by TJ Cook - Feb 01
The question that HiDef exists to ask as a technology service provider is, “What role does technology play in great causes?” The announcement of Apple's iPad represents an important step forward for how great causes will fulfill their missions in the future. Let’s take a look at three ways the iPad and other well-designed tablet devices will help great causes achieve their missions better.
The iPad’s use in modern-day decision-making
Since the dawn of Starbucks until now, more and more decision-making processes are moving out of the bricks-and-mortar office into the ‘real’ world. The line between office and social space itself is getting blurred, and I see iPad as a natural progression of the phenomenon.
First, a slate device with a good viewing angle and adequate input functions will bring much of the resources of a boardroom to the café table. A slate device laid flat before all decision makers becomes a whiteboard and projector, an excellent way to get to a decision point quickly rather than typing into a laptop and spinning it around so others can see. Just last week I wanted to draw out an idea with our Creative Director Azin. Yes, we were in a coffee shop. The iPhone’s screen was too small and I didn’t have paper, and I wanted it captured electronically. A slate device would have helped in that situation.
Beyond the coffee shop, there are several use cases I can imagine where great causes will benefit from a fast, responsive slate device. Tents, mobile offices, and even the scene of a natural disaster out in the open air. A slate device that is light enough to hold for long periods and easy enough for two to four people to look at while everyone’s standing will make decision making in non-office environments clearer.
The iPad’s Use for Social Services and Education
Most organizations in social services or education sectors exist to connect people or otherwise service people's needs. The interaction often involves the use of a computer. Ironically, that computer is often the culprit in creating communication gaps and undue frustration. You can see the gap for the teacher who must sit behind a desk to take attendance rather than mark a sheet at the door. You can see it when a nurse must look away from a patient to input answers into a machine.
The iPad might be the device to break down these barriers.
I can visualize a nurse taking the iPad around the hospital with a dedicated medical app used to access patient records (oh for the day of paperless medical records!). It's all right there, always connected to records, events, and other centralized resources.
I can see more teachers getting out from behind the desk to take attendance and moving freely among students, doing everything from taking attendance to drawing on the iPad and having the drawing appear on the class’s Smartboard. Teachers have long been interested in technology that they can use while teaching rather than while sitting behind a desk. Many teachers who have invested the time in learning tablet interfaces and input conventions have achieved a certain level of success. However, mass adoption of tablet PC’s in the classroom has been stifled by cost, usability, and reliability.
While detractors of the iPad decry it as only a “single-tasking” device, we should note that these use cases beg for focus on a single task: taking attendance, engaging with a patient. Lack of multi-tasking is a boon to adoption, as one tap of an icon will lead professionals to a single interface to deal with the task at hand without the distraction of notifications from other apps.
The key for a device being used for social services and education is freedom of movement and thus better connections between those helping and those receiving help. Computers have closed many gaps in the way we collect information, but they’ve also built undue space between us in our interactions. I’m excited to see how the tablet paradigm could finally start to change the dynamic.
The iPad’s Use for Workers in the Field
Imagine a scenario in which an aide worker is sitting behind a desk taking information from a long line of people waiting to get treatment. The aide worker has a laptop sitting on a table and is four feet away from each person in the line. Now imagine no need for a table and aide workers being able to input and corroborate that input with folks in the line using a tablet device. Lines will move faster, better connections between workers and those they’re helping will be formed.
Many great causes have workers in the field capturing data where people are rather than asking folks to line up. The iPad makes tons of sense here. No need to go into a place and try to set up your laptop somewhere then get folks to huddle around it as your record their voice, get their feedback on something on the screen, or take down vital information. A smartphone also works by itself in many of these situations, but the iPad’s larger screen adds the social interaction element missing in a personal device.
The idea of more transparent technology in such situations is not new--yet the weak point in its adoption has always been the device: slow, unintuitive, and often buggy. The speed, ease, and stability of the iPad could be the tipping point for these types of scenarios. Finally there is a device that offers the ease of use and the responsiveness needed in high pressure queueing situations.
Look Before We Leap on the iPad
With all these benefits of the iPad, there are two important repercussions on the horizon that we must consider as a society moving into mass adoption of a touchscreen tablet device.
The iPad and the Environment
Image from Apple Keynote
In its unveiling the iPad was touted as a green device, but Grist and USA Today (and many others) have raised important points, but one I think is key for us to consider.
Apple is asking consumers to own three devices rather than two. Imagine all of us adopting yet another device in our personal arsenals as we tackle the day’s duties and entertainment. Now imagine the end-of-life cycles being added to with the increased consumption of electronics. Recyclability aside, manufacturing alone of three-devices-per-person rather than two-devices-per-person is an overwhelming thought.
Perhaps those who are truly concerned about behaving sustainably should hold out for a device that can replace our main desktops or laptops, not just supplement them.
The iPad and the Disabled
Brian, our User Experience (UX) designer here at HiDef, got me thinking about the implications of touchscreen-based devices with this comment: “...these touch based devices are starting to leave disabled people behind in some cases.”
The question made me think back to important discussions regarding the use of AJAX for Web 2.0 applications, and how quick adoption by web developers wasn’t accounting for the needs of those using screen readers and other accessibility aides.
Anyone who doesn’t have full use of his or her arms or hands will not be able to use a touch screen device to its fullest. Assuming touchscreen interactions make their way into all of our devices, we must account for those for whom touchscreen devices will detract from the experience rather than speed it up.
Good point, Brian.
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