Probably the single biggest question about the iPad is: who or what is it for? Common answers to that question are usually directed towards casual computer users, where indeed the iPad has a significant potential market. But I’m not a casual user; I’m a developer. I want to share a few thoughts about what iPad means to me, and how I’ll be using it.
As a software engineer, I not only spend the bulk of my working life using a computer, but I also probably spend more of my leisure time in front of one too. What interests me is how iPad can fit into and enhance both of those situations. Let’s deal with them individually.
Work
Before there can be code, there should be design. Features and specifications, requirements, use cases, mockups, architectures and so forth. It’s incredibly difficult to meaningfully create those things when sat in front of a computer. There’s a tyranny of the machine that seems to interfere with big-picture thought; an invisible force-field relentlessly dragging your mind down to the specific.
In this profession, it’s critical to have a break-out area where you can think without the computer looking over your shoulder; where you can do your most valuable work without the siren song of an IDE. For the same reason that getting up and even walking to the bathroom can provide new perspective on a heretofore intractable problem, it’s in your own best professional interests to do as much of your work as possible before you handcuff yourself to your desk each day.
iPad understands this. The very form-factor of the device subtly discourages you from using it extensively at your desk; it’s more comfortable on the couch or in the armchair. It wants you to be somewhere that your mind is clear.
My new desk, for as much of the day as possible.
Focus and perspective are our bread and butter. We have to think carefully about problems in multiple fields in the course of a standard workday, and poor quality of thought invariably leads to disproportionately significant repercussions later. There’s almost no limit to what I’ll pay to increase my focus and productivity without a corresponding increase in pain; iPad would be cheap at three times the price.
As much as possible, I plan to move architecture and UX design, UI sketching, feature decisions and such tasks to iPad, and away from my desk. It’s stress-reducing and it’s conducive to creative thought, and it helps me maintain a balance between time spent at my desk and the sort of work I can do whilst at least in Lauren’s company and in a more relaxing environment.
As an aside, iPad arguably fits uniquely well into the lifestyle of living the “indie dream”. It’s a support email-handling and ticket-managing machine, it’s great for quick UI sketches, you can use it for firefighting server admin tasks, and so on and so forth. You can do all those things at the coffee shop or in the park or out on the balcony or sitting in the car at the lake (or loch), without resorting to a laptop – which is just a smaller version of the same tyranny of the desktop.
Leisure
It’s not an exaggeration to say that iPad has transformed my leisure computing in just a few days. If I’m not actually coding, it’s now more likely that I’m on my iPad than on my Mac; four days ago I would have always been on the Mac.
The most significant realisation is that, for many day-to-day computing tasks, iPad is actually faster than the Mac. That’s not a statement of processing performance, of course – the opposite is true – but rather a testament to the iPhone OS’ UI design. For the most common cases (managing the last few hours’ worth of email, catching up on today’s tweets, having some IM conversations), the necessity of making the various apps’ UIs work on a touch-screen device has created a better, more focused and efficient average-case user experience than their desktop equivalents. I find myself using the iPad to perform certain tasks even when I’m at my desk.
As I remarked on Twitter last week, for me the potential of iPad is to decouple as many tasks as possible from my work environment – and to keep me away from that environment when I’m doing things that don’t actually require me to be there other than to use a computer.
I was always going to enjoy using this device, but I confess to not having been prepared for quite this sort of transformative experience. I truly wouldn’t want to be without it from now on, and (work notwithstanding) I’ll be making a concerted effort to use it as my sole travel/portable device whenever possible.
Of course, it’s one thing to say all this and quite another to walk the walk, but with iPad you truly do find that you’ve gone hours without using any other machine, without even realising it. Yesterday, for example, I had a long lie. I woke up and brewed some coffee, then whilst listening to music I checked my email and cleared my inbox. I moderated some comments, and wrote and published a blog post.
I caught up with my Twitter feed and wrote a few tweets. I made some notes about an application idea, and I looked up an address for a trip later in the day. I read the news and my RSS feeds, and quickly logged into my web server to perform some maintenance tasks. I had a brief chat with a friend online, then I made plans for lunch.
I did all these things, and I did them without difficulty or compromise, and without feeling I was constrained by the machine I was using.
I also did them without using my Mac.
As a developer aswell, I’m seeing the same pattern. I was just wondering what software you’re using for UX sketching on the iPad.
Thanks.
So what iPad apps did you download/buy are part of this new experience?
“without difficulty or compromise”
I would love to know what apps you are using. The hardware & OS is beautiful, but the apps are full of compromises that make some very simple tasks more difficult than the should be.
Give it multi tasking and 6-12 months 0f app releases and it should live up to it’s hype. Right now? I think not…
Mmm… wasn’t the whole point of the post that multitasking is a distraction?
Multitasking is an enormous distraction. I do not want it on my iPad.
Multitasking is already on the iPad. It’s just not (with some exceptions) pre-emptive multitasking.
It is already perfectly possible to flip between twitter, keynote, ibooks, kindle, safari, words with friends and a host of other apps. Most of these apps save state when you switch from them, giving the illusion of OS level multitasking – and from the user perspective, providing actual multitasking. The dev guidelines also make it clear that this is no coincidence but was actually Apple’s intention.
