Designing Interactions: From the Desk to the Palm

Chapter Summary

• Do not aspire to replicate the old medium,take advantage of the new one.
• Metaphors are especially useful at the beginning, but can be eliminated with time.
• Simplicity is necessary at the beginning, but complexity can be added with time, as long as it is done well.
  
• Try things early.
  
• Know the market. Know when to copy (i.e. PC-compatible software), and when to break the mold.
• Know the users. Geeks are rarely it.
  
• A great demo can make your success.
• Speak the language of your contractors.
• Take risks.
• Interaction design is in the physical as well as the digital.
• People will go out on the line for an idea if they are excited about it.
• Understanding the brain helps to design for people.
• Set your design goals from the start.
• Modes = bad.
• Learning from an unsuccessful product can be valuable in itself.
• A company must continue to invest in R&D to keep its staff.
  

Designing the laptop and the palm pilot was about shrinking the computer so that you can take it with you.

Alan Kay

• Transformed by McLuhan's Understanding Media (1964) and the concept "the medium is the message". Nature of people to be reshaped by tools.
• Recognized as the father of the laptop.
• Wanted to design computer for kids but because of price-point is mostly known for Smalltalk and other software contributions.

Learning

What I hear, I forget.
What I say, I remember.
What I do, I understand.
- Lao Tse

• Designers know that creative work is more likely to succeed when they experiment before they try to understand.

Luggables

• Alan Kay could not get approval of his luggable to be manufactured by Xerox.
  
• Osborne, 1982, most famous luggable.
• Failed when did not bring an IBM-compatible machine in time to prevent bankruptcy.
• Compaq 2 brought the company into Fortune 500 by 1986.
• Dynalogic Hyperion released just before Compaq lost because it was not 100% PC compatible.
• GRiD Compass computer in 1982.

John Ellenby

• Worked on multiprocessor system for communications and process control while holding faculty position in CS Dept at University of Edinburgh.
• Signed up with Xerox to build the first 25 Altos, then to develop Denver.
• In 1977, was responsible for "Futures Day" a demo to show off the achievement of PARC research to top management.
• The demo was a success, but management continued to focus on document reproduction, causing an exodus from PARC.

Developing the First Laptop

• The conversation that 1st inspired John Ellenby was with a top executive who insisted that he needed a computer that could fit into half of his briefcase.
• This became the design brief for the GRiD Compass Computer.
• Had to start a company to do this.
• When trying to get a small modem, the company said they could not do it. But a person from the GRiD team and his counterpart from Racal Vadic, the vendor side, had a side conversation and made it happen.
  
• A Japanese guy named, Glen Fukuda, excited about the GRiD idea, arranged with Sharp to come and eventually make the screen necessary.
• Company founders carried bricks in their briefcases in order to determine the max allowed weight of laptop.
• GRiD launched in 1982 and was highly acclaimed.
• Asked Bill Gates to develop special version of MS-DOS for 2nd version of GRiD. The speed at which this was done saved the company.
  
• A Fire Attack game attracted an otherwise reluctant user-group.
• The interaction design advances for this computer were both physical and digital.

Jedd Hawkins

• Designing mobile computers and working on brain theory.
• Developed the first tablet PC, and GRiDpad and then found Palm Computing.
• Went on to found Handspring, and culminating in the Treo platform.

GRiD

• Started in marketing. Was challenged with selling a computer for $8,150 n 1982 to business executives who did not use computers.
  
• Left to study neuroscience graduate full time.
• In school, while getting interested in pattern recognition got the idea for a tablet PC and came back in 1988 to manage the GRiDpad.
• Important not to focus on the "paperness", but on the electronic or back-end. (Take advantage of the medium).
• In 1992, after building GRiDpad into a successful business, went on to work on GRiD Convertible - a laptop and tablet in one. Learned that people did not want this combination.

Bert Keely

• Wants to bring 'tablet mode' to personal computer - the ability to use it with one hand, while holding it with another.
• Engineering degree from Stanford.
• Has been the "architect of tablet PCs and mobility" at Microsoft since 1998.
• Wants people to recognize and appreciate the affordance of a tablet PC. Thinks with XP2, some users are there.
  

Displays

• Developed ClearType, a program that takes advantage of the red, green and blue subpixels,to smooth the fonts and create the best word shapes on the screen.
• Challenge of pen-based displays is to sense the location of the pen tip accurately.

