28 January 2010
Quick analysis of Apple iPad’s User Interface
Today Apple unveiled the much rumored iTablet called iPad. The abilities of the device (or lack of) have already caused lots of conversation out there. I naturally decided to concentrate just on user interface of the device. So, how does the Apple’s new toy go around the bends? I’ve made a quick analysis via Engadget’s hands-on video, and the pictures I’ve seen since the launch. The pictures in the article are also from that same video.
Now, granted, I do not have an iPhone here and do not possess the greatest of memories, so some of this stuff might have been already on current version of iPhone OS but, nevertheless, I’m addressing the issues still.
The Groundwork
The iPad is running new version of iPhone OS, version 3.2, so for iPhone owner the basic UI should be rather simplistic experience: few desktops, side by side, full of icons and few “permanent” icons down at the tray. Tap any icon and the application launches, simple as apple pie. Since it has no multitasking, the application handling is also as easy as it gets – There simply is no such thing. You’re either in or out from the application.
The Basics
The basic navigation within applications is simple enough – if you drill down within an application (think of artist -> songs) by tapping the top left corner of the screen, the OS always takes you back one level, to the state where you were earlier. Simple enough. This is the basics of tried and true iPhone OS. However, it’s after this foundation where the things start to get hairier.
Consistency
What caught my attention first (since I was “watching” the unveiling via Engadget feed) was the lack of consistency in the UI. Something that has traditionally been the cornerstone of Apple UIs.
For example, there is no unified look and feel throughout the OS, nor there is unified control structures. Some applications have control structures at left side, some at right side and some taking the whole screen – And these even have subtypes with different structures and look & feel. What’s worse, it even seems to break gestures, giving different results for same gestures, in different situations.
Applications
iBooks has visual representation of a bookshelf, with graphic heavy look. Books presented in a grid, desktop-like. Book is accessed by tapping it.
It even brings completely new look and feel to the OS wide controls: The “back” button is almost a simple text link at the almost left-top corner of the screen. The top bar is hidden by default and can be accessed by through double-tapping the book.
Keynote has control structures at the left side, with greyish background.
Presentations are presented as a list of big “icons”. When presentation is running, extra tools are accessed by swipe upward, the left-side control structure for slides is accessed by pinch-in gesture. Even the guy presenting the tablet failed to get out from the presentation, thus home button was eventually pressed.
Youtube application has white background, videos presented in grid.
Video view has extra info at the bottom and in landscape mode has control structures at right side. Full screen is engaged by tapping the video, then tapping full screen button. Full screen mode is exited by pinch-in gesture.
Little Things
Also, one thing that hit my eye was that even as it’s a full hands-on device, the applications aren’t using gestures to the maximum, like in iTunes, where one can only scroll the “new content” list by tiny buttons. Which makes me wonder, if such obvious gesture is missing, how many problems like this there are? Specially if you take into consideration the already unearthed problems with gestures.
Extra Feature: Snappiness
And finally, usability wise, what I see doesn’t seem to be that snappy at all. Just by looking from Engadget’s hands-on video, it looks like that iTunes already takes around 6 seconds to load. Same results with Youtube. There are even considerable lags between views or even the simplest of actions, like sliding six items to left (in iTunes), out from the view. In overall, there seems to be lags everywhere in the OS, and in some cases it’s really hampering the usability; like the case when Joshua taps the “next” button in iTunes – nothing happens for a while and he’s just about to tap again when things start happening.
The Verdict
All of this could lead one to believe that the developers haven’t had design guide laying around, to read from, which would be kinda weird. It would be specially weird for Apple product, since it traditionally has been quite strict with it’s design guides – thus having great consistency across solutions. So, whatever is going on, it seems something has broken during the process.
All in all, the user interface of the iPad is somewhat unimpressive; it has some promise to be quite well polished and allaround good UI but it’s just not there. It has the basics, where it seems to drop the ball is the execution higher up. Which specially is a pity since personally I was expecting something far more exiting and even groundbreaking. Currently, it seems like it’s just a polished version of something like HPs Touchsmart custom UI, running on top of an any OS. The applications themselves don’t seem like they would be part of the unified solution, rather than just random applications. In the end, one just have to look the Engadget hands-on video, and see how, even the guy presenting the iPad seems to be at loss about how to actually use the device. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not the mark of an intuitive user interface.
