Friday, May 13, 2011

Wanna compete with Apple? Stop copying the iPad.

The iPad is nice, but--at least for me--it never feels like that smooth and beautiful experience I see on the TV commercials.  It's hard to use it without wishing for improvements.  How about:
  • Add hierarchical or other better means of organizing apps, instead of having them all on pages and pages
  • Let there be different user accounts for email and selections of favorite apps.  I don't need security between them, but a quick way to say which user you are and then see a different set of app screens and books and email accounts would be useful.  Even if a single user wants to organize himself into several virtual users--e.g. My Business Self, My Fiction Self, My Art Self, My Fashion Self...
  • Include a stylus.  It's really hard to do fine-detail drawing or pointing (e.g. selecting that space between letters to fix a typo) without one.
  • How about a shape that's easier to grasp?
  • How about a tablet that comes with the protective cover?
  • Do some usability studies.  See what confuses people in the interface.
  • Improve touch-typing on the screen.  

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