A computer revolution through a child's eyes
I have proof from an expert that the iPhone interface really is better. Who's the expert? My 3-year-old son.
Over the years, I've seen countless newbies struggle to use the latest gadget, computer, or software. I like new technology, but it's been work hauling myself up learning curves.
But I'm convinced that after years stuck with only modest tweaks to the WIMP interface--windows, icons, menus, pointing device--real change is upon us. That's chiefly because the pointing devices now can be your own fingers.
Levi types random words on the iPhone's notepad application.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)Within moments of his first crack at an iPhone, my son, Levi, had figured out how to flip from one photo to another by flicking his finger across the screen. He understood with no coaching how to steer the simulated steel ball around the holes in the Labyrinth game by tilting the phone. He loves to type nonsense words on the notepad application using the virtual keyboard, deleting them once they've been read. In the three months since I got the iPhone 3G, Levi has learned to take photos, browse them, change the phone's wallpaper, and, unfortunately, turn off Wi-Fi and switch on airplane mode.
My proudest moment came when Levi issued his first tweet, borrowing my account: "Eesfrrgjlphdvlksxnjjktwsdvnjmmkbvvnn." Though it was largely a matter of chance, of course, he could do it because he likes the cute bluebird icon of the Twitterific application, and touching it with his finger triggers entertaining interactions.
And I was intrigued when Levi tried unsuccessfully to use the phone's accelerometer to play JellyCar, trying to spur the car by tipping the iPhone so the car would "roll" downhill faster. Note to JellyCar developers: your user interface needs work.
Levi's first tweet
(Credit: CNET News)As a parent, of course, it's tempting to assume that Levi's accomplishments are the result of his astounding intelligence. But of course much of the credit has to go to Apple and others who've advanced the state of the interface art.
"Human beings are a lot more programmed to manipulate things with our hands and fingers," said Dan Saffer, a founder of Kicker Studio and author of Designing Gestural Interfaces. "I was at a party with a Microsoft Surface table. There was an infant playing with it, not even a year old, pushing photos around and squealing. It's amazing how much it makes sophisticated computing power accessible to a hugely wide segment of the population."
Keyboards and mice aren't being replaced--they offer speed and precision for typing words, entering data, navigating documents, and issuing commands. But they are becoming just one of a host of mechanisms.
Touch screens, available on some Hewlett-Packard computers, are a big part of the revolution, letting people interact more directly rather than relying on a mouse, joystick, or other indirect pointing device. Multitouch sensors, which can detect multiple fingers simultaneously, add more sophistication, such as the ability to shrink a photo by making a pinching gesture on a trackpad. Newer Apple laptops offer more extensive use of multitouch, though at this stage only through the trackpad rather than a touch screen.
Levi took this picture of his feet with my iPhone while he was sitting in his car seat.
(Credit: Levi)Computing devices also are getting ears and eyes. Speech recognition is available in rough form to power phone search on various phones with services from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, and Vlingo. FluidTunes lets you control your iTunes library by waving your hands in front of a Mac's video camera.
Intuitive, physical interfaces aren't just for kids. I was stunned to see my technophobic mother-in-law gleefully bowling with a Wii last year. Sure, she couldn't have installed Nintendo's still-popular gaming device if we'd paid her, but using it was as easy as tossing a pebble in a pond.
"There are Wii bowling tournaments now for elders. It takes a sport they love, but there's no weight of the ball anymore. They can play it in a wheelchair. It's a huge hit at nursing homes," Saffer said.
It's not just that devices are easier to use when you can touch the interface, he said. It's that it's easier to learn by watching others use them.
"One interesting thing about touch screens is there's this whole realm of observation you don't have with standard computer setups, where the icons are smaller, and it's hard to tell what people are doing by watching," he said. "You can learn how to use an iPhone by watching people flip through it for a second. You can get it in a way you can't with a standard phone, where you're watching people push buttons to get through menus."
Of course, immersion helps, too. Levi's parents spend altogether too much time punching at keyboards and staring at screens, so he's got plenty of examples to emulate his elders. As a camera buff, I'm delighted when Levi pretends to take pictures--he made a toy camera out of Lego once.
A view of Microsoft's Surface device at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel shows a list of entertainment options for hotel guests.
(Credit: Stefanie Olsen/CNET News)But I vacillate between pleasure that he's learning how to use technology and fear that he'll grow up ignorant of the non-electronic world. I'm prone to inordinate "screen time," a term heavily freighted with negative baggage in our household, and Levi's childhood will be far more digitally immersed than mine.
