iPad thoughts

Friday 04/2/2010  –  Category: Uncategorized

Buzz around the iPad has come to a fever pitch this past week--tech bloggers are writing first reviews, developers are rushing to submit their apps for launch, and people are probably starting to line up to pick up their pre-ordered devices tomorrow morning. Aside from all the hype, I'd like to share a few thoughts about the Apple's latest device.

Though tablets have been around for awhile, I would say it wasn't until the iPhone was released that touch-based technology became natural and easy to use. With multi-touch, Apple has taught us new ways to interact with a screen: expand/pinch to zoom, swipe to pan, et cetera. Kids this generation have grown up easily learning these intuitive gestures which have now become second nature when interacting with a screen.

Before touch technology, desktop computers trained us to use a mouse and pointer: slight movements of the hand translate to movement of a pointer on a screen; initiating an action requires a button press. Doug Engelbart (father of the mouse), describes the mouse as the easiest way to interact with on screen objects:

We timed how long it took the users to move the cursor to the object. It quickly became clear that the mouse out-performed all the others. Devices like the light pen simply took too much time, by repeatedly requiring the user to pick up the pointer, and reach all the way to the screen -- very tiresome.

Touch removes a level of abstraction. Instead of moving a device to move a pointer to touch something on the screen, you interact directly with a much more natural device: your finger.

However, touch technology has its disadvantages. You no longer have the same level of 1 pixel precision as a mouse, the concept of a "hover" state doesn't exist anymore, and click-drag (think: selecting text) actions are not easy. Because of this, user interfaces have to be adjusted accordingly. With the iPhone's limited screen real estate, user interaction and experience had to be redesigned in the form of iPhone's UIKit: big buttons, navigation bars, table views, tab bars are all finger-friendly.

With the iPad, the paradigm of user interaction needs to be rethought again with its larger screen size. As a developer, I'm excited to work outside of the 320x480 box and think of new applications that will take advantage of the 1024x768 display.

The iPad will bring everyday computing closer to us. If the iPhone has taught us that we can stay connected everywhere all the time, with access to anything we wanted in our pocket, then the iPad will teach us that we no longer need to sit at our desks for most of our computing needs. Browsing the web, watching videos, and viewing pictures will all be more organic experiences when we use our fingers to interact--the feedback loop is drastically shortened. For iPad owners, I'd say that the desktop/laptop will be staying on the desk, and the iPad will become the new primary consumption device.

I'm still not sold, however, on its capability to create complex content. After watching the iLife app demos, the apps themselves look great, but the actual experience of trying to create a complex presentation or report looks a bit painful. Complex apps like Photoshop don't seem to be practical on a touch interface. For writing essays, programming, or photo editing, I'll stick with my laptop and mouse.

That being said, it's hard to say if that will change: we learn fast and adapt quickly, so who knows what the next computing paradigm will be.