Rise of the App/Book

If you've been using the iPad at all you have probably seen The Elements by TouchPress a new company focused on creating interactive non-fiction books for the iPad.  The writing in this App/Book is superb, the graphics are beautiful, and the UI is tolerable.  

What makes The Elements and other App/Books so interesting is that we consider them books at all.  App/Books are in fact a new category of entertainment; a combination of book and software application that leverages the best of both mediums.

An App/Book is interactive, it can have sound, video, animations. It is more like a random access film than a book in some ways. You watch or listen or interact with any part of the book at any time. Actually, that's not even a good enough description. An App/Book is potentially more than an application, a book, or a film.

Another App/Book that has enjoyed a lot of success is Alice for the iPad, a very simple but interactive version of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland with colorized versions of illustrations by John Tenniel. The book is simply put, beautiful.  The idea that you can take original illustrations and un-copyrighted material and create a new presentation for it its really exciting.

Another book I really like is iDante, the beautifully illustrated version of Dante's Divine Comedy. It's an excellent reading experience and far more interesting than the text alone.

In addition to App/Books that are informative or based on classic works there is the new Comic Book readers.  I enjoyed reading a couple of comics - something I haven't done in a while - using the Marvel Comic Book reader. The experience is completely different from reading a dead-tree edition - not better or worse but different and exciting.  

And finally there are App/Books for children.  My favorites are the Dr. Seuss titles being produced by Oceanhouse Media. These are beautiful, narrated books with an image flow that is simply enchanting. Disney has gotten into the game as well with releases of of App/Books about each of the Toy Story movies and DreamWorks came out with How to Train Your Dragon for the iPad.

What's interesting is that even these titles, while excellent, are really only scratching the surface.  As I announced earlier today I'm working on a Sherlock Holmes HD title that I hope will push the envelope a little father with animations, sound effects, and other things.  It's a fascinating time to be creating content right now. I don't think we've seen this big of a change since the Web went mainstream in the mid 1990's.

Sherlock Holmes HD

I've been working on an Apple iPad book version of one of the Sherlock Holmes adventures for a couple of weeks. I'm so excited about it that I just couldn't wait to share the concept and my plans for development.

Right now I'm developing the story boards for the book, Sherlock Holmes HD, and doing research on facts and trivia I plan to make available with the book.

This isn't going to be a plain old text reproduction, its going to be an App/Book in every sense and I hope it will delight the current Sherlock Holmes fans as well as introduce Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories to a whole new generation!

For over a 120 years Doyle's Sherlock Holmes mysteries have delighted readers all over the world. It's not an exaggeration to say that Sherlock Holmes is one of the best know literary characters in history.  As I study the nuances of Doyle's stories I'm struck by the depth of planning that must have gone into each one.  They are literary masterpieces and a heck of a lot of fun to read!

My objective is take Doyle's stories and bring all the power of the iPad to make them that much more interesting to new readers and old alike.  Stayed tuned as I begin to blog about the process by which I'm developing this App/Book. I may even create a dedicated blog to the process and to what I hope is the first of many titles.

I'm Available for Hire

I just finished work on a large iPad project where I lead of team of between 2 and 7 for three months. I'm looking for the next project.

If  anyone is looking for an experienced iPhone and iPad designer and developer and is willing to hire a telecommuting contractor, than I'm your man. Just reach out to me via email monsonhaefel [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

I've developed iPad and iPhone applications for commercial business including Boston Scientific and Safari Books Online. I've developed Microsoft Surface applications for Best Buy, and Java EE applications for various clients in the Minneapolis area and abroad.

I wrote three books on Java EE, one book on software architecture, and I was an industry analyst for Burton Group (now part of Gartner) for four years.  I've been working professionally in IT for 16 years.  Here's my Linked-In profile. Resume available on request.

Design, Design, Design.

Folks in the real-estate business have a mantra, "Location, Location, Location."  The iPad application development industry should have a similar mantra, "Design, Design, Design."  Design is everything in the development of iPad applications.

Creating well designed iPad applications is not simple. It's not something you are going to get from an OmniGraph template or by using the generic look and feel of controls in Cocoa Touch.  In my experience, iPad applications have three design aspects which are equally important: Aesthetics,  Interaction, and User Experience.

Aesthetics Design
When I talk about aesthetics I'm talking about the visual elements of the design. The colors, the shapes, the fonts, the overall theme.  With all do respect to the Cocoa engineers, you can't get great aesthetics using the generic look and feel of controls that come pre-packaged with the iOS SDK.  You have to combine the well engineered Cocoa Touch controls with custom art work and sometimes you have to design your own controls from scratch.  And its not just the controls that need attention, its also the transitional animations, the sounds, and use of screen-space.

Interaction Design
Interaction design, what people also call UI design,  is the second part of the design equation - to some its the only part that matters but I don't agree with that.  Your application can look visually stunning, but if its difficult to execute a task or to discover how to do different tasks, than forget it.  The beauty is only skin deep.  There are entire books written on this subject alone.

User Experience Design
Finally there is User Experience.  While the term "user experience" is becoming pretty overloaded let me set the stage for how I see its role in relation to aesthetics and interaction design.  In terms of design, user experience is everything that's not directly addressed by aesthetic and interaction. So, for example, the precision with which the application is targeted at an appropriate market is part of the user experience design.  The ease with which the iPad application can be downloaded, its price, and support for the application are also a part of user experience.

In subsequent blog posts I hope to hang a little meat on these design hooks by showing how well known application approached them and where they might have been improved.

The iPad as a First Class Channel

One of the problems I see with folks who are attempting to create iPad applications for existing services is that they are treating the iPad as a second class citizen in their portfolio of channels.  What I mean is, instead of thinking of the iPad as a primary means by which some existing and many new customers will user their services they are simply trying to use the iPad to supplement their existing channels.  This is a really bad idea and it results in really horrible implementations.