And perhaps worse, there's the prospect of losing my status as resident guru. There are plenty of more technically proficient people in my orbit, but none of them live in my house, and Levi doesn't ask any of them to read his typed nonsense words.
Most families come to some sort of reckoning when their son beats their dad in basketball. Ours will come when my wife asks Levi for technical support.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
His favorite toddles games are First Words and Pre-School Adventures. He also likes to manipulate photos using Scribble. It is, by far, his favorite toy. In fact, it seems like Daddy only gets to use his ITouch when his son is in bed.
This incredible ease of use is certainly a testament to Apple and Steve Jobs.
Her favorite games being Warsong Gulch and Eye of the storm since she is capturing or guarding the flag.
Last year was the big one for her when she was able to remeber and type in her user name and password on her own.
Secondly....one WoW player to (I'm assuming another) why you let her play so much?
By the way: surface computing?? Lame in 99% of applications that we have out there today (not apps but physical applications, i.e.: uses).
I am also pretty sick of PC users that knock Apple because its a computer for "kids and stupid people that can use a computer". Last I checked computers were supposed to be EASY TO USE. I don't want to have to have an A+ certification to get my PC to work the way it was advertised to work. Maybe you all feel smarter by having to hammer away in the command line or tweaking .ini files to get your stuff to work, but I don't. I'm not sure what parent in their right mind would sit their kids in front a PC and tell them to have at it.
Why? Because they work, are easy to understand and run all the software kids use which, of course, is the important part.
Which is not to say Macs aren't good machines because they are, but better than good quality OEM Windows PCs? Nah.
The attorneys at my firm are adopting Macs, and iPhones at a higher rate in recent years. Also other professionals like Doctors, and Scientists prefer the Apple interface and functionality because they already have PHd's and don't want to have to modify THIER behavior to suit the computer - the counterintuitive and outdated interface of the bulk Windows products.
Why not? if the kid really likes technology and they are good with it why not let them play around with it? there are alot of careers in the computing world if you know what your doing, and you can make alot of cash doing it...
US were using Macs. MS in one instance, got a shot at the education market with a--shall I call it duplicitous?--
tactic. Slapped with a some $600 million penalty under Anti-Trust, MS offered (and an obliging administration
accepted) to pay the fine by giving away their PC software to educational institutions! I think that's one
of the reasons how American youngsters were roped in to become PC users.
I'm a fairly decent user of both Windows XP and Mac OS 10.4, but I use the Mac when I can (which at this point is for everything I do except Access training). The reason is simple: I can be more productive. That's what it's all about.
Linux+Windows+Hackintosh triple boot on a home made desktop ($600 and puts $1200 computers to shame at gaming)
As to the original comment I would remind everyone that the posters views on productivity are his own and I'm sure many others would say they are more productive on Windows.
I feel computing is a personal choice.....and I long for the days PC no longer means IBM Clone/Windows but means Personal Computer once again.
I think you missed the point. Think about how long that took to set up. Im guessing more than 5 hours. (setting up triboots takes time along with researching hardware that each os will play nice with.) Also how did you do that for $600 again? A basic version of windows costs $300, and mac osx costs about $120. That means that means you spent $180 on the hardware or are you admitting to pirating too.
(ps this is me commenting from my newly set up triboot macbook for testing my cross platform apps and yes it was expensive and time consuming.)
Still need to teach them to build a PC from commodity parts and then have them install Debian GNU/Linux on it to build a server, but after that they'll be all set!
Building a comoputer from commodity parts will soon be a thing of the past as parts become completey and truely common user replaceable, like batteries. No longer a skill. Actually it hasn't been for some time. More of a hobby.
Keep it SIMPLE. Not "dumb", SIMPLE. Otherwise know as Intuitive.
More broadly, though, I think it's important to be able to use technology, not just work with basic principles. My programming courses didn't amount to much in the real world, though I think the ability to think like a computer has its place for getting along with technology, but reading tips and tricks sites for my various interests can be highly useful.
The whole paradigm shift that technology should adapt to human interaction and not the other way around is significant. Whenever microsoft surface becomes affordable i am pretty sure even a 1 year old could be doing all the cool things on it !
your kid will be reading at a first grade level on their 3rd birthday.
Also for people who think that mac is better then PC and vice versa. I would say that for work a mac is best. When I say work I mean in the traditional sense and with all the media that you have on a computer the mac is also good at that. I think the PC is better for play. Now I would say that my mac book is slower then my same price gateway laptop and I use the gateway much more. Its faster, has a larger display, a better keyboard, and I own it so I have admin access. My mac is a loaner from my school I have to give it back at the end of the year. Did I mention that my gateway plays games? Boy does it play games. I would also say that macs are better for schools just not the old ones. Just my thoughts.
