iPad + Accessories = Touch-Screen MacBook. Sort of.
Of all of the functionality accessories available for the iPad external keyboards and stands seem to be getting the most action. Cases are the hottest items overall because vanity runs strong in human nature. But keyboards and stands are designed to functionally enhance the device.
Then there’s the ZAGGmate which combines a case, keyboard, and stand into one. But what I’m noticing is that these integrated stands and keyboards are really just pressuring the iPad into becoming a touch-screen MacBook.
I whole heartedly agree that typing long (or even moderate) passages is cumbersome on an iPad. It’s not set up for extended typing because its flat and the keyboard shares the same visual plane as its screen. But it wasn’t designed to be a portable-computer replacement. It’s a completely different device, intended to be used in a very different way. And that got me thinking.
We seem to make assumptions about how people will use products we design. Websites, books, stereos, mobile devices…everything. Yet when people actually use what we create, the results are often contradictory to their intended use. People find ways to adapt products to suit their own, unique, personal needs. They find usability in ways that supersede our expectations.
As a web designer, this is something very important to consider. It’s information I will use to better the interfaces I create for people. And it’s something to be considered by anyone working to concept, design, or build things for people to interact with.
