Archive

Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category

Lessons in UX: How the iPad may change everything

January 30th, 2010 Joseph Comments

If you are a tech geek, you were probably glued to your computer screens and clicking refresh every 30 seconds Wednesday afternoon, as Steve Jobs and Apple unveiled their new tablet, called the iPad. I know I was, and am very impressed with the features and industrial design of the device. But commentators on the Internet seems split right down the middle about it.

Shortly after the announcement, the criticisms started flying all around the Internet: “I don’t need it.” “It sounds like a feminine hygiene product.” ”It’s just a big iPod Touch.” “Where’s the camera?” And so on. I don’t disagree with many of these comments – especially the ones around the product name – but I think they are mostly trivialities. The iPad is a game changer, for many reasons, and one that I think will be very very successful.

Why? Because it is going to be a device that people will use instead of a full-fledged computer, just as netbooks have supplanted full laptops and desktops. Netbooks are limited devices, just as they stated in the keynote announcing the iPad. Is the iPad better than a notebook? No. It’s different, and services many of the same needs that netbooks do, only better – which is why I think it will be successful.

The best description I heard of the iPad came from Chief TWIT Leo Laporte, immediately after the announcement. The iPad is not as powerful as a full computer, it doesn’t do multitasking, but that’s fine. It’s an appliance, a utilitarian device that gets “out of the way” and lets people DO THINGS. That’s been Apple’s modus operandi for years, and this device appears to do that quite elegantly.

Another observation from the announcement: Steve Jobs said very directly at the end that they could not have released this two years ago, basically because the interaction model and UI would have been too high a learning curve for consumers. The iPhone and iPod Touch, as it shares the same model as the iPad, has reduced that learning curve tremendously.

This, I think, is one of the brilliant things about what Apple does. They can do some revolutionary things with their products – just look at some of their patent applications – but they know that if they put something out that is too “out there” then users will be confused and this “resistance to the new” prevents them from purchasing the device. Again, another reason I’m bullish on the iPad.

So, what does this mean when it comes to us Interaction design folks? It means a great opportunity to do things differently. Looking at the keynote and reviewing the updated SDK, it appears the interaction models and controls they have defined for the iPad are very consistent and quite “learnable” – I particularly like the way they have designed the standard “portrait” mode and differentiated if from “landscape”, hiding contextual navigation and other controls in portrait and displaying them in landscape (The e-mail client is a good example of this).

More than that though, the iPad presents us with both design opportunities and challenges. We have to adapt to the new interaction models that the iPad allows. The thing that the iPad reminds me most of is, ironically, a Microsoft product. Microsoft Surface featured some very interesting technology and design ideas that allowed you to “play” with information on a tabletop. Now, we have similar tech in a portable magazine-sized device, and the same possibility, which was much more limited when it comes to Surface, is available to all.

I know that I am already working on how I can design things in this medium, and if you want to “future proof” yourself, I’d recommend you start looking into doing the same. Knowing how to design apps on the iPad will, in my opinion, become a very desirable skill in the years to come.

Categories: Apple, UX

Lessons in UX (from the iPhone): Take care when providing “a feast of riches” to your users

September 30th, 2009 Joseph Comments

The iPhone has a problem. There’s too much you can do with it.

This is a problem, you may be asking? Yes, it is, because there are so many things you can do with the device (thanks to hundreds of thousands of free or low-cost apps) that you lose track of things.

Yes, many other device makers would like to have the problem that Apple is having – millions of units sold, hundreds of thousands of apps, and a customer satisfaction rating in the 90th percentile. The problem I speak of is not a business problem, it’s a usability problem… one that I think Apple is aware of, based on the addition of spotlight search in iPhone OS 3.0 and the ability to reorganize apps from the desktop client in iTunes 9.

In the default iPhone Ui there is no hierarchy, and any structure the user creates by arranging apps on different pages is fragile (and can be broke by adding new apps from a similar “family”) – there’s no context provided. If you have more than two pages of apps, easy and ready access starts to become a thing of the past.

It’s all too much. And that leads to frustration (“where is that app?”) and a limiting user experience.

Success brings it’s own challenges, and it’s obvious that the idea of having some structure around apps is something that Apple did not think they had to deal with… until now. I fully expect that Apple will come up with some contextual visual cues (probably like how you can “label” folders with a color is OS X) that will help with this, but until then it’s a subtle problem that is causing needless frustration.

So, the lesson that this tells us? Plan for success – build into your design the appropriate information architecture that will scale as needed. And never present more options than your users are able to “handle” – that way leads to frustration (and, depending on how bad the cognitive overload is, madness and other unpleasant repercussions).

Categories: Apple, UX, Usability

Some josephdickerson.com micro-podcasts…

July 10th, 2009 Joseph Comments

Here’s some of the micro-podcasts I’ve posted at audioboo.fm…

Three new iPhone app reviews:
Listen!

Reax to the Chrome OS announcement:
Listen!

RunPee iPhone app review:
Listen!

Survival apps for the iPhone:
Listen!

And finally some July 4th comments from me and my son…
Listen!

The future! Audioboo.fm, micro-podcasting from the iPhone

July 2nd, 2009 Joseph Comments

About two years ago I did a podcast and put a LOT of effort into it (I am an ex-radio guy, after all). It took me several hours of editing to put together a single 22-minute show. Well, it lasted about six months and I finally gave it up because A) I had way too many other things going in my life to invest that much time in anything and B) Nobody was listening.

Well, thanks to Leo Laporte and Macbreak Weekly I have discovered an app that revives my interest in podcasting AND allows me to do it in almost real-time. It’s Audioboo for the iPhone and it allows you to record and then upload audio from your phone on wi-fi or 3G. You record with the built-in iPhone mike and it sounds REALLY good – It’s as good as any sub-$100 USB mike I have ever used. It compresses the audio before uploading to the server, you can syndicate it through RSS and… well, here, judge for yourself:

Listen!

Again, not bad. You can even upload a picture (here’s the Tricorder toy I reviewed above) with the audio clip as well as your location (it is very similar to the Qik app, but that is only available for other smart phones and jailbroken iPhones). The app is FREE in the iPhone app store and it’s definitely worth trying out (you can listen to boos at audioboo.fm).

Video of John Hodgman at Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner

June 20th, 2009 Joseph Comments

Whether you are a fan of Obama or not, this video of John Hodgman from the Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner yesterday is comedy GOLD, especially for geeks like me.

Categories: Apple, News, Star Trek, Videos

Awww, isn’t he cute? Plush Steve Jobs doll…

I continuously have to correct people who call G.I.Joe a “doll” – It’s an ACTION FIGURE, the world’s first in fact. Now, this, THIS is a doll:

Plush Steve Jobs! Cute… and menacing… at the same time. You can buy your very own here.

Categories: Apple