Spec-obsessed techies bemoan the lack of hardware features and the relatively modest screen resolution, processor power and storage space. But the iPad isn’t about any of those things. It’s about providing a great user experience for the things it does, not beating the competition on points.

What competition, anyway? Netbooks, the Kindle and other e-book readers, smartphones and even Windows 7-based tablet computers are all aimed at different uses and audiences. Assuming Apple wants to keep selling iPhones, MacBooks and iMacs, it clearly doesn’t believe the iPad is a replacement for your phone, laptop or desktop. The iPad is in a category of its own for now.

So cutting past the “I wanted two cameras, multi-tasking, Flash and a 500GB hard drive” crowd, let’s ask the real question: Why wouldn’t you want an iPad on your coffee table?

What would be so terrible about being able to pick up a hand-held device with a lovely big screen and browse the web?

Why would such a thing be so awful if you wanted to curl up in a chair — or in bed — and watch a film or some YouTube clips?

Could you really not enjoy reading a book on such a thing?

No-one is stopping you popping your (smart) phone in your pocket when you go out. And no-one is stopping you working on a fully-featured laptop or desktop computer with all its multi-tasking, power and disk space when you want to do some serious work. The iPad is for sitting back, browsing, watching, listening. Writing the occasional email, tweet or comment. The kind of thing you probably either squint at a smartphone to do, or struggle to do with a netbook or toasty laptop and its poorly-suited trackpad.

You don’t need a full, multi-tasking OS to do any of these things. You don’t need Flash. You don’t need USB ports. And you don’t need a lot of storage, although by many sensible standards, the top 64GB model has a lot of storage — but not if you’re the kind of chap that has a computer dedicated to running BitTorrent.

No-one needs an iPad. Even at what appears to be a modest price for what it is, it’s a luxury item. While I would definitely argue that most working people and students need a computer and that many would benefit from having a smartphone, this in-between category of slick media viewer is pure indulgence. It will stand or fall not so much on what it can do, and even less on what it can do that other gadgets can’t. The user experience will be everything.

The test of the user experience isn’t on the spec sheet or in the promo photos or videos. It’s in getting into your hands (and hopefully, living room) and having a go. I’ll reserve further judgement until I get a chance to do just that, but if it’s as much of a joy to use as the iPhone and iPod Touch then it’ll definitely be finding house room and earning its keep by pure pleasure alone.

We’ll be seeing a lot more of these kinds of devices in future, from Apple and many others. Not just tablets, but a myriad of things-that-compute-that-aren’t-computers. For all its versatility, the general purpose computer and operating system is lousy to use, still feebly perpetuating the same interface and interaction design of the first Macs (and Lisas) back in the early 1980s.

Smartphones show promise, but their small screens will always limit their uses for many applications, at least until we can wire them into our goggles or optic nerves. The future is computers that are smaller, more specialised and more numerous, each of which is limited to but hopefully beautifully suited to its task. With its screen, controls, software and storage, what is a digital camera if not an elegantly-specialised computer?

If you ran a big organisation, why wouldn’t you want half a dozen iPads in the waiting area at reception?

The Litl in conventional laptop mode and in easel mode

I have a love/hate relationship with computers. Or more properly, I love computing and hate general-purpose computers. Supposedly modern operating systems — Windows, OSX, Linux — are far too complex for the average user let alone novices. Collectively they’re responsible for wasting more human time, energy, money and ingenuity than anything in the history of civilisation. Even Facebook. A plague on all their houses.

While most users can get their machines started up and find their way somehow to the internet (generally by double-clicking the big blue “E”), most administration tasks leave them stumped. Installing, upgrading and removing software. Managing drivers and plugins. Adding new hardware. Connecting to a new ISP or wifi hotspot. Virus checking. Backups. I doubt that more than 10% of home computer users really have their systems in order and know how to do all of these things competently.

So when I see the new Digital Inclusion Task Force (it’s a UK thing, international readers) announce that there are 10 million people in the UK that have never used the internet, not only does it not surprise me but I worry that it’s a precursor to a misguided, expensive and ultimately futile attempt to get those people online with conventional, general-purpose computers. I think that would be a mistake, because such things are horribly, unnecessarily complicated if all you want to do is get online.

For this and other reasons I’m very pleased to see the launch of the Litl, though currently they appear only to be selling in the US at present. The Litl styles itself as a “webbook” and aims to massively simplify basic, everyday computing.

