6 ms·

My grandfather’s iPad

56 points by preek 16y ago

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
preek 16y ago
I just had to do an Apache redirect from my wordpress installation to posterous. Over 2400 hits in like 70 minutes. Thanks for the interest!
sliverstorm 16y ago
My grandfather's iPad: http://creativecitizen.com/system/attachments/0000/0607/legal_pad.jpg http://creativecitizen.com/system/attachments/0000/0607/lega...
- preek 16y ago
  The classic legal pad, not a bad choice. I personally prefer the Moleskine, though(;
Charuru 16y ago
Let me make a bold statement: The touchscreen will obsolete the keyboard within 5 years.
- thought_alarm 16y ago
  Too bold.
  - preek 16y ago
    My personal VIM preference would certainly suffer. Anyway, the touch screen is undoubtedly gaining use cases in mobile computing and terminals of banks, subways and similar.
  - Charuru 16y ago
    6 years then? :D Let me qualify this a little. I don't mean no keyboards will exist within 6 years, but at around the 6th year mark, the vast majority of tech aware people, like you and me, will refuse to buy a computing device (including desktop PCs) whose primary mode of interaction is through the keyboard/mouse. Rather they will only be interested in touchscreen devices.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      I've only tried typing on an iPad a few times, and while it worked reasonably well, I can't imagine doing it for hours a day at 80+ words per minute.
      - preek 16y ago
        But did you try reading and browsing with it for hours a day? I never had such a great reading experience!(; I don't think it was meant to substitue for writing long texts. However, you can buy the iPad keyboard dock to use the standard Apple keyboard layout. And honestly, after having burned through so many keyboards in my life - these Apple keyboards really get me exited every time I use them!
      - Charuru 16y ago
        I agree on the iPad, but I'm sure there will be better typing experiences coming soon. Tactile feedback and flexible touchscreens are two things that I'm sure will play a big part.
      - sambeau 16y ago
        Most people, at most times, have no need to type at such a high rate. The computer-as-leisure device is mostly used for small pieces of communication - comments on sites like this. I would be even bolder - the 'average' leisure user could mostly get by with three buttons: ':-)', ':-(' and 'LOL'.
    - thought_alarm 16y ago
      I disagree. I don't see much innovation happening in desktop hardware and software in the next 10 years. The keyboard and mouse will still be around; it will be how we define desktop software. There will continue to be new versions of OS X, but there will be no "Mac OS X Touch Screen Edition". Computing appliances like the iPad will play increasingly important roles in our lives and will completely replace the desktop for many people, but it won't kill the desktop anymore than the GUI killed the command-line. Instead, the Desktop will simply stop being a major source of software innovation.
- jasonlbaptiste 16y ago
  At some point it will. Maybe 5, maybe 8, but within a reasonable amount of time. I think it depends on the acceleration of other iPad like devices in the same way Android phones followed soon thereafter the iPhone. Funny fact: I was just recording an iPad demo and I had to keep redoing the voiceover due to the use of the word click instead of touch.
- ugh 16y ago
  The touchscreen will obsolete the keyboard/mouse combination except for entering or editing large amounts of text within ten years. (Obsolete means something like “cross the 50 percent mark” and “displays strong growth while keyboard/mouse devices collapse”.) The iPad seems to show the way: ultra portable with a (probably wireless) keyboard attachment for when you really need to type. That would be a prediction I would be comfortable with.
- commieneko 16y ago
  No, the touch screen will obviate the mouse. Other technology, possibly improved speech or hand writing recognition will have an impact on keyboards. But then, keyboards have always sucked as non-text entry devices. They were simply (wait for it) _handy_... Edit: Now I could easily believe that near future systems could drastically reduce our need or desire for text entry. But it's hard to skim video or audio as effectively as text. And of course, text has its own texture and voice. Our grandchildren may feel differently...
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    > Edit: Now I could easily believe that near future systems could drastically reduce our need or desire for text entry. That's the only way to really get rid of the need for keyboards- that or literally flawless speech recognition with natural language parsing for commands. As long as we need to enter text, and don't have voice input, keyboards are the easiest way to enter it quickly/for sustained periods. I dread the day I have to compose a paper on a touchscreen keyboard, unless it is full-sized. And even then, there's no tactile feedback. Essentially what I am saying is, until either text input is unnecessary or voice recognition takes off, the keyboard paradigm is necessary and useful. Heck, why do you think phones with full physical QWERTY keyboards are still popular among people who really type on their phones?
    - dkersten 16y ago
      literally flawless speech recognition with natural language parsing for commands No way. I can type much, much faster than I can speak. Simpler, strict non-natural commands are much easier than natural language commands (hell, people have difficulties giving and understanding verbal commands all the time) - never mind the fact that languages like English are terribly ambiguous and peoples everyday speech is too filled with local slang. Also, if I have to talk to my computer, I a) cannot use it in a group environment or, say, when someone is sleeping and b) when I type I can see what I typed and I can edit it if I make mistakes. If I speak commands, I cannot do this. An exaggerated (but still realistic) example: if I type "delete foo" instead of "delete bar" and notice before I hit enter, I can fix the mistake. If I speak "delete foo" then foo will probably be gone before I can correct myself. Finally, what about different words that sound the same? Sometimes spelling or capitalization is the only thing that distinguishes things (eg, file names) - with speech you couldn't do this. In summary, in my opinion, speech recognition is a terrible form of input for general text input and command input tasks. (It may be useful to augment more traditional input and it can certainly be more than useful (or even required) for disabled people, but for the majority of people and tasks, I don't see the attraction)