As an example, look at the launch of GQ magazine for the iPad compared to Wired.  It's been widely reported on May 17th that GQ had sold only 365 copies of the iPad version of their December edition.  At the same time Wired magazine reported that they sold 24,000 copies in the first 24 hours after the iPad version of their magazine hit the App store. Why was Wired so wildly successful while GQ was such a flop?  It has to do with the way they approached their iPad channels.

Wired treated the iPad channel as a first class citizen. It didn't put out an edition that was three months out of date. It put out the most recent edition on the iPad. Further, if you use the Wired iPad magazine, you'll soon discover that it takes greater advantage of the iPad experience than does GQ. Wired includes lots of video, quizzes, and other interactions that work extremely well on, and appear to be designed specifically for, the iPad.  GQ, on the other hand, did little more than slap the images from their magazine into the iPad. Where the experience of using the Wired iPad application is fun and fulfilling, GQ's experience makes you wish you were reading the dead-tree edition.

I see the same thing happening all over the place. As I speak with folks about moving their content to the iPad I'm careful to feel out the client's priority for the iPad channel.  When a client tells me that, "We want to move our Web site to the iPad" I know there is going to be a misalignment.  You can't move the web site to the iPad - the experience a user expects to have on the iPad is totally different.  If all you want to do is make you web site look good on the iPad, than do nothing. It already does ( Unless you use a lot of Flash ).

What is interesting is that I saw exactly the same thing happen when the Web was first gaining ground with companies in the early 1990's.  Most companies treated their web sites as brochures intended to usher customers to their traditional material channels. Many still do.  An excellent example of this was the sites first offered by Barns & Nobel which was simply a corporate brochure. They completely missed the idea that the web could be used as a first class channel on par with their brick-and-mortar channel.  Amazon.com demonstrated that this was a big mistake and today B&N, once the 800lbs Gorilla in publishing, is small compared to Amazon.com.

The iPad isn't another smart phone either. Just because you have your content available on Blackberrys doesn't mean that your mobile experience will simply transfer to the iPad.  In fact, the idea that you need to hire a company that specializes in mobile applications to create your iPad experience is misplaced. The fact is no-one has a leg up on the competition. The web design companies are no more prepared for the iPad then are the mobile application companies.  The iPad isn't just another platform to target for your mobile application - its a completely different experience.

What I'm saying now isn't totally obvious to the vast majority of companies that are thinking about the iPad as a possible channel for their business.  That's too bad. As we saw with the Web some folks are going to make it and some are going to fail.  Wired got it right. GQ got it wrong.  The publishers, retailers, medical software companies, digital libraries, game companies, video streaming companies, and companies in every other industry are in for a very rude awakening when they find out that their great web site dosn't seem to be working on the iPad. That's because it's not.

The iPad is not just another view of the web. It's not just another mobile device. It's an entirely new platform for personal computing.  If you want to succeed with the iPad and grow your customer base, you have to understand that before you begin thinking of anything else.  The iPad is as important and distinct of a channel for customers as is brick-and-mortar, mail, television, and the Web.

I, Diviner

Note: This post has been modified to express the new, new direction I'm taking which is focused on the business of iPad development and design.

For a long time this blog has been about multi-touch & NUI design and development in general. It's a topic I'm still passionate about, but truth be told I'm focused almost exclusively now on the greatest multi-touch platform that has ever existed, the iPad.  So, why not call a duck a duck. Welcome to The iPad Entrepreneur.


This first article on The iPad Entrepreneur is about one of the roles I feel that is very important to the success of any iPad venture, and that's the Diviner. I'm a Diviner and I can point to others who definitely fall into that category even if they would never use the term "Diviner"  The first two people who come to mind are Ken Krutsch who is one of the best UX Designers I've met and a crack coder not to mention a great business strategist. Another is Josh Blake.

Diviner is a new term being used to describe User Experience Designers who can code and Coders who can design for the User Experience. The gap between UX Designers and Developers in terms of perspective and skills is significant. There is a real need for folks who understand both disciplines.  No one is going to be great at both but some of us are pretty adept at one and very skilled in the other. I'm a developer by trade who has a keen sense of design.  Here is a video interview with Microsoft's own Diviner, Shane Morris. He's a designer who can code and he provides the best explanation for Diviners that I've heard yet.

While I'm a developer by trade, talking about bits and bytes in a blog makes for pretty dull reading and writing, so this blog will mostly focus on design. However, I don't think any designer worth their salt can create good practical designs unless they understand the capabilities and limitations of the software and hardware platform to which they are designing. Show me a designer who doesn't understand the technical limitations of the target platform and I'll show you someone who is wasting your money.

That said, I can't stress enough how important design is to the success of a product. Not only does it have to look good, it has to feel good. That's really hard to do.  A couple companies that have mastered this are Apple and Braun.  Apple you already know about. Braun you should know about.  What these companies have in common - besides the fact that they both manufacture incredible consumer products - is that they understand that the user experience is easily 50% of the solution. The other 50% is engineering. They both make awesome products that feel great and last forever. I have proof. My electric razor, which is a Braun, finally died last year.  I've been using it since 1986. It's still beautiful - as electric razors go - and it worked great for 24 years. That's quality. And it has made me loyal to Braun.

So if you've been following this blog for its NUI coverage than you'll be happy to know that iPad is really the best NUI platform today. It's real. People use it. You'll have an audience for your NUI designs. If you've never heard of NUI but your interested in iPad and iPhone design, than this is a blog that will be worth bookmarking.  I'm going to explore the many dimensions of the iOS in terms of design and what is possible given the capabilities and limitations of the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.  Welcome to my blog. I am an iOS Diviner.