Kids love the Mac Tablet: user testing a rumor
Julien, 25 août 2009
A Mac Tablet is still just a rumor at the time of writing this note. We know nothing of the plans, market potential and apps of such a platform.
But still, some people seriously doubt it will be a killer platform for games. “We needs buttons!” they say. “real, physical, haptic buttons”.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is the crazy group that had been advocating touch as a Natural User Interface.
For years, the NUI-oriented people tested things in labs and art exhibitions. Then the iPhone came, proving their researches were applicable to a consumer product — if done right. I can imagine they would love to develop new apps on a Mac Tablet.
And there is my — totally accidental — opinion on this. It goes like this :
How do I know that? Because I ran a little informal user test — with a kid and a tablet. Or, better said, Maxime, the kid in question, forced me to ran a little informal user test. Nephews are like that.
First, I did not choose the game: Maxime was introduced to Penguin Dinner by its younger cousin, on a public web access computer some days earlier. He wanted to play it — again, more. Yes, serving fast food to penguins is *that* addictive.
Penguin Dinner is a simple — simplistic? — restaurant management Flash game. It’s fun. It’s quick to master. It’s cartoonesque. Not hard to understand why kids love it.
At Maxime request, I downloaded the game, launched it full screen, folded my Asus T91 in tablet mode, then gave him the whole thing.
Instantly, I could see.
Yes, the gameplay of a very basic Flash game is enhanced by playing it with you finger. If you had the choice of playing Penguin Dinner with a mouse, or on a small tablet, you would be a really perverted geek choosing the mouse.
The game itself and the T91 touch panel are totally mono-touch, but you can see how Maxime point from time to time his fingers like a fork, waiting over 2 potential zones to tap next.
That forked-fingers waiting gesture in itself is a modification — an enhancement — in the gameplay.
What you can’t see in the video recording are the moments I briefly helped Maxime, by taping a zone he really needed to tap, but wasn’t paying attention to. I couldn’t stare at the screen doing nothing — I had to help him reach it’s target score for the level.
My interspersed taps are interesting because it’s a very simple form of collaborative gaming on a touch screen.
I was able to collaborate with Maxime on a mono-touch game/tablet combination only because Penguin Dinner allows the player to click several zone in advance. The avatar simply execute the commands in the order you clicked. I wasn’t really interrupting the game flow.
My conclusion for this on-the-field user test? A larger 8 to 10” sized, multi-touch game platform would open the way to a much more collaborative gameplay than what is possible on an iPhone today.
But still, some people seriously doubt it will be a killer platform for games. “We needs buttons!” they say. “real, physical, haptic buttons”.
At the other end of the spectrum, there is the crazy group that had been advocating touch as a Natural User Interface.
The fight for touch
For years, the NUI-oriented people tested things in labs and art exhibitions. Then the iPhone came, proving their researches were applicable to a consumer product — if done right. I can imagine they would love to develop new apps on a Mac Tablet.
And there is my — totally accidental — opinion on this. It goes like this :
Kids will love a small Mac Tablet with iPhone-like games. They will not stop playing on it, even in exchange of ice-cream.
How do I know that? Because I ran a little informal user test — with a kid and a tablet. Or, better said, Maxime, the kid in question, forced me to ran a little informal user test. Nephews are like that.
The user test I was forced to do
First, I did not choose the game: Maxime was introduced to Penguin Dinner by its younger cousin, on a public web access computer some days earlier. He wanted to play it — again, more. Yes, serving fast food to penguins is *that* addictive.
Penguin Dinner is a simple — simplistic? — restaurant management Flash game. It’s fun. It’s quick to master. It’s cartoonesque. Not hard to understand why kids love it.
At Maxime request, I downloaded the game, launched it full screen, folded my Asus T91 in tablet mode, then gave him the whole thing.
Instantly, I could see.
Yes, the gameplay of a very basic Flash game is enhanced by playing it with you finger. If you had the choice of playing Penguin Dinner with a mouse, or on a small tablet, you would be a really perverted geek choosing the mouse.
The fork and the collaborator, a tale
The game itself and the T91 touch panel are totally mono-touch, but you can see how Maxime point from time to time his fingers like a fork, waiting over 2 potential zones to tap next.
That forked-fingers waiting gesture in itself is a modification — an enhancement — in the gameplay.
What you can’t see in the video recording are the moments I briefly helped Maxime, by taping a zone he really needed to tap, but wasn’t paying attention to. I couldn’t stare at the screen doing nothing — I had to help him reach it’s target score for the level.
My interspersed taps are interesting because it’s a very simple form of collaborative gaming on a touch screen.
I was able to collaborate with Maxime on a mono-touch game/tablet combination only because Penguin Dinner allows the player to click several zone in advance. The avatar simply execute the commands in the order you clicked. I wasn’t really interrupting the game flow.