Almost as good as a real kitchen timer and only $690 more expensive

In many ways it’s a similar concept to the forthcoming Google Chrome OS but it runs on its own custom, simplified hardware. You get what appears at first sight to be a conventional laptop with a 12-inch widescreen. It’s not a touchscreen, so all interaction is done with the keyboard and mouse. There’s also an optional basic remote control.

In many ways the Litl is defined as much by what it doesn’t have as by what it does. Unlike a netbook, the Litl is designed to be permanently connected to the internet. There’s no hard drive, just a small 2GB internal flash card that stores programs and a temporary data cache. The full hardware spec is here. All persistent user file storage happens online — in the “cloud” — and is completely transparent to the user. This arrangement completely eliminates the need for backups. It also makes it possible for users with multiple Litls to sync them together simply by connecting them to the same online account.

There’s also no optical drive. I’ve no idea whether you can install extra software but if you can presumably it’ll be coming from an online app store rather than a DVD or a conventional installer package.

Most importantly, there’s no conventional Windows, Linux or (obviously) OSX installation. It runs a heavily customised version of Ubuntu Linux but don’t expect to find a GNOME or KDE desktop or a terminal window.

The home screen is a set of thumbnail "cards" -- no menus or icons here

The custom Litl OS starts by presenting a home screen of “cards” — large icons representing websites, apps and “channels” (persistent mini-apps). This is much more similar to the iPhone’s home screen of icons than Windows’ start menu, OSX’s dock plus Applications folder and Linux’s start menu lookalikes. As with the iPhone, a card can simply be a web bookmark. In fact, this is the only native way to store bookmarks on the system. If you want anything more sophisticated you’ll have to use an online bookmark app such as Delicious.

There’s also a search box at the top of the screen which defaults to Google.

So from power up you’re just one click away from your favourite websites and immediately able to search the web without opening a single menu or app.

This approach is both obvious and brilliant. No other OS does this, yet how many people do anything other than open their browser when they first start their computer? While  in other OS’s you can configure your browser to start automatically, almost no-one does. Most of us hunt through an icon-cluttered desktop, menu or dock. The Litl treats the web as the main event, not just one of the many things you can do with your computer but very often won’t.

And this reflects the overall Litl philosophy — concentrate on the essentials and forget the rest. That makes it far less versatile than a general purpose computer but also far easier to use and maintain. In fact, having done as much research on this machine as possible without actually getting my grubby mitts on one I’m not sure what kind of maintenance it’d actually be possible to do. All software updates are delivered automatically without asking or even notifying the user (why would they care?) As mentioned above, there’s no need for backups or any kind of conventional filesystem that might require organisation. You’ll need to select your wifi network and type your password for it when you first set it up but that’s about it.

The general response online from techies to the Litl has been lukewarm but then it’s not for them. Yes, you can get a more powerful and versatile computer for much less (Litl retails at $700). But I doubt you can get anything that has the same combination of simplicity and functionality. The nearest thing to it is probably the iPod Touch but that’s stretching it a very long way. The Litl really is in a class of its own.

If everyone can use one, everyone will want one

While Litl seem to be marketing the device as a “lifestyle” product to the kind of urbane, affluent families in their promo photography (think one Litl per member of the household, plus a couple of spares for guests), I think it’d be absolutely great for first-time computer and internet users. Whether that’s younger children, older people who retired before computers made it into the workplace or anyone else that’s somehow missed out, getting those people online should be about the opportunities that the internet offers, not the curse of owning and babysitting a fussy, fragile, high-maintenance computer.

If you can’t use a Litl you definitely won’t be able to manage Windows. If some of those new Litl users eventually “graduate” to Windows or another full OS, that’s great. And if they’re happy sticking to the Litl, that’s great too. If there aren’t rows of Litls in public libraries, schools and community centres across the country in the next year or two we’ll definitely have missed a great opportunity to get many people online that otherwise would have found it too difficult.

And wouldn’t it be greater still if the mainstream OS vendors devoted more time to simplifying their cranky, bloated systems so that the rest of us can have more power without paying the price of complexity?

John Pawson’s Sackler Crossing at Kew Gardens has won the 2008 Stephen Lawrence Prize for projects under £1 million. Prize judge Marco Goldschmeid praised the design, calling it “a masterly conjuring trick playfully deceiving the eye with light and water as its props. It is one of those rare designs where less truly is more”.