Portability

• Stylus input must allow you to interact with your computer with only one hand.
• Should be handy way to carry all of your visual information (e.g. maps, photos, email).

Pen and Paper

• The design of the personal computer has outgrown its current metaphors.
• Believes that stylus will develop the same way - first simulating pen/paper then evolving unique characteristics.
• There needs to be immediate recognition of value for tablet over laptop.
• There are many different pen feels, making it difficult to think about how a should stylus feel.
• Believes it is faster to use stylus instead of a keyboard before you are doing many more things at the same time - writing, pointing, editing etc.

Palm Computing (Jeff Hawkins)

• Jeff Hawkins believed that the future of portable computers was smaller devices that appealed to consumers.
• Founded a startup.
• Start by writing software for other PDA's.
• Frustrated by the limitation of the other devices, he designed his own.

Design Criteria For the PalmPilot

• Size: fit into a shirt pocket.
• Price: $299, so that consumers can afford it. Very high at the time.
• Synchronization w/ desktop computer. Other devices had it as an add-on, but since everyone needs it, he put it in the device.
• Speed: design goal of no wait cursors.
• These 4 criteria solved a lot of problems prevalent on other personal computers and PDAs.

Graffiti

• Handwriting recognition was hard to reach.
• Decided that people don't mind learning a new tool as long as it helps them perform the task. Pride themselves on learning as long as the tool is consistent, learnable, has a good model and it's reliable.
• Helped to understand how the brain works. It likes consistency.

Rob Haitani

• Insists on putting people first.
• Worked at Palm.
• Went on to lead Interaction Design for Handspring.
• Understand what really matters before you act.
  

Interaction Design for Palm OS

• Rob led the team towards simplicity and pushed back against excessive features.
• Tested the idea with fake device mock-ups.
• Consumers liked data syncing but did not care for email (1995). Consumers did not like the same things as the geeks building the device.
• Rob and the team designed with 4 guidelines:
  1. Less is more
  2. Avoid adding features
  3. Strive for fewer steps
  4. Simplicity is better than complexity.

The "Zen of Palm"

• This philosophy emphasized the speedy access of the most frequently used features. Top features directly on the screen and then others in a menu. No modes.
• First understand the customer, the prioritize ruthlessly.

The Palm Product Line

• At the big demo launch, projector failed. Jeff talked about the demo instead, so that even when time was up, audience insisted on seeing it on the fixed projector.
• Microsoft became angry and both companies exchanged law suits over product naming.
• Microsoft also added a lot more features, but Jeff did not believe that it added much value.
• To compete, Palm hired IDEO to design the hardware case to be beautiful, as Microsoft did not build hardware.

Dennis Boyle

• From a family of scietists, engineers and designers.
• Studied Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering.
• Takes a new prototype with him to any meeting.
• His collection of interesting products has inspired the "Tech Box". A combination of parts and materials library, database and Web site, which is available at all major IDEO offices.

Palm V

• Linked the PalmPilot because it was smaller than the existing Newton.
• Goal was to build slimmer device to attract women and to make it easier to fit in pocket.
• Something that was elegant and did not broadcast that it was a piece of technology.
• Used the makes of Canon to build the metal case.
• Added rails on the sides so that people could easily attach add-ons.

Handspring

• Palm was sold to US Robots, which was then sold to 3Com for its modem business. Even though model business was almost worthless and Palm was worth quite a bit, 3Com did not invest in its expansion.
• Jeff, Rod and others left when it was clear that Palm would not be spun out. They founded Handspring.
• Jeff wanted to build a wireless device, but thought it would fail, so the team decided to make a slot that could accommodate anything.
• Lots of people made add-ons, and lots of PDAs sold, but the add-ons themselves did not sell.
• It was a learning process about different radios.

eyemodule

• Continued to use IDEO.
• A camera that could be plugged into the slot. As soon as it's in,the device would go into camera mode. No button pressed required.
• Useful to demonstrate the versatility of the slot.

Combining PDA and Cell Phone

• When 1st developing the PDA, the technology was too prohibitive to made a good phone on a good PDA. Five year later, this could be done.
• Highlight features: Type 3 or 4 letters to find a contact name, use speaker phone with organizer, turn off ringer while in pocket, QWERTY
• People don't mind doing more things as long as it is done well.