I suggest you check your history. The "Internet" was quite alive and well in 1992 when you were born. In fact I was running a computer BBS (you may want to look that up as well) in the mid-1980's and had internet email via my BBS at that time. A full 7 years before you were born.
The internet was alive all through the 1980's and the internet as we know it started in the 1970's. Granted, not a lot of people had access to it in the 1970's, but it was there.
Apple "gets" the interface and the meaning of accessability.
Microsoft and the legion mediocre programmers who create programs of the same approach (add as many "features" (clutter) as you can, and maybe normal people can figure it out) don''t have a clue and as a result many people have been put off by using computers (my father) or think they themselves are "dumb" or at fault because they can't "figure out" what to do when confronted with horrible interface design.
Its not THEIR fault! It has set computing BACK YEARS.
BTW, how _hard_ should it be for a person to "learn" the interface? Shouldn't the interface be self-evident?? Natural? Intuitive?
The computer should adapt to USERS, not users begin forced to name files without special characters - that's not natural, that's a geek's perspective, not "the rest of us".
This article IS about Interface design, and the accessability it brings (versus poor accessibility by bad interface design and the problems it creates)
The whole environment, in which the kids are growing how digital our life is, it's just natural for them, I did not use a computer until I was like 10 or 12, my kids are growing with 2 laptops, 1 desktop and a bunch of mobile and gaming devices around them and for them that's how the things are...
Why is it even on CNET NEWS? Maybe as an obscure article at the bottom somewhere, but top billing? And for several days at that.
Ooooo, my child can use a piece of tech...oooo. Here's some news for you, tech has been around since the 80s, and tykes have been playing around with it and learning to use it ever since it's been available.
Man, the quality of news stories has really gone down hill since they started letting any old blogger write them instead of sticking with journalists. I also see lots of journalists get lazy and lower the quality of their work to that of a blogger.
Also, your comment implies -- falsely -- that all news articles in the pre-blogging era were of higher quality than any blog post is now. That's patently and provably false, of course, nor can the decline in journalistic standards which began decades ago be blamed on the still-new phenomenon of blogging. It's true that many bloggers, even professional ones paid to write for commercial sites, can't be bothered with basic grammar or spellcheck (and some even boast that they post without even giving their words a once-over first) ...but that's beside the point.
In fact, all of that is beside the point.
If you look at the top of this page, you'll see it's clearly labeled a blog post.
Yes, Apple and Nintendo "get it" better than Microsoft and Sony. They understand that it's not just a software or hardware question, it's the way they work together to make the user experience. And their products sell way today because they get it. But they are not the only companies driving new and much more human and intuitive ways of accessing and manipulating information. Now think five years down the road. What does universal accessibility look like then? What could creative people, including the very young, old, paralyzed, blind, non tech savvy, etc. do with technology?
- by vmlenigma January 5, 2009 12:42 AM PST
- I can't believe we are having the same discussion on Mac Vs. PC again, there are those of us that buy Benz and others that buy Hyundai, I chose my Benz because I like the Safety and Engineering that is built around it, and its pretty much trouble free, Yes I could of bought a less expensive vehicle but I like Reliable and well put together vs cheap.
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- by the-Jack January 22, 2009 9:44 AM PST
- Higher price doesn't necessarily mean a higher-quality product. Kia manufactures surprisingly durable cars considering their low price relative to other automakers; Jaguars, on the other hand, seem to be engineered so that most of their major systems will fail after a few years, which makes them popular to own only among those who can either afford to treat vehicles as disposable commodities or who are willing to bear the sometimes greater expense of having to restore a newer car as if it were an antique. (I haven't owned a Jag myself, though I appreciate their lines, but I have this on good authority from several friends who have owned them, as well as a mechanic.)
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (43 Comments)With any type of product, some of what's available on the market will be of higher quality and some lower. Dell got into trouble a few years ago for knowingly selling laptop computers whose power cords were likely to fail in ways that created a serious fire hazard -- they'd marketed themselves as affordable but were really mid-market. Even within the Mac / Apple stable, there are some products which are far more reliable than others.
It behooves anyone looking to make any substantial purchase to consider carefully what their needs are (top-of-the-line graphics cards aren't very useful to blind users, for example) and also to check both industry and user reviews before buying something that looks perfect from them based on the manufacturer's -- or retailer's -- sales pitch.