry standard for decades. For Spectrum, in particular, current port placement and orientation were requested by our community members. So from here, we can see that people are happy with the current standard.
Viewed from below the Spectrum, from left to right: DP 1.4 ports, 2 HDMI 2.1 ports, DC power port, USB-B upstream port, and USB-C upstream port (although the last two are hidden due to the lighting). These are considered slow-moving ports because they are less likely to be changed or fiddled with during normal usage. Its location at the bottom portion of the back makes them more difficult to access.
Reinventing the wheel
Even though it seems like there is no need to reinvent the wheel, sometimes we wonder if things can be improved. Mainly because not everyone has the luxury of a plug-in-and-forget setup. Spectrum, in particular, comes with a USB hub that many people utilize. The hub and all other ports are located at the back of the monitor, making them a little difficult to access. To offset this, we placed the ‘non-permanent’ ports that are most likely to be changed more often on the side of the back housing where they can be more easily seen and reached.
Some “compromises” were made on some devices too. Some PC housings include a few “fast-moving” ports at the front for easy access (usually USB-A ports and headphone jack), but most ports are still located at the back of the housing. Some housings even omit the front ports altogether for a much cleaner look.
Source: jeffgeerling.com
Then a question came to us: is it possible to improve the experience of port finding? Or are we just being picky? Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, and there is no point in improving the experience because we have hit the “plateau of port finding.” But we can’t conclude anything ourselves, and we would like to hear back from you!
Below you will find two simple polls on this topic. Please keep in mind that we are talking about the location of port placement in general, not just Spectrum.
- Yes, it’s too difficult
- No, it’s easy
0 voters
- Yes, I am bothered, and it needs to be improved
- No, I am not bothered at all
0 voters
If you have any ideas on how devices can be designed to make finding ports at the back of the devices easier, post your comment below, and we’ll discuss it together!