- preek 16y ago
  Have you seen Swype yet? You might like it(; http://gizmodo.com/5411779/swype-vs-qwerty-fight http://gizmodo.com/5411779/swype-vs-qwerty-fight
- dkersten 16y ago
  I disagree for two reasons: 1. Until they provide button-like tactile feedback, typing will simply not be close to typing on a keyboard. 2. Having your fingers/hands obscure the screen is.. less than ideal. This is one reason why I like the touch-surface + screen combo idea from the 10gui concept. As an aside, the touchscreen on the ipad, while decent, is IMHO still not responsive and accurate enough for me to be comfortable doing any serious amounts of typing on it.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Err... I have a laptop with a touchscreen, so I've played around with touch input a lot. A few things you may not realize without some experience with a touchscreen on a real computer: The screen is most visible a foot or two away from your face, vertical. Make it flat and things get hard. The hands like typing on a horizontal surface. Try typing on a vertical screen, especially one at the proper viewing distance, and you will type really slow, and your arms will fatigue fast. It looks cool in movies, but it is a ridiculous waste of movement unless you barely interact with the machine. Portable devices work alright with moving the keyboard onto the screen, and they have no other choice, but for a real computer it makes no sense. If/when the standard desktop/laptop computer becomes obsolete, this becomes irrelevant, but until then...
  - duskwuff 16y ago
    Relevant: http://okcancel.com/strips/okcancel20031003.gif http://okcancel.com/strips/okcancel20031003.gif Touch interfaces work well for small, handheld devices. They break down badly for anything larger.
- zweben 16y ago
  I sort of thing that if the keyboard was going to disappear completely any time soon (~10 years), it would've disappeared already. We have a lot of different technologies for text input these days, but I don't feel like any of them would be better than a keyboard for working at a desk, even if they worked perfectly. -Touchscreens can eliminate the need for typing to interact with a computer, but people will always want to communicate with each other in writing. On a touchscreen only device, this means virtual keyboards. Those are a convenient tradeoff for portable devices, but they're not ideal, and when you have space for as much screen as you need and a keyboard, I can't think of a good reason to get rid of physical keys. -100% accurate voice recognition would be nice for some things, but I think I'd still be too slow, tiring, disruptive, or not private enough for most uses. -Silent speech recognition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_speech_interface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_speech_interface) is a really interesting option, I think. A device good enough at measuring tiny 'subvocal' muscle movements could seem very similar to mind reading, while also being less intimidating and possibly less invasive. NASA did some interesting work on this (http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_s...). -I think true mind reading devices also have potential in the long term, but I'd be highly surprised if we had anything practical in less than a decade.
dkarl 16y ago
I really don't get the confusion about clicking. For me, right-click as used in Windows and KDE (at least KDE3) enabled a massive amount of ignorance. I never know how to do anything and it doesn't matter. Want to know what something does and what you can do to it? Right-click and look at the context menu. Left-click doesn't do what you expect? Right-click and look for the command you want. I swear that's all I ever knew about KDE3, and it was almost always enough. It usually works in Windows, too. Just right-click! But, I tried to teach my mom about that, and it just never took. "How do I do open this file with a different program?" "Did you try right-clicking on the icon?" "Oh, there's the 'open with' command." "Always try right-clicking. Right-clicking is magic!" "Okay, I'll try that next time." "I'm not kidding! Write it down! It's magic!" Two days later, "How do I rename a file on my desktop?" I really don't understand how it's a mind-blowing concept. There are only two buttons on the mouse. (That she knows of.) She uses the mouse every day! She knows how to use more than two buttons on her camera, and she uses her camera once a month. I just don't get it. Why are the buttons on the mouse harder than the ones on the camera? Even weirder is that she is capable of learning a lot of specific tasks. She learned how to "Open With" and how to "Rename"; it's been a long time since I had to help her with stuff like that. To me, it seems easier to remember the single rule, "Right click and look at the context menu," than to learn all those specific tasks without understanding the general rule.
- dkarl 16y ago
  Who the hell down-mods honest confusion? If it's so obvious, then you try explaining it.
- megablast 16y ago
  So you don't understand that someone who was never bought up with computers, big screens, or even buttons can get confused with new technology? What I don't understand is all the people who haven't quite grasped the fact that people are different, and think about the world differently. While right clicking would be second nature to many of us, a lot of people still don't "get" computers, and a lot of what happens is magic to them.
  - 16y ago
julius_geezer 16y ago
very cool.
Tichy 16y ago
