The Renaissance Born in a Playground
A recent post on Daring Fireball, the popular website of Apple enthusiast John Gruber, made me think. Gruber sees the ubiquitous iPhone Twitter client as a "UI Playground". A place of adventure where, due to the simple nature of Twitter and well known feature set, developers can get creative and really think about how they can make a difference. Stamp their mark. Show off their chops.
I think it goes further than this. Much further.
In fact, iOS itself is the playground. This might fly in the face of the so called anti-skeumorphic brigade, the self proclaimed expert designers mired in yesterday's desktop* thoughts of a standard computer system user interface. The thought pattern is that smartphones & tablets are computers. Computers run programs. Ergo, once the user (eventually) understands the way to use this powerful computer then everything falls into place.
These folk believe that because we are in fact interacting with a computer system everything on it should feel like a computer system. There is a single divine way in which mere humans must interact with these marvels of technology. This is no place for emotion. It must be standardised else people may forget they are using this sophisticated piece of magnificence.
I think there is a problem with this thought process. A big problem. It comes from a desktop mentality where the world is the computer. Within this world, applications co-exist side by side in a multi windowed environment driven by strict relatively inflexible instruments such as a keyboard and mouse.
Mobile however requires a different way of thinking. Step one to redemption is to get up from the desk. Then look at the world and ask if everything is driven with a common world interaction interface? No. You see, mobile devices aren't just used at a desk. They are carried into the world that exists away from a desk. They are carried into your life. You don't interact with the mobile device, it becomes a part of you.
Perhaps these type of people would have a common colour scheme on everything around us. How dare a notepad be anything other than white. Why does that calendar have a photo on it? Why is that lounge suite not grey velour? Why does your Aston Martin have hand stitched leather?
It is very much a case of web designers and desktop specialists trying to dictate their experiences on mobile. Having spent the past 19 years working with mobile and also having great success in the pre iPhone era, I was constantly surrounded by news of other failed mobile projects, I can tell you that a key reason for failure was the use of desktop principles and design. One size fits all might work at a desk, but not so well away from one.
The beauty of iOS devices is that the device becomes the app. The device fades into the background and morphs into a new gadget. It is the ultimate creative canvas. Developers can forget about the device. They create a brilliant new electronic 'thing' that can be magically delivered into the hands of people everywhere. They aren't creating computer programs. They are creating wondrous new life gadgets.
Ever wondered why the most creative developers are so enamoured with iOS? It's because they aren't constrained. It is their playground and nothing gets in the way of the creative flow.
Compare, for example to Windows Phone. Guess what? It's a beautiful slick computer user interface. In one way, that is a great strength. However, it is also possibly the biggest weakness. It is mired in yesterday's idea of the computer system interface. With Windows Phone, there is no creative canvas. This isn't a playground. It is a colour by numbers and join the dots book. It is no place to create works of art of your own. This is about as appealing to the creative developer as Playstation Singstar to an indy rock band.
Android has been quite a success. However, you need to consider what type of success. There's two distinct camps at either end of the technology appreciation society. The 'budget Smartphone' buyer that believes they are purchasing something like an iPhone but for much less money. They aren't exactly sure what an iPhone does, but they have a feeling that they need something like one. These are today's budget feature phone buyers. At the polar opposite is the tinkerer. These people are more interested in viewing their clock speed in a floating widget than viewing a Swiss Railway clock. They would rather monitor CPU temperature than outdoor temperature. To them, the little computer is the main act. They don't want it to morph away. It is everything. There's nothing wrong with this per se, but it's not for everyone.
So, for Android, from a creative playground perspective, the audience isn't as clear cut. Add to this, the enormous spectrum of devices and form factors, and design is either forced to lowest common denominator or, a duplication of work in order to ensure spectrum compatibility. These are two of the things that creative designers hate. Limitation or duplication.
Of course, if a blockbuster iPhone application really takes off, it will likely generate enough interest from users of other platforms to provide the financial incentive for a port. The creative designers have little interest in doing this, because, quite frankly it is as boring as batshit. They've already run around in their perfect playground doing this, and want to do something challenging and new. This has given rise to specialist firms that just do ports. It's drudge work, but currently very lucrative indeed. It's no playground though.
All of the above also applies to the tablet market. Perhaps more so. This however is really the subject of another post. Let's just say that having worked extensively with tablets in the 90s, I know why they never took off. Microsoft and Android are currently frantically rolling out "innovations" that were a lot of the reasons tablets failed in the past. Sometimes history can be your friend, but I guess you had to be there.
So there you have it. We are in a period of wonderful innovation in mobile application software. I will argue that the reason for this is iOS. Apple created a compelling playground for creative designers. A rich OS that doesn't get in the way. Devices that have both uniformity, immense audience and unparalleled reliability. A development platform that is rich and, from a UI perspective quite remarkable. A distribution mechanism that could only previously be dreamt about. This all adds up to something more than the sum of its parts. It liberates creative developers and lets them simply create.
A renaissance born in a playground.
* Desktop refers to WIMP desktop based operating systems which run on both desktop and notebook computers.
titsay
izzy806
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
areudirty
prguitarman