@lindsay.at

So you say you’re concerned about Apple’s hegemony with the iPad. You’re concerned that the iPad is for media consumption only, and will quash creativity. You’re concerned that it’s a power play that closes off open formats. You’re concerned that it concentrates too much power in the hands of one gatekeeper to your applications. If so, then go away.

Go to the open source world, because there’s no closed-source corporation nimble enough to catch up with Apple on their touch-based OS.

Apple has just grabbed the high ground in this scramble, and some variation of their personal, slate-like computing paradigm will dominate consumer computing’s attention for years – if not decades – to come. The computer is growing up, and Apple thinks they have the key to turning a general purpose computer into a traditional consumer electronics device.

(Incidentally, I can’t name a player in the computer industry that doesn’t share this common goal of ubiquity. Consider Google’s overt actions in the past year. Nearly every major new effort Microsoft has made for well over a decade has been in this direction.)

So, if we accept that Apple will cast a shadow as long as it has with the iPhone, what is to be done? The only alternative I can see is to work on organizing the open source world into offering an effort that could compete.

Forget the tappity-tappity of single touch alone. Reviews of existing best-of-breed single-touch devices suggest that people already demand something more. Apple owns multi-touch (as in, has key interaction modalities tied up in US Patents), and you would do well to look at something else. Pen-based computing has been around for two decades. Go and improve writing recognition. Consider previous user experience successes (such as the Newton and early PalmOS), and integrate the best of their innovations.

What does a responsive pen-based web browser look like? Can you make it swoop and glide like Apple’s offering? Maybe that’s the wrong way to go about it, but you can be sure that consumers won’t accept either long times to refresh a page each time it is moved or the one-line-at-a-time emulation of a user holding down a scroll arrow in a window.

Consider ergonomics everywhere. Apple does. Study people with a pen, clipboard, and some set tasks. How do people act when standing with the clipboard cradled in their arms? When leaning back on a sofa? When poking at it on a table top? How do these three main body positions inform software interaction modalities? Can one UI design accommodate all three? Make sure you can accommodate left-handers easily, now (and others with disabilities).

Once you’ve cracked the basic interactions, make it easy to create an application: be opinionated. There’s already too much flexibility, especially in the open-source world. When presented with a choice, offer the simpler way of doing things. What developers need is a strong vision and the building blocks for making applications. Start with the basics: navigating a hierarchy, filling out a form.

Got that? Congratulations. If you’re very, very good, you might be able to compete with usability of iPhone OS 1.0.

So you say you’re concerned about Apple’s hegemony. So go. Go and run, because Apple has a huge lead.

Adam @ 02.02.2010 17:57 London/GMT
I strongly agree: if you want to do something, then start from the beginning and make a compelling product. Don't define it in terms of competing with Apple; start with the goal of making something *awesome* for a definite audience, and then do whatever it takes.

But I don't think you're headed a productive direction. Have you ever seen someone using a pen tablet? You can either hold it on one hand, making that arm tired, or put it down on a desk and hunch over it, hurting your back. The flat-thing-you-touch-on-the-front form factor is never going to be ergonomic.

But what if we could have a keyboard on a mobile device? That's what I'm interested in. I've linked my name on this comment to a prototype I made of such a device. Is this a direction you're interested in?

adam @ 02.02.2010 18:14 London/GMT
Interesting thought, Adam, but I think we are talking about two different audiences here. I see the iPad as shifting focus to mothers-as-users, and away from your hacker audience (in your link). So when I put forth pen computing as a strawman, my focus was on natural gestures for people who are not necessarily computer users.

You're right, though, the first devices might be too heavy. But we can always count on weight and thickness going down over time. Pen computing may well not be the way, but those who are concerned would do well to think about alternatives.

jke @ 02.02.2010 22:06 London/GMT
I also agree. It's the way ppl - newbies - will want to use the iPad that's so revolutionary and the part that the other "competitors" will have to understand.

Ben @ 03.02.2010 12:28 London/GMT
So it appears that the linux foundation seems to agree with your point Adam (not the pen interface, rather the current and impending dominance of apple and their UI teams) as they seem keen to do something about it: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/02/linux-foundation-mobile-linux-needs-magic-to-beat-apple.ars

/Ben

adam @ 03.02.2010 12:43 London/GMT
Ooh, thanks for the link, Ben. The pen interface is really a strawman, something to react to. I don't claim to have the only idea, but it's something to work with.

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