The bridge takes an intentionally low profile, giving its users the impression of walking on water. Its deck is made from bands of dark granite laid in parallel like railway sleepers. The balustrade is formed from close-set disconnected bronze cantilevers worked smooth at the top. These flat fins combined with the sinuous path of the bridge create differing optical effects depending on the position of the viewer, appearing in some parts as a solid wall, in others almost transparent. The materials are designed to age gracefully through the years as they take on a patina of use.

The Crossing dignifies its setting rather than dominates it, conveying a sense of harmony, calm and beautifully measured restraint that is sadly lacking from most of our contemporary culture, not just architecture. It is in sensitive settings like these that real design skill shines: Knowing when to stop, knowing how to add without taking away.

View the video on Pawson’s site

So here’s a list of what my “simple” Nokia 1100 can do, and what I actually do with it.

Features that I have:

1. telephone
2. SMS
3. contacts
4. call register
5. choice of ring tones
6. profiles (stored sets of settings)
7. headset jack
8. torch
9. welcome note (customisable message when you switch on)
10. call diversion
11. automatic redialling
12. speed dialling
13. clock
14. alarms
15. reminders
16. games
17. calculator
18. stopwatch
19. countdown timer
20. ringtone composer
21. screensaver

1. telephone
2. SMS
3. contacts
4. call register
5. clock

Getting to Less is all about helping designers decide what to keep and what to throw out of their designs. Whether you’re designing software, websites, products or cities, you need to choose what to include and what to omit. But how?

Before we can even start to list the current and proposed features of our product so that we can evaluate them, we need to step back and look at the bigger picture. Even though we may have a specification or requirements document (though often we don’t!), we need to get back to the original problem or opportunity that is the reason for our product existing.

Flabby products come from forgetting what the product is designed to do and for whom. So let’s remind ourselves – and write down:

• who is this product for?
• who is it not for?
• what is the core function or purpose?
• what problems does it solve?
• what problems does it not attempt to solve?
• what opportunities does this product exploit?

This doesn’t have to be a long narrative document. A photo of a spread of Post-it notes on a whiteboard will be more than good enough, but make sure you keep it in the project folder so you can go back to it when your focus starts to drift.

This process is particularly necessary when revising a product. On the first iteration, the design objectives are often relatively clear. The original designers are the team. But once you come to the first revision, you could have a different team and different management. It’s easy to lose sight of the original vision.

So don’t even attempt to refine a product before you can clearly state what it’s for. Critically refocus the design team on its reason for existing and take it forward from there.

Part 3 of Getting to Less to follow soon. Stay tuned.

Just twist and go.

No low-contrast LCD display.

No instruction booklet.

No learning curve.

No fiddly buttons.

No modes.

No batteries.

No battery cover to snap off or lose.

No battery changes.

No weedy digital beep-beep-beep.

£3 delivered.

This is simplicity. Does it really need to be any harder than this?

The question for designers is “How?” How do we know when something is just right, and when it’s too much or not enough? How do we separate the essential from the peripheral? When do we stop?

It’s easy to coin meaningless slogans like “if in doubt, throw it out” but they give little help to the designer trying to refine their product to the point of optimal usefulness and usability without making it useless.

John Maeda approaches the subject in his book The Laws of Simplicity. His first law of simplicity is Reduce. He writes:

The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. When in doubt, just remove. But be careful of what you remove.

Anyone then expecting a discussion of how we set out to thoughtfully reduce will be disappointed. The matter is sidestepped entirely and the rest of the chapter details strategies for minimising the impact of what remains.

This series of posts will give you a toolbox of strategies for thoughtful reduction, whether you’re designing software or websites, products, layouts or just decluttering your home.

Strategies for Scope

How many features should our product have? How long should our article be? How many books is it reasonable to own? The strategies for scope help us find the right quantity of things to have.

Strategies for Selection

Which features should our product have? Which issues should our article address? Which books should we own? The strategies for selection help us to discriminate between the things worth including and those we can leave out.

This is a series in progress. I aim to complete it within the next two weeks, so please stay tuned.

Part 2: Critically refocus

You’d have to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over the system management software that comes with the Acer Aspire 9300.

A jack has been plugged in!

A jack has been unplugged!

Do you think I don’t realise already? Who’s the one doing the plugging and unplugging?

An important usability principle is to conserve the user’s attention. Let them focus on what matters most. Emphasise the main event, quieten the minor details and remove everything that simply doesn’t need to be shown.

For pity’s sake, don’t pop up a balloon just because I’ve plugged my headphones in.