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Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Why Will the iPad Succeed? – A Human Factors Analysis
Austin Texas (April 3, 2010)
Mathematically speaking, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. I always say, the shortest distance between two points is not going. Actually shortest distance between two points when it comes to using technology is by not getting started. By this I mean if you don’t have to take a step that’s unnecessary, why should you? Shortening the distances we all have to cross, each and every day, is what the new Apple iPad delivers.
There are many obvious reasons why the iPad will be a successful product for Apple: it is a sleek, portable and elegant multi-touch electronic tablet that can run thousands of apps, store thousands of books and play thousands of songs. And it is portable, with wireless and 3G support, and lasts up to 10 hours on a charge – as much or more than many laptop computers. How can one argue with that?
But Apple’s likely success with the iPad will come not from its feature set. The not so obvious reasons have to do with the human subconscious and with how we will interact with the device. We will want to come back and use it again and again. Why is that?
The “ piece de resistance” is basically that the iPad cuts the distance between two points. Say I am using the calculator on a PC or a Mac. What are my actions in multiplying two numbers, say “123 X 456?” I think of the first number “123” and my brain tells my hand to move my fingers to move the mouse that moves a cursor on the screen. I then click the mouse button that clicks on each number “1,” “2,” and “3.” In each case I press a button (on the mouse) to press a button (on the calculator image) to enter a digit. I have to move my hand to move the mouse to move the cursor from each of the simulated buttons on the calculator. And we perform all these trivial, minute tasks brainlessly and endlessly till we complete our multiplication task.
How is this done on the iPad? Basically this is done via a completely, radically shortened process, not by going to all these places and doing all these tasks. In this case again we want to multiply 123 X 456. Again, I think of the first number “123” and my brain tells my hand to move my finger to touch a number. And that is all. The number appears. The shortest distance was not going the “long way,” but as the crow flies – the most directly. And one’s focus is not on moving the mouse or fighting with the mouse cord or the sticky mouse gliders where my mouse used to glide smoothly on my desk and now it doesn’t. I just thought of the number; the intimate relationship between my thought and the number appearing was absolutely a non-obvious pleasure. I am not conscious that it was pleasurable and easy but it just was.
Here is another example: You are at home and it is getting dark. You want to turn on a lamp. You move your hand to the light switch, you flip the light switch and you have light. It is much easier if you could just touch the lamp (a feature now provided by a small segment of the table lamp industry). Were the lamp an “iLamp,” you would just think about turning on the lamp and again – be taking the shortest set of steps to accomplish your task.
For these reasons, the iPad will quietly transform how people interact with what we’ve traditionally thought of the way to interact with computers. The iPhone’s touch screen began the process; the iPad’s touch interface and greater computing functionality will carry that process to its next logical step. Yes, many people will continue to carry laptops around because they are accustomed to typing on keyboards. But the iPad will carve out a new turf for itself, help establish a new category of product (hybrid part e-Reader, part mobile TV, part computer) in many respects because of the comfortable nature of human-machine interactions it enables.
Alain Nimri is the Director of Human Factors for Polycom Inc. Advanced Technologies in Austin Texas
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