Monday
Jan312011
Experience Management
SteveI had my first and only hands-on iPad experience yesterday, and it was unquestioningly crappy.
The scene - I was in the Delta departure area at JFK airport in New York City, with an hour or so to kill before my flight. Near the gate was a small seating area with tables and benches, with mini-walls or partitions in which were embedded Apple iPads. The idea being travelers could access information and services (check flight status, weather, news, order a club sandwich and a Toblerone, etc.) using the iPad screen.
Better than an iPad?
Really a neat idea, right? Information and services a mere touch screen away, and using the hottest tech device to come on the scene in years.
So what happened when I tried my hand at this wondrous device (again, while I have seen and heard about the iPad ad nauseam, I had never actually tried one out).
It was an altogether unsatisfying experience. The device was exceedingly slow. Many of the apps did not respond at all. The ones that did, (news, weather) seemed to hang endlessly waiting for the information to refresh. And quite honestly, flight status was readily available on the ‘normal’ airport monitors, and I could look outside to check out the weather.
The one and only thing that I really wanted to do, check my email, lead me into a hard sell for some kind of recurring deal for Boingo internet access. And one other thing, the sun was glaring in at such an angle that it made the iPad screens really tough to read, not that it really had much information anyway.
No big deal really, the airport is just trying to offer a new service, generate some additional revenue, and mounting iPads in the waiting area is probably a good idea. And on another day, without the technical issues, the sun, and my general crabbiness I might have left there and marched straight to the Apple store to buy myself the iPad.
But instead, I was left with a less than favorable experience. Who is at fault? Hard to know. But it feels like Apple, JFK, Delta, and Boingo all sort of conspired to deliver the suck. It is great for Apple to sell a bunch of iPads to Delta or whomever owns them, but I wonder if they care at all if their ‘coolest in the world device’ is being used to deliver such a lousy service message and experience.
I guess the question is once you ship a product, design a service, or otherwise offer your concepts and ideas to the market, how much do you need to care about how your work gets presented by third parties to the eventual consumers of your efforts? I imagine it depends on what you are really selling, just a product, or an entire experience that your product enables, and the extent to which you can and desire to manage those end user experiences.
I am sure the iPad is a fantastically wonderful life-altering device, my mistake was expecting an airport to deliver the experience the way Apple designed it to be delivered.
The scene - I was in the Delta departure area at JFK airport in New York City, with an hour or so to kill before my flight. Near the gate was a small seating area with tables and benches, with mini-walls or partitions in which were embedded Apple iPads. The idea being travelers could access information and services (check flight status, weather, news, order a club sandwich and a Toblerone, etc.) using the iPad screen.
Better than an iPad?Really a neat idea, right? Information and services a mere touch screen away, and using the hottest tech device to come on the scene in years.
So what happened when I tried my hand at this wondrous device (again, while I have seen and heard about the iPad ad nauseam, I had never actually tried one out).
It was an altogether unsatisfying experience. The device was exceedingly slow. Many of the apps did not respond at all. The ones that did, (news, weather) seemed to hang endlessly waiting for the information to refresh. And quite honestly, flight status was readily available on the ‘normal’ airport monitors, and I could look outside to check out the weather.
The one and only thing that I really wanted to do, check my email, lead me into a hard sell for some kind of recurring deal for Boingo internet access. And one other thing, the sun was glaring in at such an angle that it made the iPad screens really tough to read, not that it really had much information anyway.
No big deal really, the airport is just trying to offer a new service, generate some additional revenue, and mounting iPads in the waiting area is probably a good idea. And on another day, without the technical issues, the sun, and my general crabbiness I might have left there and marched straight to the Apple store to buy myself the iPad.
But instead, I was left with a less than favorable experience. Who is at fault? Hard to know. But it feels like Apple, JFK, Delta, and Boingo all sort of conspired to deliver the suck. It is great for Apple to sell a bunch of iPads to Delta or whomever owns them, but I wonder if they care at all if their ‘coolest in the world device’ is being used to deliver such a lousy service message and experience.
