Hasta La Gadget!

Released April, Apple's iPad 2 is faster and skinnier than its predecessor. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

One year after the iPad’s release, third-party apps have improved dramatically in usability, according to an interface scientist.

Jakob Nielsen, often hailed as “king of usability,” published results this week on a follow-up study examining iPad app interfaces. He found that iPad apps today are considerably “less wacky” and therefore easier to use than they were last year.

“We really came quite a long way in a year, and a year is a short amount of time,” Nielsen told Wired.com in a phone interview. “If we think back to when the web came out … there were five years when the web got worse before it started getting better.”

For software makers, interface design can be a tricky thing, because digital experiences are purely subjective. The ultimate question: What do customers want? For instance, where do they want this button, or what do they want to happen when selecting this menu? Software makers often must poll groups of testers before releasing their apps to the public to determine the most user-friendly design.

On the iPad, it can be especially challenging to nail usability, because multitouch gestures are invisible, and it’s up to the user to figure out which gestures do what. Compare that to the desktop PCs we’ve grown accustomed to, which deal with physical keyboard and mice, mouse pointers, windows and icons — usability is a bit more clear-cut in this environment.

The initial issue with the iPad, Nielsen pointed out last year, was that before the original iPad was released, Apple didn’t give developers iPads to test their apps on. Apple only allowed a select group of programmers access to iPads to test their apps in an isolated room with blacked-out windows at Apple headquarters, meaning they couldn’t do any user testing prior to the iPad’s release. Therefore, the earliest iPad apps were coded in the dark.

As a result, user interfaces in the initial batch of iPad apps were all over the map, with little consistency among the various apps. Apps would behave differently when we swiped or pinched, and some apps used complex interactions such as running three fingers diagonally across the screen, Nielsen said.

Today, iPad apps have become more simple and user-friendly, Nielsen said. He found that magazine apps, for example, would display a cover with the top stories, and tapping on a top story would bring you straight to the content, rather than make you turn to the table of contents and flip to the article manually. His study also found that more apps included Back buttons and broader use of search.

“For the average user, technology is a means to an end,” Nielsen said. “People want to jump in and get results. If I see a cover with three interesting [stories], I want to tap and read right away.”

To conduct his study, Nielsen recruited 16 iPad customers with two months of experience using their iPads. Nielsen’s team watched the test subjects as they launched and interacted with 26 different apps and six websites.

See Also:

• iPad Developers Code Their Apps in the Dark
• 10 Apps You Should Download for iPad 2
• Adobe Shows Three Amazing iPad Apps for Photoshop

Hound is an app that’s like a reverse Shazam. Made by SoundHound (a Shazam-like app), it’s a voice recognition app where you say a song title or artist and Hound will gather all the relevant details in one tidy page. More »

We expressed our excitement when we first heard about Getaround, the personal car rental service that enables users to rent out their autos by the hour or day, and at TechCrunch Disrupt the service has officially gone live for drivers outside the Bay Area. The company also announced an accompanying car kit that allows potential renters to unlock their temporary ride using just an iPhone app, at which point they can access a physical key inside. The company says it functions just like any other keyless entry device, and can be set up in as little as five minutes. Worrisome owners should also know that when you offer up your ride you get full insurance coverage from the Getaround folks, so all liabilities are transferred to the individual behind the wheel. Renters get rated by car owners so there’s definitely an incentive to keep things neat and tidy, though we’d totally get downrated for neglecting to return the seat to its original position. Be sure to check out the demo video at the via link, you’ll wish you thought of this yourself.

Getaround car sharing service goes live, rent out your ride with an iPhone app and car kit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 May 2011 08:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no iPhoto app, which is really bad because I want to be able to tag and organize my photos on the iPad. The good news: it may not be far way. After all, iPhoto ’11 is iPad ready today. More »

Steve Jobs points to the audience as he announces the software development kit for iPhone app programmers in a March 2008 event. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple’s legal team has fired back at a patent-owning firm that was threatening to sue iPhone app programmers over usage of in-app payment technology.

Apple stated in no uncertain terms that it planned to protect Apple developers.

“Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patent and the Apple App Makers are protected by that license,” wrote Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel, in a response to Lodsys (.pdf) sent Monday. “Apple intends to share this letter and the information set out herein with its App Makers and is fully prepared to defend Apple’s license rights.”

The patent firm Lodsys on May 13 sent letters to several iOS app programmers, claiming that it owned a patent related to the usage of an “upgrade” button, allowing customers to upgrade from a free version of an app to a paid version, or to make purchases within apps. The letter demanded that programmers pay a licensing fee for the patent, or face legal action from Lodsys.

In the technology industry, large companies are already tangled in legal disputes over patents on technologies they claim to have invented or pioneered. For instance, Nokia filed suit against Apple in 2009 for patent infringement, Apple filed a patent lawsuit against HTC in 2010, and Microsoft has gone after Google’s partners offering Android-powered products.

However, with the case of Lodsys, it was odd to see a patent firm shaking down smaller companies for using technologies provided by a larger company.

Apple’s letter said that the technology that Lodsys claims it patented — an interface that enables interactions with a user to elicit feedback — requires the use of APIs provided by Apple to the app programmer. Therefore, because Apple owns a license for Lodsys’ patents, they extend to programmers that use Apple’s technologies, too.

Dave Castelnuovo, creator of the popular iPhone game Pocket God, was one of the first programmers to receive Lodsys’ letter. His lawyer David Alberti told Wired.com that Lodsys’ claims made against app developers seemed like a “very far stretch,” because the patents in question seemed to relate to feedback systems on hardware, such as a fax machine, and not technology in a pure software environment.

Lodsys owner Mark Small, who sent the initial letter to app developers, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pocket God maker Castelnuovo said he was happy to see Apple respond very quickly and publicly to Lodsys.

“It shows that Apple cares about its developers and they are willing to stick up for them when something like this occurs,” Castelnuovo told Wired.com.

James Thomson, programmer of the pCalc scientific calculator app for iPhone, was one of the first to receive Lodsys’ letter. He told Wired.com he was glad Apple was getting involved, but the fight is not over yet.

“I’m just relieved to hear that Apple’s got our backs,” Thomson said. “Of course it’s not over until Lodsys withdraws their claims, but this is a big step. I will sleep a lot better tonight, that’s for certain!”

See Also:

• Samsung Ready to Battle Apple in Patent War
• Apple to Samsung: Stop Stealing Our Ideas