This is a fascinating video and one which anyone designing interfaces should look at very carefully. The fact that it is a child makes it even more interesting. She provides a blank slate, and a fair representation of a ‘new user’ in general, with all the expectations and ‘not wanting to look stupid’ taken away.
It’s really interesting that you can tell that she has obviously used an iphone before, as she has learnt some of the key user interface ‘rules’. It would seem very important the that these should not be broken, or altered in anyway across touch devices that will inevitably flood the market over the coming years.
I wonder whether future tablets will therefore be ‘forced’, through momentum, to implement Apple’s touch controls so that we can build up a standard set of conventions as exist in GUIs now (such as the close action always being at the top right of a ‘window’).
The most striking thing is how much more natural this type of interaction is. There’s so much less abstraction when you can interact directly through the screen without a physical ‘proxy’ such as a mouse.
Recently when I lost my iPhone, not only was I surprised at what an idiot i was, but also, how going back to an old phone with buttons and a ‘joystick’ just felt so incredibly frustrating. it’s like being in a foreign country and not being fluent in their language. You know what you want to say, but can’t express it.
