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Submitted by Jeffrey on Wed, 2010-12-08 11:26
A recent report from research firm IDC states that shipments of mobile devices (tablets and smaller) will overtake PC shipments within 18 months. While many are speculating the end of the PC era, I see a more important shift in the making. As mobile devices come to dominate, the small form-factor of screen and input will alter how information is presented and manipulated.
Our current design model assumes a reader is sitting at a computer screen. They can see large swaths of screen. They are click-averse; most prefer to read, view, or listen with minimal interaction. However, they are very prone to multi-tasking. Most users leave many windows open and switch to other tasks at will.
How will a smart phone or tablet change this model? Are web designers preparing for this bifurcation of presentation fast enough? Eventually, the mobile experience will come to dominate information presentation, and advertising.
Entertainment is also splitting out of the standard PC interface, in a different direction. How are mixed content sites handling that change?
Reading this article made me think about my own skill sets. I don't have a home entertainment system, though I have finally begun to experiment with them. I don't have a smart phone or tablet. Am I missing the boat? I don't have enough experience with these interfaces to sense the future. That bothers me more than not having the latest and greatest gadget.
2 comments
Sounds like it's time to buy an iPad, so that I can play angry birds on it ;)
I've always been at least somewhat hesitant to claim the end of the PC era. In my line of work, I spend more time designing and creating information than I do consuming it, and the idea of creating information in such a small format is onerous at best. I simply can't work effectively on such a reduced screen space.
What will interest me is the shift in the development of small format consumables. I find that many of my colleagues still fail to recognize what is fast becoming a dominant (if not "the" dominant) form of information consumption. Where color, graphics, and ease of access were several of the hallmarks of the past, it seems that those are being replaced by simplicity, speed, and rate of consumption. Twitter, in particular, highlights that shift. There is nothing flashy and "right" about Twitter when it comes to standard information development prractices; however, it is a growing and increasingly relevant tool for many people because information is instantenous and, perhaps most important, non-interrupting.
Current designs for broadcasting information assume an attentive audience, but as you pointed out, we never really were much of that. With these small-format devices, we become increasingly less so in that we almost expect the quantity of information to match the size of the device while still conveying equal meaning. Twitter fills a unique niche of the instantenous information that can come and go with only a minor interruption to our lives.
The Microsoft Phone 7 commercials are capitalizing on that shift, by the way. I forget the exact tagline, but the purpose of those commercials is "freeing you from your phone." In other words, stop letting the information get in the way of being informed.