Jigsaw Junior — an iPad App for Kids

I wanted to share with you a little side project I've recently completed with a good friend. Jigsaw Junior for iPad (iTunes link) is a kid's jigsaw puzzle app we've just released — read more at the official Jigsaw Junior site here.

Definitely got a 'laundry list' of things to improve, so I'd love to hear your feedback to fill in the gaps.

Multitouch Art, Sand to Silicon

My Dad sent me this video today. Apparently it's been doing the rounds since 2009 but I'd not seen it. The video is from the TV show Ukraine's Got talent and contains eight and a half minutes of astounding 'sand animation' by Kseniya Simonova.

Take a little break and watch the performance of 'The Great Patriotic War' here. Link to large size video, which I recommend. 8:30 long.

There are three exceptional things about this video. One — it's great art — enthralling performance, emotional themes, beautiful imagery. Secondly, the performance itself is technically amazing, yet, apparently the artist has only been doing this for one year. Finally, all of this is being achieved with some plain sand on a flat (backlit) surface. The tools for art don't get much simpler.

And yet…this is exactly the type of real-time, subtle, organic, sensual and fast art I always imagine computers could be capable of. Unlike many swooshy multitouch demos, this is not art for art's sake, instead the animation covers very human topics; one of every four people in the region died in WWII's Eastern Front. And she's using every last creative aspect of sand, from brushing, to finger and palm painting, throwing sand and scraping with the edge of her palm.

Two Hands are Better Than One

So this is how great it can be with some sand. How about some silicon? Matt Gemmell wrote a great piece on iPad application design I enjoyed. On the topic of the iPad's large, multitouch area, he writes…

The important point is that there are other, more obvious ways to accomplish these things; the two-handed input features are conveniences and power-user features. They’re useful and time-saving and possibly discoverable, but they’re not the only way to accomplish those tasks. We’re only just beginning to come to terms with the possibilities of dual-handed input; essential functionality shouldn’t require it yet.

You can see in the video that Kseniya rarely uses two hands. My stopwatch recorded only 1:15 minutes of two-handed use in the eight-and-a-half minute performance. That is, she only uses two hands simultaneously in this performance — 15% of the time. When she does, it's to do something quickly like clear an area. She also seems to use two hands when she's wants to draw symetrically, like the hair at 3:43.

 The matter is not that simple though. Many times she switches hands in the performance because she wants to draw on the far left (she appears right-handed) or because she wants a particular shape, or needs to approach from a particular side. 

Sometimes she switches for speed, and artistic effect; alternating left and right throws.

 

Just the Tip(s) of the Iceberg

I love this video because of the richness in the interaction. It's an encyclopaedia of gestures, from a single finger-painting, to multi-finger dabbing, parallel lines with thumbs and middle-inger. French-curve arcs with a palm, broading erasing strokes with the whole hand and intricate air-brush effects with sand released from above. I agree with Matt: we are at the beginning of this whole wonderful adventure. I'm going to keep Kseniya performance in mind as something to strive for. This is a great interface. 

Apple Trademarked "Multi-Touch"

Apple's press release announcing iPad availability contains the following:

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience…

That's Multi-Touch (TM). I'm amazed it's possible to trademark that.

Anyone Serious about Software…

I love Omni's commitment to iPad software design by making their own hardware prototypes. To paraphrase Alan Kay:

People who are really serious about software mockups should make their own hardware mockups.

Daddy, What's a Mouse?

"Daddy, what's a mouse?"

"It's something that we used to point at objects on a computer screen"

"Just one thing at a time?"

"Yes honey."

"Wow! But how did you do this?"

[She resizes a square with two fingers and then touches the others to propagate the change]

"Well…in the past it was different. First you need to select all the objects you were interested in, by clicking in a space nearby, then dragging an imaginary rubber band around them all. If they weren't next to one another, then you needed to hold down Command on the keyboard while you clicked on each one. Then you would adjust the size of them with a separate control panel at the side of the screen. Or you might size one how you want, then press Command+C to copy, then Command+V to paste the squares…… are you listening?"

"No, sorry Daddy, that's all too technical for me. I don't know how you remembered all that in the old days!"

In the future, our children will all use rich multi-touch devices. They will look at the mouse & keyboard combination in the same way we today look at the Command Line Interface.