It Just Works

With Steve Jobs' passing, it seems everyone has something to say about him and Apple. Therefore, I will share one story as well. I bought an iPad when it first came out and it has become an indispensable device that I use everyday. This is no surprise since I've always liked Apple's products, starting from the Macintosh, especially for their design and ease of use. Steve Jobs once said, "This is what customers pay us for - to sweat all these details so it's easy and pleasant for them to use our computers. We're supposed to be really good at this."

What has surprised me is the iPad is so easy to use that even my two-year old daughter, Ava, can use it. I only have to show Ava a few times and she is able to learn to use the iPad to watch her cartoons. She knows to press the home button to turn on the screen; slide the tab from left to right; press the home button again to see the icons; swipe to find the Videos icon; tap and find the cartoons in preview forms; choose and tap the video; and hit the play tab. Now at three years old, she even knows how to adjust the volume from the screen and hit the small button on the top to turn the iPad off.

Below is a picture of Ava watching Elmo at a friend's wedding banquet in Hong Kong; the iPad allows the parents to eat in peace.

While I like to think of my daughter as really smart, the truth of the matter is the iPad, like many of the products by Apple, just works. It still amazes me that a two-year old can use the iPad by herself. This is really a testimony to Jobs' philosophy about design, as he once said, "Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."