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Three overlooked lessons about the iPad
The launch of the new Apple iPad is truly significant for several reasons. Unfortunately, most reviews so far have missed the larger point, focusing (as gadget reviews do) on ticky-techie tactics. "Oh wow, the battery life is so-and-so hours!" It's a bit like watching a baseball game only for the statistics: maybe fun for some, but hardly what's most important. The iPad is part of a much bigger story that's been mostly overlooked.
I'd offer these three conclusions about the iPad, mostly outside or contrary to what we've heard so far about the device:
• It's not about you. It's about three-year-olds. Seriously. Apple should have called it iKid, because the most enthusiastic iPad users will be those just making their way out of diapers. They have no need for a mouse, a keyboard, configuration screens, and other advanced options - they just want the easiest possible experience: touch the screen and see it react. If you're in the mood for some direct customer observation, watch just the first minute of this video, which shows the first moments of a 2.5-year-old iPad user trying out the device. No training, no coaching, and she immediately knows how to use it. Friends, this is the future.
Now, I'll grant that the iPad is way, way too expensive to be a kid's toy. For now. The price will come down soon, and anyway it's not about the iPad (see next bullet below) - it's about the three-year-olds. This is the first generation in history that will say the mouse is old-fashioned and the keyboard is for occasional usage. When they're six and seven, do you really think they'll abandon their touch screen and reach for a mouse?
And by the way: in a not-too-distant second place for target market, there are users over the age of 60 (and a hello to those Good Experience readers who fit the bill). Here again the easy user experience is most important. The traditional complex interface, with all its advanced options, just doesn't offer enough value for the hassles it brings. Grandparents, get ready to rock out on the iPad with your grandkids while the middle generation - the bemused 30-somethings - roll their eyes from behind their laptops.
I'll point out that this analysis is predicting, or at least sketching out, the future simply by considering the customer experience. Gadget reviews will focus on the device itself, its innards, its specs, its content partnerships, and so on. Good Experience readers will (I hope) agree that the customer experience is a more strategic, more effective basis on which to analyze the device. (Companies can tap into this mindset by hiring Creative Good.)
Incidentally, if this sounds familiar - a super-easy device appealing to users both younger and older than the middle of the market, which itself is used to a more complex device - you're right on target: look it up.
But don't get too excited about the device, because...
• It's not about the iPad. It's about touch computing, which is here to stay. Here it's important to distinguish between the device and the trend. The iPad is a specific device at such-and-such a price, with particular specs and innards and all the rest. No one knows how well the iPad will succeed (or not); don't believe anyone who says they do.
However, the trend is unmistakable: the easy touch interface has arrived. (Or rather the iPad has extended it; the iPhone was of course the first instance of the trend.) Apple's competitors are certainly prototyping catch-up, me-too products as I type this - and some of them, depending on their own customer experience (a blend of price, features, design, and distribution) will get some traction in the market. The strategic imperative here is not to say "what do we do with the iPad" but rather "how do we have to change as our users begin demanding a touch interface."
More broadly than the touch interface, the iPad can be understood as a device offering light interactivity - that is, allowing the experience of the content purely as a user (of the video, book, app, etc.) - but not as the creator. Laptops - with the mouse, keyboard, and the many on-screen interface elements they connect to - allow much deeper interactivity than the iPad does, reaching into the creation or co-creation of many aspects of the experience. Some techie bloggers have already shown dismay or outright disgust that anyone would use a device purely for (sniff!) consumption of bits. As though the lack of a UNIX command line is an unconscionable faux pas. Well, I never.
I will say this, though, in defense of the geeks...
• It's not without tradeoffs. When you use the iPad, your bits are going to live in the cloud and be managed exactly as Apple says they are. (This will hold true for whichever corporation makes whichever touch device you end up using.) You'll have less control over how and when those bits are managed, fewer choices in the interface to do it with, and fewer advanced options even if you do know your way around a UNIX command line. Convenience comes at a cost. The principles of bit literacy may be a helpful guide to this new digital landscape. So enjoy the iPad, and any other devices to come after it - but keep your eyes wide open as you do.
