iJealous

Green with envy, red with passion.

Here are my impressions after using a colleague’s new iPad for a few minutes:

• It is heavier than I expected, but in a good way; it has a heft and substance that make it feel like a quality product.
• It is extremely responsive, spritely. Applications launched quickly, scrolling across the desktop felt breezy, and other interactions had little if any lag.
• While I didn’t try thumb typing, the keyboard felt easier to user than I’d expected. I think it would be great if users could scale the keyboard to fit their hand size.
• The display is vivid and bright, and the surface does, in fact, seem to prevent fingerprints (as promised).
• Native apps (those designed for the larger screen) have a wide variety of very interesting UI techniques that would be impossible to replicate on a laptop or smartphone, so expect many new user interaction schemes to abound.
• iPhone apps that haven’t been ported over aren’t as unattractive as I’d expected, and if viewed at normal size (not enlarged) feel just fine, not as small as some had suggested.
• Jason Snell commented that holding a website in your hands felt kind of amazing. I didn’t know what he meant until I opened some sites. Instead of peering into them like you do on a smart phone, you actually do feel like you’re holding the Internet, which is kind of a cool sensation.
• Visiting this blog and seeing the empty blocks where Flash elements (videos, etc.) should be was disheartening. I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that there was no icon suggesting the experience was broken. I’m sure from a marketing perspective it makes the experience feel less incomplete, but from a usability perspective, this omission fails to give the user any clue that they are missing what might be a vital part of the experience.

As you might know from reading my earlier posts, I’ve gone from skeptical to excited about the iPad. Now that I’ve held and used one, I’m officially jealous of those who have one.

And this is what I think Apple is hoping for: talking about the iPad is one thing, but I truly believe that once most people hold one, they will want one. This is the reason for Apple’s success: they create products that market themselves.