My granny learned to use the mouse, it is not that hard. Yes, her first movements with the mouse were awkward. That doesn't prove that it is impossible to master. A lot of things are awkward when you do them the first time. Is using a browser on a normal PC that much harder than on an iPad? Or is it simply that people don't try to do many of the things on an iPad that are confuding on a PC to begin with? For example, most problems my parents used to have were related to scanning and faxing, which I tend to avoid on my own computer. How is the browser on an iPad easier to use than a normal browser?
- preek 16y ago
  I congratulate you to your cunning grandmother! It's good to hear that she keeps up. Anyway, "something not impossible to master" might not be necessarily optimal. In your scenario of browser usage the mouse adds an unneeded layour of complexity in terms of usability. Whilst human beings are normally used to interact with their hands directly, sometimes they were apt enough to design tools when their hands just weren't enough. With hands you can't make a fire. With hands you can't dig up a field. What you can do with your hands is push a button or a link. There's no need for an abstracted tool. The mouse provides nothing a single touch wouldn't. The mouse just provides clutter. Still, I'm glad for your grandmother to have mastered it though. Whatever works to make people happy. Personally, I also have a mouse on my workstation, but I'm an edge case^
  - Tichy 16y ago
    I realize it is silly to dispute somebody else's experience. If the iPad worked for that grandfather, and the mouse didn't, what can I say. It just seems to me the "revolutionariness" of the iPad tends to be blown out of proportions. I'd guess that a lot of older people could have a problem with the tiny screen, for example. Supporting a granny on Windows and a mother on Linux, I have certainly seen a fair amount of unintuitive and confusing user interfaces. I don't want to defend all the design decisions in desktop computers (fwiw, I think Ubuntu provides by far the best experience for older people who need support from their younger relatives, but that is for another subject). Of course just cropping away functionality until only "unconfusing" stuff is left is one way to approach the problem. I don't think it is the best solution for everybody, though.
WingForward 16y ago
Just had a family reunion yesterday...I'd say half the people over the age of 55 lack an intuitive sense of computing. My MIL didn't understand that the interface represented a physical top of a desk. My mom double clicks on web links. My uncle does all his contractor company accounting with a pencil, in a ledger book. That is a huge market for the iPad. The desktop was a wonderful metaphor with its files and folders, for what it was replacing. But its time is coming to an end and the iPad is riding and creating that wave. After the iPad 3G drops below $300, it will do more to bring that demographic online than any other device to date.
brc 16y ago
I've been thinking about getting an iPad for my father. He has always been interested in computers, but a keyboard and mouse are just a bit much for him. I got him going on a TomTom GPS with touch screen, which, after a shaky start and fat fingers, he got going on and is confident with. I've recently set them up with a Tivo, and again, after a shaky start, is building confidence with the menu system. I've talked to him about an iPad, told him it is touch screen just like his TomTom. He understands a touch screen interface - you point at something and you get it. Those wondering what the big deal with a mouse, keyboard and everything else - older people have less flexible hands, someone who has worked hard all their life don't have the fine motor skils to move a mouse around and click and double click. A keyboad is an abstraction away from the 'thing' - which is the screen. Old people also have bad eyesight and often wear bifocal lenses for reading, and looking up and down constantly between a keyboard and a screen is taxing and frustrating. If you think a keyboard is simple, ask 10 non-tech friends what the 'scroll lock' key does, and see if you get 10 answers that match. Traditional computer devices haven't moved on much from the hobbyist days of the Apple 1 where you plugged the box into a TV screen. The iPad is a genuine step forwards in design for people who don't want to learn a complicated control interface. At the same time old people know the future is online, and their children and grandchildren work, play and communicate online. They know they are missing out, but it's hard for them to undertake the near-vertical learning curve of learning how to start, work and run a traditional personal computer. I'll take my Dad into the store and give him a play with one, see what he thinks. I'm pretty sure he'll be nervous and anxious not to look silly but will gain confidence quickly.
- preek 16y ago
  That is exactly our story. My grandfather also has very strong hands due to having worked a lifetime. But clicking (especially double clicking) never came easy to him. His Navi did, however (after a stumbling start as you mentioned). I did show my grandfather the iPad ads on my Macbook and he instantly liked the idea. I'm sure yours will, too. I would be glad to hear about his impressions when the time comes^
  - brc 16y ago
    Well it's my Dad, not my Grandfather, but, well, he is a grandfather and he is in his '70s. ;) The guy can still drive a 3 inch nail in with 3 hits of his hammer but has real trouble with the end of his finger, of which the last 1/4 inch is missing, courtesy of a saw blade. He also has trouble grasping a mouse due to tendon damage in his right hand caused by a nylon rope, a flooded creek and a rescue attempt - well, you get the picture. Old guys who have worked hard have the money to spend, and the interest, but just aren't a use-case for product designers. I've long argued that a phone company who brings out a simple, affordable phone with a long-lasting battery, large buttons, easy to read simple screen and ear-shatteringly loud ringers would clean up the seniors market.
0_o 16y ago
I wonder what my future grandson can teach me (50 years later).
- zweben 16y ago
  If everything goes well, he won't have to teach you much at all. That's the exciting thing about the direction the iPad is bringing computing; it's very capable, but at the same time, there's not that much to learn.