Mark, I already have a touch input on my laptop at home - a touchpad. No, it's not onscreen, but it does annoy a lot of people who prefer a mouse, and it is not so intuitive to move your finger and see where the pointer goes. So does this prove that the iPad is the Next Big Thing and is correct, or that it is the next big evolutionary step in interfaces?
Or does it prove I am hopelessly lost in my failing, ancient paradigm?
In the context of my column above I'd say the touchpad is the same thing as a mouse. It gives more control over advanced features, but it's less attractive to a younger (or older) user who prefers to touch icons directly on-screen.
Great points, Mark -- and you're right, I haven't read them elsewhere. I think so much of the criticism about the iPad [it's not made for content creation] misses the point you make here: It's not FOR that, necessarily.
Having used an iPhone for just over 6 months, I am already impatient with the fact that I can't manipulate the screen on my otherwise-lovely MacBook Pro. I would love to see this technology spread quickly.
Of more concern to me, then -- Apple's effort to dominate the market by patent acquisition. While I use mostly Apple products, I think the market is better served overall when many minds are approaching an issue -- and not when we're all locked into a proprietary solution by patent fiat.
Mark, in defense of some reviewers, Daniel Lyons, in Newsweek, wrote a pretty good piece here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/235565/page/1 offering a similar view to yours.
After having explored the iPad, I'd confirm this first generation is a consumption vs. creative device. It takes more than twice the effort to input vs. receive.
It is a more pleasant screen. Pleasant means easily moved, brilliant color. Far better to save a tree and read a pdf on an iPad in portrait orientation than on a traditional landscape monitor for example.
Mark,
I agree with you. The iPad is a game changer in computing that is all about the experience.
My son has long been able to use my iPhone without any help. He just knows how to use it.
Someone asked me if the iPad replaces a laptop. Not yet. But it will soon. As the apps catch up with the new user experience, it will replace my laptop.
Craig
PS- Writing this from my iPad and already using Goodtodo from it.
@Stephen - thanks for the Newsweek link - had missed that one. While Lyons talks up his own experience rather than that of younger or older users (it's not about you!) he does cover the projected trend of the market & also mentions the potential downside of the cloud. Good one.
Good points, Mark. I remember as a kid going to the Science Center, where the big highlight was to touch the screens and make them do things. I remember how much joy that activity brought me. While I won't be purchasing a first-gen iPad, there is something magical about the touchscreen interface.
You left out the person who uses a computer 95% of the time for email and internet. I have a dance teacher who just wants something simple, intuitive and portable. She wants to watch YouTube videos of dancers, access her email and Facebook, and schedule privates. The iPad would be perfect for her.
Nicely put; I agree (http://bit.ly/9XKUKD, last bit).
Funnily enough my just-three-year-old had his first serious go with a mouse just last week. It was an Apple Magic Mouse, and therefore not at all easy for him compared to using a mouse with a button. However, after watching him I decided that the time for learning mouse skills had passed so I wouldn't bother teaching him.
Mark Awesome. You hit it with one shot. Really simple its the beginning of touch computing , super family computer , kids and grandparents specially .
I'm part of another possible constituency. I'm over 60, but quite an experienced web-designer computer-user. I've been putting off buying a laptop for the expense (gotta have a mac!), but I would like to have a way to read my email, get web pages, and do a little work away from the office. I don't want to sit in a coffee shop and do my work, so the iPad is ideal - I can hook it up to a projector to do a presentation, and continue to use my dumb phone for calling. I can't wait to get my hands on mine!
Mark- I remember the first time I tried to check my iPhone voicemail. There was no number to dial and no code to enter, just a button to push. It is wonderful for Apple to continue designing products where we can let go of the complicated systems we have learned. My children - ages 9 and 2 - will love other products like the iPhone and iPad. I hope to see other companies incorporating touch computing technology as well.
Excellent article. I am not an Apple fan (and I hate them for the raise of the price of the e-books) but I saw the success of the first day at sale and I am full impressed.
Apple it is not a technology company but they always made the trends
How many other geek dads just found a great way to justify getting an iPad - "It's for Junior! Look how good he is with it. Right, that's enough - give it here..."
Seriously though, I totally agree - it was amazing watching my 2 year old son take to the iPhone like a duck to water. When he first used my MacBook to play cbeebies, his instinct was to touch the screen - the trackpad is just a bit 'olden days' now.
