For those of you that don’t already know, Apple Inc, release a new tablet computing product called the iPad. It’s hard to make judgment on a device when it’s on stage with Steve Jobs, and the whole energy of the release would make you want a pile of crap if it was sprinkled with gold.

So, I let it marinate a bit overnight, and have come to a conclusion.

What Apple Got Right

While I haven’t handled it yet, I feel fairly confident they got the form factor right. Everyone on the stage, and in the videos appeared to use it with ease, and handle it confidently. It certainly “looks” like the tablet computer we all dreamed existed.

The other aspect I think Apple got right, was the User Interface. Traditionally, as with Microsoft Tablets, software companies would just slap a few band-aids on a desktop platform OS and say “Done!” I like the fact that Apple is taking the path less traveled on this; requiring software companies to rewrite their applications to work differently with hand based interactions.

The polish. When the eBook application rotated like a giant bookshelf to reveal a bookstore on the back, I started feeling warm inside. Then, the purchased book floated up, the shelf rotated back, and the books all got out of the way to make room for the new book’s decent; I wanted the iPad to have my baby. Each animation is short enough to not steal from the action, and designed to provide some feedback as to what, or why something is happening. The polish that Apple applies to their applications is undeniably fantastic.

Lastly, the price. $499 for a base model surpassed all my expectations.

What They Got Wrong

There’s already plenty of posts out there that mention it’s lack of Adobe Flash support, multitasking, and camera. Although I agree with all of them, I don’t want to spend more time on that. Here’s a few more thing I feel are missing.

The first thing that came to my mind, was a lack of synergy between the iPad and the iPhone, or other mobile phone devices. The iPad is designed to be a light, and easily portable device. Whenever anyone travels, they all carry around their cell phone. I would have liked to see an iPhone pass pictures to the iPad. I would have liked to see an iPhone share it’s Internet service via Bluetooth DUN. I would have liked to see the contacts application in the iPad automatically dial a number on a paired iPhone. None of these were demonstrated, nor hinted to.

Using the tired iPhone desktop was a huge disappointment. Apple had an opportunity here, to truly rethink their traditional home screen. I would have liked to see something like Bumptop (see video below). Their lack of ingenuity and interaction with their home screen is in sharp contrast to the polish from the rest of their applications. Their focus on the singular application for everything, leaves me skeptical about the future of the iPad/iPhone platform.

Oh yeah, one last thing, the name iPad was a terrible choice.

Conclusion

Still, my opinion remains undecided. There are things to like, and things to hate about this device. Furthermore, it’s not even available to purchase yet, and I haven’t had my hands on one. It could very well be that many of the cons were simply not demoed due to lack of time or perspective. All will be revealed in upcoming months.

I was forwarded this article by a friend (Thanks Lauren), which is a very interesting read. You see the extension if icon detail being applied all over the place, especially in operating systems like Linux, where every distro release adds a new set of icons.

Another pitfall to watch out for.

One of the main topics discussed at the IXDA Interaction09 conference was, how to change complicated stuff. Marc Rettig, lead an hour long session on the topic. He tried to establish how to make a change, the new normal. In summary, he basically made these two points:

“Work of change is social. Deliberatly plan to be social and nurture that.”

“Relationships are more important than the things themselves.”

Finding ways of creating those relationships is not easy work. Especially, when the change that you’re trying to make, is more difficult than the alternative. In the video above, the designers use fun in order to change people’s behavior. The fun of using the stairs, creates a relationship between the task and the individual, bridging the gap of difficulty.

When creating solutions for professional business clients, do not overlook the power of making things fun. While on the surface it may be viewed as childish, or unprofessional, making something a game may be able the achieve the result you’re after.

What? You didn’t get the memo?

Apparently, it was interface day on the web last weekend. There were three large announcements of different gestural interface concepts this weekend. I have to say, I like Microsoft’s, “Computer, make me a sandwich” approach the best. Check them all out!

Sony and Atracsys 3D Interface (via Engadget)

Wearable Gesture Interface Device (via ostatic)

Natural User Interface Microsoft Research Project (via istartedsomething)

I came across this video while reading a question on the UXExchange. If you’ve never done usability testing for your product, I highly recommend watching it. This is a model example of “think out loud” usability testing of the Wizzgo website.

