A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work

The YouTube video “A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work” keeps reappearing in my email box, sent by friends. It’s a great video using humor and a smart little kid to communicate a million truths about mobile and our times.

Just A Thought. There are four primary ways in which design for mobile is different from designing for the desktop:

– Navigation by sliding information from side to side and up and down (Finger sweep).
– Navigation by Zooming (in and out by pinching and opening hand).
– 100% 1:1 relationship between interactive footprint and screen real estate.
– Two limbs engaged instead of one (for the mouse on the PC).

Apple desktops are closing in though. The introduction of finger sweep in the Lion OS and the touch pad that supports that OS are challenging mobile’s hold on these interface features.

But while I love this video, I do have a fine point of disagreement with it. The video closes with the comment “Steve Jobs has coded a part of [my child’s] OS”. Au contraire. It is that Steve Jobs coded part of HER OS into the iPad.

I bet that the iPad reflects how ideas are floating around in her brain better than a printed magazine. The ideas and images in her head are large and then small. They move from side to side. They are everywhere all at once although only one may be in front of her now. So I don’t feel the shadow of fear under the author’s humorous comment. While I am sure there is a bundle of studies to show that technological interfaces (from MTV to iPads) are rewiring kids brains, I think the technology that rises is the technology we choose.