I guess the question is once you ship a product, design a service, or otherwise offer your concepts and ideas to the market, how much do you need to care about how your work gets presented by third parties to the eventual consumers of your efforts? I imagine it depends on what you are really selling, just a product, or an entire experience that your product enables, and the extent to which you can and desire to manage those end user experiences.
I am sure the iPad is a fantastically wonderful life-altering device, my mistake was expecting an airport to deliver the experience the way Apple designed it to be delivered.
Reader Comments (6)
Before Mike Krupa jumps down your throat, Steve, let me applaud you for iPad bashing. Jason Averbook, CEO of Knowledge Infusion, thwarted my well-known reputation for late technology adoption by giving me one for Christmas (along with all his employees, at what I assume was a bulk deal price on a discontinued model).
Fact is the sucker does no more than an iPod Touch, which I bought my beloved Nancy for Xmas. Except, yes, the screen is way bigger. But all the apps are the same. She immediately downloaded a movie to the iPad and loved watching it. It is HD and a pretty amazing picture.
I have seen that Delta area at JFK, and frankly, they screwed the pooch by not offering free WiFi with it: Thus the come-ons for buying Boingo. A conceptual failure. They didn't think they were offering a real workstation but instead were thinking about your ordering food from the restaurant and having it delivered to your station (like an old drive-in speakerbox and carhop).
Shows how much you have to change your metaphors for new technology. And not use a TV like a radio.
Thanks very much Bill - in fact when I was writing this post, I thought about the old style mini-jukeboxes that used to be mounted in diner booths. That is what the iPad reminded me of in that terminal. No kidding, offer up even a limited amount of wifi, 30 free minutes or so to get people a taste of how convenient it is, then go for the hard sell.
Thanks again for dropping in.
Wow you guys are real crumudgens today-I have my ereader, writepad, newspaper, twitter, facebook, work email, gmail, google, all when needed while traveling in a cool aqua leather case I might add- all in one device on the go-- used to have to carry a lot around, now, just a purse
Steve, Steve, Steve. Bill, Bill, Bill. I'd like to jump down your throat but I can't. I actually agree with you to a point. Sounds like the Delta iPad seating area was a Hot Mess. I'm guessing a big part of the problem was the Boingo service. My iPad is exceedingly fast, all my apps respond and almost never hang up waiting for information to refresh. I'm pretty sure Debbie Brown would agree with me on this.
However, when I first got my iPad I did think it was just a big iPod Touch. When the iPads first came out there were very few apps written to take advantage of the iPad. Now however there are some really amazing iPad only apps out there. My experience with the iPad was similar to Twitter. At the beginning you are not sure of the value of it but the more you use it and the longer you use it, the more value you see in it. While in those cramped coach seats I can watch a movie, write a blog post, read a book or play a game on my iPad. I can use it as a remote control for iTunes, Apple TV or Comcast cable box. The iPad only social media applications such as Flipboard, Friendly and Twitter for iPad blow the doors off of the desktop apps due to ingenious use of touch commands. The latest news reader applications give you that immersive touch experience that just can't be had on a desktop or laptop computer.
So Steve, the next time we see each other, let me give you test drive of an iPad that might change your mind.
Bill - Call me if you want some iPad App recommendations to help you see the value of the device.
@Debbie - I know, all of a sudden I am old and crabby :)
@Mike - I really did not mean to knock the iPad per se, but just to think about how the delivery of the iPad 'experience' was so sub-standard that it clouded my ability to judge, and left me thinking 'what's the big deal?'. But I do think that the millions of iPad owners know what they are talking about. I guess I did not do a good enough job in making the observation more clear. But at some level, I do feel like a brave holdout, as being one of the few people that has never owned an Apple device.
When is that BlackBerry PlayBook coming out again?
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