I can see the iPad replacing the home MacBook very quickly - it's only used for email and facebook by my wife, and cbeebies by my son. It's overkill - the iPad, on the other hand, seems just right for that sort of thing.
So I keep telling myself :)
Excellent article! Great "step back" looking at the trends and not how nice it is to hold... precious... I have already started filtering anything to do with iPad from my RSS feeds and emails, glad I caught this one :-)
FWIW-I wouldn't recommend the iPad for children. It's a device for consumption not creation. Children should be encouraged to create and not consume.
I watched a friend struggle to show his 69 yr old grandmother how to use an iPad to do email. He was thinking this would change her life. It was completely, utterly unusable for her. She couldn't type. I'm not really sure this is a device for the elderly.
I do believe it's a device for kids - unlike a previous post. Kids consume stories & video, and you can control what they consume. Also, there will be PLENTY of apps coming in that let them create (my kids have some on the iPhone that are super).
Seems like you're pushing for using technology because we can. What about whether the user really needs this device? Is it too big to lug around? Why would people want to carry this around? How about hand/arm fatigue due to increased hand movement? Is this accessible or helpful to handicapped people? The onscreen keyboard has NO tactile feel and provides no feedback which typists won't like. Seems like it's only usweful for short text messages or tweets. Is this a serious business tool or merely a hi-tech gadget that teens will like to impress their friends. By the way, what ever happened to Human Factors? When did it get replaced by marketing and sales?
@Kyrie and others - note that I never mentioned typing on the iPad, let alone held it up as an advantage. If you bring up typing on the iPad (for sending emails, for example), I say that you're trying to use the iPad as a replacement of the laptop. And especially for users outside of the middle of the age range, you're getting the worst of both worlds - the complexity of a laptop and no advantages of a tactile keyboard. Of *course* that's going to be problematic.
Remember - it's not about you - it's about the three-year-olds. What a three-year-old is likely to do on a device, think about *that* as where the iPad has the advantage.
By this logic, does it mean the Xbox Natal will rule supreme? Why use a wireless infrared controller that points at the screen when you can use your entire body? How more "no training, no coaching" can it get!
Mark--Well done. One of the most thought-provoking considerations of the ipad I've come across.
my daughter (18 months) and me. infront of my desktop (iMac). she's sitting on my lap. gets up, leans forward and wipes her index finger across the screen. nothing happens. she doesn't understand. (that's how it works on daddy's iPhone after all...)
i've seen the future you're so accurately (once more) describing. i so agree. the purely tech focused reviews make me yawn.
Touch *might* be here to stay, assuming a web of patents doesn't kill innovation and wide adoption before it even settles in (Apple vs. HTC, Elan Microelectronics vs. Apple, Durham Logistics.)
I also read some of the bloggers who judged and dismissed the iPad because the spec sheet didn't look enough like a work laptop, rather than simply trying it first. I suspect the majority of people who buy the iPad appreciate it partly *because* it doesn't have a keyboard, not in spite of that fact. It's a simple, portable, direct-manipulation touch screen, that's all.
Is it the 'death' of the laptop as we know it, or, utlimately, the 'death' of the classic receptive devices- TV's, print media. etc.?
Mark, I think you hit the nail on the head. I am most excited about
the ipad's (or touch computing's) potential impact on the education of children and young adults. A generation of children's books, games, text books, etc that
we've only begun to imagine. Though I generally vow never to buy V1
of an apple product, I find myself just wanting to grab one of these
and start making books for the kids I haven't had yet.
Mark, enjoyed you objective look at separating the iPad itself from the discussion about the human/computer interface. Most of us have engaged computers using the WIMP (widows, icon, menu, pointer) interface for over 20 years (except, of course, the command line evangelists). It is refreshing to see innovation taking place with interfaces on computers, mobile computing devices, phones, game consoles, etc. For years, many thought voice recognition would be the great equalizer but that has been slow in coming. With Microsoft's surface computing, the iPhone and general advances in touch screens there appears to be some real movement in this arena. Even Synaptics (primary touch pad software maker) has evolved what a touch pad is capable of doing with their new Scrybe gesture software. I think you are spot on that the iPad will be a stimulus for rapid development of a much more intuitive and user-friendly interface whether it is a commercial success or not.