56 points by preek 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

preek 16y ago

I just had to do an Apache redirect from my wordpress installation to posterous. Over 2400 hits in like 70 minutes. Thanks for the interest!

sliverstorm 16y ago

My grandfather's iPad: http://creativecitizen.com/system/attachments/0000/0607/legal_pad.jpg http://creativecitizen.com/system/attachments/0000/0607/lega...

preek 16y ago
The classic legal pad, not a bad choice. I personally prefer the Moleskine, though(;

Charuru 16y ago

Let me make a bold statement: The touchscreen will obsolete the keyboard within 5 years.

thought_alarm 16y ago
Too bold.
- preek 16y ago
  My personal VIM preference would certainly suffer. Anyway, the touch screen is undoubtedly gaining use cases in mobile computing and terminals of banks, subways and similar.
- Charuru 16y ago
  6 years then? :D Let me qualify this a little. I don't mean no keyboards will exist within 6 years, but at around the 6th year mark, the vast majority of tech aware people, like you and me, will refuse to buy a computing device (including desktop PCs) whose primary mode of interaction is through the keyboard/mouse. Rather they will only be interested in touchscreen devices.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    I've only tried typing on an iPad a few times, and while it worked reasonably well, I can't imagine doing it for hours a day at 80+ words per minute.
    - preek 16y ago
      But did you try reading and browsing with it for hours a day? I never had such a great reading experience!(; I don't think it was meant to substitue for writing long texts. However, you can buy the iPad keyboard dock to use the standard Apple keyboard layout. And honestly, after having burned through so many keyboards in my life - these Apple keyboards really get me exited every time I use them!
    - Charuru 16y ago
      I agree on the iPad, but I'm sure there will be better typing experiences coming soon. Tactile feedback and flexible touchscreens are two things that I'm sure will play a big part.
    - sambeau 16y ago
      Most people, at most times, have no need to type at such a high rate. The computer-as-leisure device is mostly used for small pieces of communication - comments on sites like this. I would be even bolder - the 'average' leisure user could mostly get by with three buttons: ':-)', ':-(' and 'LOL'.
  - thought_alarm 16y ago
    I disagree. I don't see much innovation happening in desktop hardware and software in the next 10 years. The keyboard and mouse will still be around; it will be how we define desktop software. There will continue to be new versions of OS X, but there will be no "Mac OS X Touch Screen Edition". Computing appliances like the iPad will play increasingly important roles in our lives and will completely replace the desktop for many people, but it won't kill the desktop anymore than the GUI killed the command-line. Instead, the Desktop will simply stop being a major source of software innovation.
jasonlbaptiste 16y ago
At some point it will. Maybe 5, maybe 8, but within a reasonable amount of time. I think it depends on the acceleration of other iPad like devices in the same way Android phones followed soon thereafter the iPhone. Funny fact: I was just recording an iPad demo and I had to keep redoing the voiceover due to the use of the word click instead of touch.
ugh 16y ago
The touchscreen will obsolete the keyboard/mouse combination except for entering or editing large amounts of text within ten years. (Obsolete means something like “cross the 50 percent mark” and “displays strong growth while keyboard/mouse devices collapse”.) The iPad seems to show the way: ultra portable with a (probably wireless) keyboard attachment for when you really need to type. That would be a prediction I would be comfortable with.
commieneko 16y ago
No, the touch screen will obviate the mouse. Other technology, possibly improved speech or hand writing recognition will have an impact on keyboards. But then, keyboards have always sucked as non-text entry devices. They were simply (wait for it) _handy_... Edit: Now I could easily believe that near future systems could drastically reduce our need or desire for text entry. But it's hard to skim video or audio as effectively as text. And of course, text has its own texture and voice. Our grandchildren may feel differently...
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  > Edit: Now I could easily believe that near future systems could drastically reduce our need or desire for text entry. That's the only way to really get rid of the need for keyboards- that or literally flawless speech recognition with natural language parsing for commands. As long as we need to enter text, and don't have voice input, keyboards are the easiest way to enter it quickly/for sustained periods. I dread the day I have to compose a paper on a touchscreen keyboard, unless it is full-sized. And even then, there's no tactile feedback. Essentially what I am saying is, until either text input is unnecessary or voice recognition takes off, the keyboard paradigm is necessary and useful. Heck, why do you think phones with full physical QWERTY keyboards are still popular among people who really type on their phones?
