Music Meets Book
17 01 2011As a parent – I’m always interested in ways that children can get more engaged with learning about everything. Touch screens like those used by the iPad are clearly of interest and as a music fan I liked this one. The featured app here is a curated history of jazz that costs $US9.95.
It offers more content that most books on Jazz and a much richer experience with different video and other content all collated together. That also means that content can be updated online within the limits of technology and pricing models.
One aspect of the application that I like is the keyboard style navigation at the bottom of the screen. The keyboard “look” is an interactive timeline.
It is great to see application designers rethinking the intersection of reading, listening, touching, looking.
The UX designer calls this a collision of media.
“I look at a lot of iPad apps and there are very few that get to a really great interface. http://www.955dreams.com/ History of Jazz’ app is one of those examples. Really nice all the way around. What did it take? I sit down with the team to learn more. Their app is currently rated five stars and is high on the best selling list.” (35 mins)
What is also very interesting about this video is the discussion around the design process and especially about how to bring a concept to life for the iPad.
Here is what the application looks like on an iPad.
Jason – Thanks you, a great post and an equally good video.
My RSS reading this week is telling me that iPad magazine readership is going down after the initial 2010 enthusiasm. I presume these are magazines which are more about print to tablet (eg Wired), rather than having real reinvention for the tablet mode of use. So your post is also timely.
Thanks Noric,
Yes this is the second or 3rd wave where content creators think more about how having a touch interface will change interactions. My 9 yr old was extremely keen on getting an iPad when it came out. She uses the iPod Touch and is very much a primary visual spatial thinker -so ideal but I resisted. Like everyone can see the potential but iPad as a large iTouch is not really progress until s/w is reinvented.
However as for most of these appliances I have been waiting for at least version 3 of the hardware & the change in content (beyond the obvious gaming etc.) to progress.
I’d guess that the next version of the iPad will move ahead again but we will see many more touch screens out there from the PC & Windows world.
With all of the software we have on Mac & PC there is much to learn – and now with touch screens about to explode (iPad is only tip of iceberg) into mass markets there is a real chance that other developers will