So this ‘lack of multitasking means I can’t get distracted’ argument is just bogus. The home button is never far away, and even if you manage to ignore that, a notification can and will pop over whatever you are doing, unless you disable them.
The only real difference between mac and ipad in this ‘no distractions’ respect is that everything is full screen by default (while only a few mac apps work like that, e.g. writeroom).
Thanks for the thoughts! I’m a developer too, and I was wondering if an iPad would be good for me. I think I’ll have to give it a try. I wonder if there are iPad lending services?
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m Win XP and 7 at work and Snow Leopard/Debian/Android at home. I’ve owned both the 2G and 3G versions of the iPhone and left the platform last June. But the iPad has quickly become my preferred interface for most things I use a computer for, email, Twitter, Calendaring, media consumption. For work, I’m not a Dev, I use the iPad for product brainstorming, presentation creation, note taking and reading.
My Macbook Air, 17″ MBP only get used when I need to RDP into work, or if I’m doing video or photo editing.
My Win 7 convertible net book hasn’t seen a single mile for 3 weeks.
And I can tell you from experience, you can travel with the iPad as your only non phone device safely.
Cheers
@ Joe
Spoken like someone who has never used the iPad. This article rings quite true with my experience so far.
@Brock
I picked up an iPad April 5th and have been using it and developing for it ever since.
I said “without difficulty or compromise” and asked which apps were being used.
There are a lot of ‘compromises’ in the apps I use.
Matt mentioned answering e-mails, IM, Twitter and sketching.
In my experience, I’ve found that E-mail is fine.
I’ve found that Twitter is much better on the iPhone with Tweetie than with Twitterific or TweetDeck on iPad.
I only IM through Skype, which is a waste of time on the iPad as it is the iPhone version and you can’t multi-task and leave yourself online.
Safari is another story. Although the browsing experience is second to none, the lack of flash leaves me reaching for my laptop. Downloading PDF’s etc is easier with GoodReader but there is still a copy/paste exercise which is ‘difficult’.
RSS isn’t up to scratch with the readers I’ve tried.
I live in Spain and have a Spanish iTunes account, so although I’ve been able to download iBooks, I can’t buy any. Nor can I buy iWork, so I’m still waiting for that.
I’ve spent more money on Apps for my iPad than I have in the past 12 months for my iPhone. To be honest, while they have potential, a lot of them have been developed without an iPad and I’ve found them to be buggy with little thought put into the UX, screen size and how you hold the device.
Matt makes some valid points, and although I enjoy using the device every day, I personally think it is still too early to use it ‘without difficulty or compromise’ in the way that Matt describes…
Joe,
I find Twitterrific fine for most of my tweeting needs. TweetDeck does a little more in certain areas, and either one is just fine. There’s also the web interface.
I use an app called IM+ for instant messaging, which supports MSN, AIM, Google Talk and a host of other protocols, including Skype. It also uses push notifications and does not sign you out when you quit the app.
Meebo on the iPhone, and even at 2x on the iPad is rather nice. I have a site specific browser on the iMac set up for Meebo. I move between chats and beetween platforms with great ease.
Nice post, Matt. I am wondering how the UX design on the iPad compares to the “traditional” Moleskin approach? What’s your experience so far?
> you can use it for firefighting server admin tasks
I don’t see this. What server admin tasks? What firefighting can be done without logs? There’s no ssh application and the app store is so walled there will never be one. Do you just mean visiting admin web pages and clicking submit? Or do you know something I don’t?
There have been several ssh apps available for both iPhone (for quite some time) and also iPad, which you can readily find on the App Store just by searching for “ssh”. The one I use is iSSH.
Also you can set up some sort of management machine with VNC behind your VPN. Then you can use the likes of iSSH and others to VNC into your management machine and get plenty done. The added benefit being that you disconnect and pick up where you left off.
What server admin tasks? What firefighting can be done without logs? There’s no ssh application and the app store is so walled there will never be one.
“there will never be one”?
WTF?
There have been several for years.
Do you just mean visiting admin web pages and clicking submit? Or do you know something I don’t?
He apparently does:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisdag/sets/72157623795494550/detail/
(esp: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisdag/4500164992/ )
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/issh-ssh-vnc-console/id287765826?mt=8
http://appshopper.com/utilities/winadmin-ipad-edition
http://www.infoworld.com/print/119441
http://antecea.com/products/desktop-connect.html
Yeah, there have been SSH apps for some time now. I’ve had an SSH app on my iPhone for well over a year now. I use it to check top on my server.
@Hjalti
I was wondering the same thing
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I agree. I agree, in fact, so much that I’ve just posted up a column I wrote for MacFormat some months back that says the same thing: http://macformat.techradar.com/blog/redefining-‘powerful’-03-05-10
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this is what i liked about stylus input, when it got started. keyboards are a mass-production peripheral; writing with your hand is a style of drawing.
i was so sad when the newton idea of embedding sketches in notes didn’t interest the imitators. ascii smilies are so 8-bit cold.
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