  - dkersten 16y ago
    literally flawless speech recognition with natural language parsing for commands No way. I can type much, much faster than I can speak. Simpler, strict non-natural commands are much easier than natural language commands (hell, people have difficulties giving and understanding verbal commands all the time) - never mind the fact that languages like English are terribly ambiguous and peoples everyday speech is too filled with local slang. Also, if I have to talk to my computer, I a) cannot use it in a group environment or, say, when someone is sleeping and b) when I type I can see what I typed and I can edit it if I make mistakes. If I speak commands, I cannot do this. An exaggerated (but still realistic) example: if I type "delete foo" instead of "delete bar" and notice before I hit enter, I can fix the mistake. If I speak "delete foo" then foo will probably be gone before I can correct myself. Finally, what about different words that sound the same? Sometimes spelling or capitalization is the only thing that distinguishes things (eg, file names) - with speech you couldn't do this. In summary, in my opinion, speech recognition is a terrible form of input for general text input and command input tasks. (It may be useful to augment more traditional input and it can certainly be more than useful (or even required) for disabled people, but for the majority of people and tasks, I don't see the attraction)
preek 16y ago
Have you seen Swype yet? You might like it(; http://gizmodo.com/5411779/swype-vs-qwerty-fight http://gizmodo.com/5411779/swype-vs-qwerty-fight
dkersten 16y ago
I disagree for two reasons: 1. Until they provide button-like tactile feedback, typing will simply not be close to typing on a keyboard. 2. Having your fingers/hands obscure the screen is.. less than ideal. This is one reason why I like the touch-surface + screen combo idea from the 10gui concept. As an aside, the touchscreen on the ipad, while decent, is IMHO still not responsive and accurate enough for me to be comfortable doing any serious amounts of typing on it.
sliverstorm 16y ago
Err... I have a laptop with a touchscreen, so I've played around with touch input a lot. A few things you may not realize without some experience with a touchscreen on a real computer: The screen is most visible a foot or two away from your face, vertical. Make it flat and things get hard. The hands like typing on a horizontal surface. Try typing on a vertical screen, especially one at the proper viewing distance, and you will type really slow, and your arms will fatigue fast. It looks cool in movies, but it is a ridiculous waste of movement unless you barely interact with the machine. Portable devices work alright with moving the keyboard onto the screen, and they have no other choice, but for a real computer it makes no sense. If/when the standard desktop/laptop computer becomes obsolete, this becomes irrelevant, but until then...
- duskwuff 16y ago
  Relevant: http://okcancel.com/strips/okcancel20031003.gif http://okcancel.com/strips/okcancel20031003.gif Touch interfaces work well for small, handheld devices. They break down badly for anything larger.
zweben 16y ago
I sort of thing that if the keyboard was going to disappear completely any time soon (~10 years), it would've disappeared already. We have a lot of different technologies for text input these days, but I don't feel like any of them would be better than a keyboard for working at a desk, even if they worked perfectly. -Touchscreens can eliminate the need for typing to interact with a computer, but people will always want to communicate with each other in writing. On a touchscreen only device, this means virtual keyboards. Those are a convenient tradeoff for portable devices, but they're not ideal, and when you have space for as much screen as you need and a keyboard, I can't think of a good reason to get rid of physical keys. -100% accurate voice recognition would be nice for some things, but I think I'd still be too slow, tiring, disruptive, or not private enough for most uses. -Silent speech recognition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_speech_interface http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_speech_interface) is a really interesting option, I think. A device good enough at measuring tiny 'subvocal' muscle movements could seem very similar to mind reading, while also being less intimidating and possibly less invasive. NASA did some interesting work on this (http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_speech.html http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2004/mar/HQ_04093_subvocal_s...). -I think true mind reading devices also have potential in the long term, but I'd be highly surprised if we had anything practical in less than a decade.