Hey Mark, great blog. I've been working with a small team preparing educational content for the iPad...glad to see "good experience" experts giving it the thumbs up for kids! A few months back I was jet lagged and created a late night video in my living room about what the iPad means for the mouse. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z9K7Jn3UEQ
Great points, Mark, but you lost me here: "When you use the iPad, your bits are going to live in the cloud..." How so? Nothing about the iPad that I'm aware of makes it more "cloud"-dependent than my MacBook or my iPhone.
@Mihira - there's no file system on the iPad, at least not for the users to access directly as they can on a laptop. Try creating a folder, or moving a file to the desktop :)
Hmm, it sounds like you're conflating an abstracted file system with cloud-dependence, no?
Sure, if you want to work around the lack of a user-exposed file system, you may need to use cloud-based services like DropBox, but there's nothing inherent in not being able to create a folder or move a file to your desktop that makes the iPad cloud-dependent. If I create a document in Pages, write a note in Notes, create a drawing in SketchbookPro, even download email from my mail server, all those files are saved locally on my iPad, not in the cloud, even if I can't access them from a Finder-like file system browser. Maybe I'm misunderstanding your response, though?
great article! i agree on the kid effect. not so much on the older crowd (and your concept of over-60 being outside the curve annoys some of us who Invented your tools, sonny). making the UI even more dependent on steady nerves, good eyesight and the like won't help on that count at all. my first instinct when seeing the iPad was that maybe this was the simple device to finally get my parents on the net. on 2nd thought, i realized they can't even write with a pen anymore, much less steer a cursor.
Good stuff; I too am tired of the misplaced criticisms and misdirected focus. But I'd say it's slightly less "about touch" than "point-of-use computing" or if you prefer, "touch arriving at the point of use." Laptops never quite enabled point-of-use the way pocket wireless devices have. And touchscreens have been around for a long time... they just haven't been small and wireless. Now that it's all in place, preschool education in particular will be fascinating to see. As for "abandon their touchscreens...?" yes, I believe they most certainly will when they have a task where they want superior tactile feedback... and position cueing. The feedback will improve for touchscreen keyboards, but the positioning cues may be a real limiter.
I agree. I'm so glad we finally have this kind of technology. I handed down an old iPhone to my daughter and she loves it. I purchased an iPad for the house so to speak but my daughter has pretty much taken the thing over. It's such a neat and interactive device. It blows away Clickstart and V-Tech products. Expensive yes but if everyone gets something out of it doesn't that give you more bang for the buck? My husband will use it for recipes....have you seen Epicurious on this thing? I'll use it to read books. It's light and doesn't need anything plugged into it, just turn it on and go.
You say it's Not about me, since it's for 3-Year olds? Maybe you ought to call up Steve and tell him and the Apple Marketing people. I swear I never heard them say that on the advertizing. Boy did they miss the boat on this product.
great article.
one of my biggest criticisms of the ipad's detractors, is that they judge it's worth based primarily on usage paradigm's that have been around for 20 years.
we should be imagining what new kinds of uses/interactions this will spawn, and not about whether it presents a good experience for word processing.
Hi Mark and Everyone, I'm truly passionate about bit control and digital literacy in order to have more time in my day to live, connect with others face-face, and experience new things regularly. So when I purchase technology (HW or SW), I measure its productivity benefits with my lifestyle. I benchmarked the iPad against my Fujitsu slate tablet. For 2 weeks I tried to use the iPad in all settings to understand the holes. I tried to use it in meetings (taking notes, …), email follow-ups with attachments, signing NDAs, taking notes, editing MS office documents. I basically pretended I knew nothing about what it could or can’t do. I told myself this is the only tool I had and if the iPad was missing something I would search to find a solution and piece meal a mobile business solution together in real time to truly understand the strengths. At the end of 2 weeks it could not touch my productivity gains of my slate tablet - yes the tablet has an OS, OneNote, full browser/flash ability, handwriting recognition....there are always trade offs, but having more time in my day to live not exist is my goal. I'm a tech lover like anyone else, but its time our technology truly serve us and help to give us more time to live instead of getting in way and piling on more....sorry everyone.