Sunday, May 2, 2010

Nigel in the UK: Life with an iPad: 1 Week In

So the iPad has been in my hands for 10 days. Had access to the App store for about 3 days. Conclusions:

1. The iPad has a slot in my life: somewhere between the Macbook pro and the iPhone.
2. Unlike my laptop, which I don't really like anyone else touching, the iPad is much more communal.
3. Every person visiting has been hooked on the iPad for all sorts of reasons and it is passed around continually.
4. It now has a place in the lounge room not the office. People pick it up and pass it round: why? Lots of its use is finding things out at the precise moment of need; lots of use is games (users are seduced by the wonderful screen and graphics) and then checking messages, notes and doing more personal work.
5. The OS itself helps rather than hinders this: if you want to do one thing you have to close the other and this means that each new user does not experience the legacy of the last person to use it (apart from their finger marks on the screen!) You hand it on with the home screen showing.
6. Regardless of how familiar or unfamiliar a user is with the iPhone and its way of working, no one has asked, once, for a tutorial. Everyone without exception has worked it out in seconds. BIG test tomorrow. I am going to give it to my 90 year old mother and see what she makes of it. That will test the intuitive interface to the limit!
7. I would much prefer to learn from the iPad than my laptop because of the crisp focus on the matter in hand. No disturbance from emails coming in or Skype bleeping and no 36 windows open on the screen at once. Clean, simple: uni-task. But always connected and always able to jump. A great metaphor for learning.
Author at 10:26 AM
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3 comments:

  1. That last point is a great riposte to the ADD geeks banging on about the lack of multi-tasking.
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  2. The communal aspect is encouraging, as is the ease of use. Point 7, however, is perfectly bizzarre. I know you're aware that you can shut down email and Skype and use your laptop as a perfectly acceptable unitasker--so what is the advantage here? That the limitations of the device FORCE you to unitask?

    If I bought a new TV that only showed my 3 favorite channels, my friends would probably point out that my old TV played those 3 channels, plus another 97. If I responded to this by saying that I enjoyed the luxury of being FORCED to restrict myself to just 3 channels, my friends would probably assume that I was just rationalizing my purchase decision.

    I'm not an anti-Apple person. They make some great products, and their design is outstanding. However, I find this tendency of Apple fans to embrace clear product limitations as useful constraints odd. Especially since many of the same people will be singing Apple's praises again when it upgrades the device to allow mult-tasking.
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  3. Very interesting and to the point Blog post.
    I would also like to add a few points, during the Iceland volcanic ash problem, our CEO was stock in Paris and he managed a global firm by his iPad successfully, so it shows how this smart small device is capable of. We have a Blog entry about this in more details, you can visit it at http://www.certpointsystems.com/blog/2010/04/running-a-global-firm-from-an-ipad-thanks-to-iceland%E2%80%99s-volcano/
    thanks, Armen Jagharbekian
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