Content May Be King, But It Isn’t The Only Player
Valerie Sellers, NSI Partners, with
David Nunez and W. Aaron Waychof, Dino Interactive Studios
We closed last month’s newsletter with a reminder of Marshall McLuhan’s famous dictum, “The medium is the message.” Having recently worked with the talented owners of Dino Interactive Studios to help a client develop an iPad application, we’ve taken to heart McLuhan’s observation, and have begun exploring the impact of this new medium on marketing interactions.
There’s been a lot of discussion about the iPad bridging the gap between a smartphone and a laptop (or netbook). Speculation abounds regarding whether the iPad’s popularity demonstrates that it fills an important technological gap, or merely confirms our addiction to new gadgets. In an interesting conversation at LinkedIn among marketing and sales executives regarding the iPad’s future in B2B sales, comments range from “Just another device to deliver content,” to “The game changer is [that] the interface will drive software development.”
The latter comment points us back to McLuhan’s message about the medium, and a recognition that nothing is ever “just content”: the iPad interface offers the opportunity to change how we interact with the information presented. As experience with the device builds, it becomes increasingly clear that the iPad can bridge gaps between “impersonal” and “intimate,” and between “personal” and “social.”
Restoring the Intimacy of Interaction
Consider a frequent objection to eReaders: “Won’t you miss curling up with a real book in your lap? It just wouldn’t be the same!” Underlying such resistance is the keen intuition that though content may be king, it isn’t the only factor: changing the medium changes familiar tactile and kinesthetic aspects of the experience.
As more content moves from print to the screen, a certain physical relationship is lost. It’s not just eReader-resistors — many online-information consumers sense that loss of intimate connection to the content they’re reading and viewing.
Now comes the iPad. As a device you cradle with one hand, while manipulating images or text with the other, it brings back the tactile qualities of a more-intimate interaction with content.
David Nunez and Aaron Waychoff of Dino Interactive Studios are exploiting this tactile iPad experience as they build an iPad app for a company that manufactures skis and snowboards. The two are designing an interface that will allow potential buyers to engage more completely with the winter-sports products — letting them use their own hands to zoom in to check out details, and to flip and spin the snowboards to see their lines from any vantage point.
To get a sense of how this differs from a typical online presentation, think of the car-buying experience: imagine spinning a car with your fingers; zooming in and out of images by pinching or stretching your fingers open or closed; placing your finger on a virtual door handle and opening it with a simple flick; zooming to the interior and running your fingers over virtual leather seats, then reaching up to slide open the sunroof. Such a tactile experience engages the viewer more completely with the product, not just the medium.
Computer Platforms: From Personal to Social
The technology revolution at the end of the 20th century made computers personal; the revolution underway now is making computing social. On the software front the revolution is well underway, with multiple platforms for social interaction. On the hardware front, however, devices are still personal.
As Chris Curran of CIO Dashboard notes, the iPad is poised to expand personal computing into a more social experience: “Interactive design is the iPad’s killer app.” Noting that games are already available for the iPad using dual input or split screen design, Curran observes, “The iPad screen real estate seems to be large enough to handle multiple hands at the same time, without covering it.”
Other features of the iPad also contribute to making it more social. The flat (versus clamshell) design makes it easier to position for group viewing. Low weight, long battery life and the availability of always-on internet connectivity help “untether” the iPad, making it easy to share with a group. These same features also untether a primary user, making it possible to venture forth from a trade show booth and roam the floor, fully equipped with everything needed for product demonstrations or information capture.
Medium Matters
Our initial foray into iPad development involved producing an app for a national trade association’s use at an industry trade show. Modeled after The Gap’s catalog application, Dino Interactive Studios worked with NSI to design an app that allows viewers to scroll through a seemingly infinite variety of products. Touching a product icon pops up a larger image with more information, or a video. After an initial presentation that “wowed” key executives, our client informed us that “they all wanted to touch it and play with” the iPad.
Watching people interact with iPads, David Nunez is reminded of a glowing campfire, with people gathering around and telling stories while chatting about what they are viewing. This sense of the inherent sociability of the iPad seems to describe the adoption of the tradeshow app by our client association.
Those who think the iPad is a passing craze, an in-between technology with no lasting impact, seem to be looking simply at what information is relayed and find it has little to offer that can’t be found on other devices. What is more important, though, is how the user interacts with the information. If app designers fully exploit the unique features the iPad offers, then this key differentiator will ensure a growing niche for the product.