The iPad is not revolutionary… yet.
At the time Steve Job’s took the stage, I was presenting a UI design to a customer in a secure facility where I wasn’t allowed to have any electronic devices. That’s a long way to say that I missed the minute by minute coverage, and I have not yet had time to watch the video. I have, however, read reports on a number of blogs. Apple calls the iPad revolutionary. It’s not.
The iPhone was revolutionary. It changed everything—everything that could possibly be changed by a mobile phone, at any rate. It introduced fantastic new technology, a brilliantly designed user interface, a new model for developing and buying software, etc. The iPad, on the other hand, utilizes the same technology, the same user interface, the same software development and sales model—it really is a big iPod touch. The media has been ticking off all of the features and technical specifications, but they seem to be missing what is truly significant about the device.
I couldn’t find an article in my news feeds that detailed the UI design of the applications. The hardware is just a blank slate. Yes, there are plenty of important considerations that had to be made in the design of the physical form, but what really makes or breaks this device is the user experience provided by the applications. As I have pointed out before, the feature list is not nearly as important as how those features are designed to be used. What I’m most interested to learn about are all the details of how one interacts with the various applications. How has Apple turned the iWork suite into touch-based applications? What is different about designing for touch (and multi-touch) on a 10 inch screen versus the iPhone. How does the UI account for the fact that the iPad will be held differently, or placed on a surface allowing for two-handed interactions? The answers to such questions as these will determine the user experience, and thus the ultimate success or failure of the product.
The iPad itself is an evolution of the iPhone. It’s significance is as a platform. If it ends up revolutionizing anything, it will be due to the applications developed for it.