dkarl 16y ago

I really don't get the confusion about clicking. For me, right-click as used in Windows and KDE (at least KDE3) enabled a massive amount of ignorance. I never know how to do anything and it doesn't matter. Want to know what something does and what you can do to it? Right-click and look at the context menu. Left-click doesn't do what you expect? Right-click and look for the command you want. I swear that's all I ever knew about KDE3, and it was almost always enough. It usually works in Windows, too. Just right-click! But, I tried to teach my mom about that, and it just never took. "How do I do open this file with a different program?" "Did you try right-clicking on the icon?" "Oh, there's the 'open with' command." "Always try right-clicking. Right-clicking is magic!" "Okay, I'll try that next time." "I'm not kidding! Write it down! It's magic!" Two days later, "How do I rename a file on my desktop?" I really don't understand how it's a mind-blowing concept. There are only two buttons on the mouse. (That she knows of.) She uses the mouse every day! She knows how to use more than two buttons on her camera, and she uses her camera once a month. I just don't get it. Why are the buttons on the mouse harder than the ones on the camera? Even weirder is that she is capable of learning a lot of specific tasks. She learned how to "Open With" and how to "Rename"; it's been a long time since I had to help her with stuff like that. To me, it seems easier to remember the single rule, "Right click and look at the context menu," than to learn all those specific tasks without understanding the general rule.

dkarl 16y ago
Who the hell down-mods honest confusion? If it's so obvious, then you try explaining it.
megablast 16y ago
So you don't understand that someone who was never bought up with computers, big screens, or even buttons can get confused with new technology? What I don't understand is all the people who haven't quite grasped the fact that people are different, and think about the world differently. While right clicking would be second nature to many of us, a lot of people still don't "get" computers, and a lot of what happens is magic to them.
- 16y ago

julius_geezer 16y ago

very cool.

Tichy 16y ago

My granny learned to use the mouse, it is not that hard. Yes, her first movements with the mouse were awkward. That doesn't prove that it is impossible to master. A lot of things are awkward when you do them the first time. Is using a browser on a normal PC that much harder than on an iPad? Or is it simply that people don't try to do many of the things on an iPad that are confuding on a PC to begin with? For example, most problems my parents used to have were related to scanning and faxing, which I tend to avoid on my own computer. How is the browser on an iPad easier to use than a normal browser?

