Face-To-Face Engagement On An iPad
My two oldest boys asked to play with my iPad last night.
That’s not breaking news. What may be breaking news is what I found them playing an hour later. It wasn’t RealRacingHD, a great first-person perspective 3D racing game. It wasn’t ESPN Pinball, the most realistic pinball game I’ve seen in a long time. It wasn’t Labrynth 2 HD either.
It was Checkers. RealCheckers HD to be exact.
And I couldn’t have been happier. They had the iPad on the coffee table between them. One was sprawled on the couch under a blanket and the other on the floor, taunting his little brother with his skills, “I own you!” They were laughing, taunting, being boys. They were engaged with one another.
The size of the iPad, the realistic 3d board graphics and the ability to move the checker pieces with your fingers make this game feel like real checkers. And it is real checkers. It’s “real” because it enables the exact same user experience that a board made from paper and checkers made from wood or plastic would allow – Face-to-face engagement. Only there were no pieces to put away.
This is what I hoped would happen with my iPad. How about you?
Tags: checkers, engagement, game, ipad, life
wow! a great example of how a $500 dollar device can replace a $10 dollar board game. the board game uses no battery or electricity. When my kinds were young they made a checker board from a cardboard box and colored in the squares.
My kids don’t pull out the board game in the closet. Maybe they will now. Who knows, but this is a bonus for me. I have other more “valuable” uses for the ipad to justify the $500.
I met kids not kinds . . but you know what I mean. I will go now and leave all things child rearing to you.
. . but first I need to send a link to this to my dad. he will love it!
I know you do. I can’t wait until mine arrives and hope that the 3G is worth the expense and the wait. I already have a list of apps that I want to try.
My take from this is that the first version of the iPad is an expensive toy. However, knowing that lots of people, like you, are experimenting and testing lots of potential and exciting use cases with the iPad, I am beginning to believe that tablet computing as a whole will be a huge market in 5+ years time, mostly because it embodies a more natural, gesture-based human interface experience. I constantly have to keep reminding myself that the iPad is not the pinnacle of tablet computing, but it is the first step of a journey to introducing and making people more comfortable with tablet computing and gesture-based interfaces. It will remain to be seen if Apple dominates the tablet market with the iPad, if someone else does, or if the market fragments (like mobile phones have). Apple certainly has first mover advantage and existing infrastructure on its side.
Tablets certainly have the potential to replace laptops. When all is said and done, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future we view laptops much the same way we view VCR’s today. They were a great portable computing option for their time, but as technology progressed, they became obsolete.
I like Joel Burslem’s blank slate review of the iPad over at 1000 Watt. Finally getting the chance to use a device that’s designed will, with apps that take advantage of a new UI in ways that make it an immersive experience is exciting. It’s the potential it exposes that’s exciting.
And, yes, this version is probably just an expensive toy, and not the pinnacle of tablet computing, but I don’t think it will take five months, let alone five years, for it to become a productive tool for me. I love your comment, “When all is said and done, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the future we view laptops much the same way we view VCR’s today. They were a great portable computing option for their time, but as technology progressed, they became obsolete.” Time will tell. It’s a great time to be in technology.
I love, love, love this story! You had me at “there were no pieces to put away!” We are getting ready to take a road trip with our two boys, and this would be ideal in the car, over their annoying Nintendo DS. I haven’t taken the iPad plunge yet, but you’ve intrigued me.
Yay ipad!