Form Factors

Another big week in tech. Another explosion of announcements from the giants.

Apple drew first blood by coming out with a massive list of announcements: a fully redesigned iMac, new 13-inch retina Macbook, a surprising new retina iPad, and the star of the show, the iPad Mini. It's widely believed that Apple released the smaller tablet as a defensive move against price killer Nexus. Google is rumored to release an even cheaper tablet next week, so Apple put something close to that price range as a strategic hedge against tablets going small. Additionally, there's been a lot of talk about how Apple's tablet offerings fare now that Microsoft is releasing its hero product, the Surface. Aside from the half-baked OS, Microsoft's tablet got mixed reviews because of its awkward form factor. 

Meanwhile, the Ipad Mini is also receiving criticism online for its weird form factor, as it is wider than regular small tablets yet it compromises on screen size and quality. Personally though, I think the Ipad Mini has a perfect form factor simply because it makes the tablet experience even more intimate than before.The big issue underlying all this is the influence of interaction design. It seems like Apple banked on its interaction design expertise to become the biggest company in the world. It's becoming an increasingly central topic in consumer technology, and I will attempt to use the lens of interaction design to explore ideal form factors and interaction paradigms for each device class.

Why Android is the ideal phone system (WP is a close second)

Our phones are always-on, bring-everywhere devices. We use it when we need something fast and instant. We need it to push information to us, glanceable and bite-sized. There's less a need for a perfect user experience and more of a need to be fast, flexible, and personalized. Android offers this with the notification system, widgets, and customizations. Windows Phone offers this with Live Tiles. Looking past Apple's marketing gleam, the one-size-fits-all dictatorial approach of the Iphone doesn't really work for mobile phones.

Why IOS is the best system for tablets

For tablets, we need an activity-based system. When we use tablets, we usually have an intention to do something. This is where IOS excels, by presenting an activity-based system with the simplest setup of floating icons. Everything is so easy and straightforward. We don't care about customizing and adjusting settings. When using tablets, we don't want anything to get in the way between us and the activity we're doing. The experience has to be focused, immersive, and beautiful. Again, the Ipad excels in this front. The Ipad is a canvass for our intentions, and that's what makes it so magical.

Why Microsoft is wrong about converging tablet and desktop

The two have vastly different use cases. For a desktop system, we need compatibility and an easy way to multitask. We cannot have barriers in between apps just like we do with current tablet systems, where each app is its own walled garden. The icons are also greatly different, with productivity-based desktop systems requiring precise input while touch-based system should be friendly with our gestures. The glanceable system for Windows 8 works perfectly for mobile devices, but not so much for a desktop environment. Having updates all the time might release endorphins in brains like ours evolved to take pleasure in anything new, but ultimately it just proves to be distracting. I believe Apple's approach for asymptotic integration between desktop and tablet is the right approach, simply because they have vastly different use cases. Paraphrasing Steve Jobs, both a truck and a bicycle are used to travel, but they are used in completely different scenarios. I think the same goes for desktop and tablet.