preek 16y ago
I congratulate you to your cunning grandmother! It's good to hear that she keeps up. Anyway, "something not impossible to master" might not be necessarily optimal. In your scenario of browser usage the mouse adds an unneeded layour of complexity in terms of usability. Whilst human beings are normally used to interact with their hands directly, sometimes they were apt enough to design tools when their hands just weren't enough. With hands you can't make a fire. With hands you can't dig up a field. What you can do with your hands is push a button or a link. There's no need for an abstracted tool. The mouse provides nothing a single touch wouldn't. The mouse just provides clutter. Still, I'm glad for your grandmother to have mastered it though. Whatever works to make people happy. Personally, I also have a mouse on my workstation, but I'm an edge case^
- Tichy 16y ago
  I realize it is silly to dispute somebody else's experience. If the iPad worked for that grandfather, and the mouse didn't, what can I say. It just seems to me the "revolutionariness" of the iPad tends to be blown out of proportions. I'd guess that a lot of older people could have a problem with the tiny screen, for example. Supporting a granny on Windows and a mother on Linux, I have certainly seen a fair amount of unintuitive and confusing user interfaces. I don't want to defend all the design decisions in desktop computers (fwiw, I think Ubuntu provides by far the best experience for older people who need support from their younger relatives, but that is for another subject). Of course just cropping away functionality until only "unconfusing" stuff is left is one way to approach the problem. I don't think it is the best solution for everybody, though.

WingForward 16y ago

Just had a family reunion yesterday...I'd say half the people over the age of 55 lack an intuitive sense of computing. My MIL didn't understand that the interface represented a physical top of a desk. My mom double clicks on web links. My uncle does all his contractor company accounting with a pencil, in a ledger book. That is a huge market for the iPad. The desktop was a wonderful metaphor with its files and folders, for what it was replacing. But its time is coming to an end and the iPad is riding and creating that wave. After the iPad 3G drops below $300, it will do more to bring that demographic online than any other device to date.

brc 16y ago

I've been thinking about getting an iPad for my father. He has always been interested in computers, but a keyboard and mouse are just a bit much for him. I got him going on a TomTom GPS with touch screen, which, after a shaky start and fat fingers, he got going on and is confident with. I've recently set them up with a Tivo, and again, after a shaky start, is building confidence with the menu system. I've talked to him about an iPad, told him it is touch screen just like his TomTom. He understands a touch screen interface - you point at something and you get it. Those wondering what the big deal with a mouse, keyboard and everything else - older people have less flexible hands, someone who has worked hard all their life don't have the fine motor skils to move a mouse around and click and double click. A keyboad is an abstraction away from the 'thing' - which is the screen. Old people also have bad eyesight and often wear bifocal lenses for reading, and looking up and down constantly between a keyboard and a screen is taxing and frustrating. If you think a keyboard is simple, ask 10 non-tech friends what the 'scroll lock' key does, and see if you get 10 answers that match. Traditional computer devices haven't moved on much from the hobbyist days of the Apple 1 where you plugged the box into a TV screen. The iPad is a genuine step forwards in design for people who don't want to learn a complicated control interface. At the same time old people know the future is online, and their children and grandchildren work, play and communicate online. They know they are missing out, but it's hard for them to undertake the near-vertical learning curve of learning how to start, work and run a traditional personal computer. I'll take my Dad into the store and give him a play with one, see what he thinks. I'm pretty sure he'll be nervous and anxious not to look silly but will gain confidence quickly.

preek 16y ago
That is exactly our story. My grandfather also has very strong hands due to having worked a lifetime. But clicking (especially double clicking) never came easy to him. His Navi did, however (after a stumbling start as you mentioned). I did show my grandfather the iPad ads on my Macbook and he instantly liked the idea. I'm sure yours will, too. I would be glad to hear about his impressions when the time comes^
- brc 16y ago
  Well it's my Dad, not my Grandfather, but, well, he is a grandfather and he is in his '70s. ;) The guy can still drive a 3 inch nail in with 3 hits of his hammer but has real trouble with the end of his finger, of which the last 1/4 inch is missing, courtesy of a saw blade. He also has trouble grasping a mouse due to tendon damage in his right hand caused by a nylon rope, a flooded creek and a rescue attempt - well, you get the picture. Old guys who have worked hard have the money to spend, and the interest, but just aren't a use-case for product designers. I've long argued that a phone company who brings out a simple, affordable phone with a long-lasting battery, large buttons, easy to read simple screen and ear-shatteringly loud ringers would clean up the seniors market.

0_o 16y ago

I wonder what my future grandson can teach me (50 years later).

zweben 16y ago
If everything goes well, he won't have to teach you much at all. That's the exciting thing about the direction the iPad is bringing computing; it's very capable, but at the same time, there's not that much to learn.