The goal in usability testing, if you’re not familiar with it, is to have a person perform some scenario while you watch. In the example above, they’re clearly asking the participant to try and find pricing on their site. You want them to “think out loud,” so you can gain insight as to what they’re thinking, and what they’re expecting. When doing many of these tests, you can start to draw correlations in the expectations of your audience. You can then cater your product’s functionality to meet them.

It’s always important to record these sessions. You want to be able to review them for things you missed. You also what to be able to review yourself, and see how your presence, or your assistance influenced the participant. They are likely using Morae, or some other similar software to record the test. I, myself, have done something similar on the cheap using Camtasia Studio, an Axis network camera, and VNC.

Saw this one engadget this morning. You can read the original news article here. Most “geeks” are seeing this game as an epic fail, but I think it’s kind of inventive.

All jokes aside, it’s kind of an interesting user experience their creating. Where before you had an inanimate doll, you know have a full blown computer powered brain. With the accelerometers, it could detect if you’re holding your baby wrong, if you’re trying to sooth your baby, etc. I like the use of the speaker in the remote too. Now, you’re giving audible feedback. It would be cool if they could get putting in a bottle in it’s mouth to trigger one of the remotes buttons, so you know when it’s being fed.

For little girls/boys who like to play mother/father, I think the remote interface has some great potential. I think where it might fail, is in the game portion itself. If the game is task oriented, I don’t think it would be as enjoyable as if it was just open ended, and continued to interact with the doll as the child plays in the same room as the Wii. It will be interesting to see the experience this product creates.

Here’s a new study that’s being worked on, the idea of using muscle gestures to interface with computers. This is clearly a case of research driving plausibility. But, I like the fact that they’re using use case scenarios to display functionality. Just think, in a few years, this could all be sewn right into a shirt or jacket, that interfaces with your phone, car, whatever. Pretty exciting stuff.

Still, this does add a layer of discontinuity. There are arbitrary correlations between touching your pinkie, and skipping a song track. Or, making a fist to open a car door. I see a lot of parallels being formed here, that relate to Donal Norman’s issues with telephone systems.

Some students at Carnagie Mellon University are creating a Dungeon’s & Dragons game using Microsoft Surface as a school project. You can watch the video above.

I got really excited at the beginning of the video, because they were allowing real character statuettes to interface with a map. Later in the video, they seem to drop the ball on leveraging Surface’s capabilities. For instance, why not allow players to roll actual dice since the surface table could read them.

Regardless of this implementation, I think this is a very exciting use of the surface table. If the price of the device were ever to drop, I could see the whole HeroClix community getting VERY excited over this technology.

I came across this new hand held remote interface for computer based TVs this morning on engadget. It’s called GlideTV Navigator, and looks like it’s designed to be an aesthetically pleasing remote you’d want to leave on your coffee table.

Unfortunately, it looks like the aesthetics stopped with the industrial design of the device, because it’s my opinion that the software UI looks awful. It looks like a hodgepodge strangely aligned, inconsistently styled, and in some cases unlabeled buttons. Hopefully, all will be explained if I ever get an opportunity to sample the device.

The device itself also reeks a little bit of over design. For instance, there are eight buttons surrounding the trackpad, none of them labeled. Four are arrow buttons, and I think most could figure out which they are. But, the four other buttons are for Escape/Back/Function/and Enter. Your guess is as good as mine as to which is which. Also, the rounded bottom of the device may prove to be difficult. As you try to thumb around the device, I would imagine that it would “rock” in your hand as you attempt to hit the Glide/Power/Search/Playback/and Volume buttons. Those with smaller hands, or short thumbs might find this a two handed remote.

Of course, I haven’t used the device yet. These observations are all off the top of my head. It’ll be interesting to see how the market receives this.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Here’s a new interface being designed by 10/GUI that is trying to rethink multi-touch interaction with a computer. I would agree that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way that we perceive the desktop space. I’m not sure I like this new approach. I’d be interested in the results from user test.

Still, worth a look.