Model the real world to take the complexity out of the machine.

Example.

Real world, Rolodex and file cabinets. Look up the client in the Rolodex, dig their folder out of the file cabinet. Work on items in their folder regardless of whether it is a document, an invoice, whatever.

App Centric

Using the computer in an application centric world.

• Open a word processor, look for documents to that client.
• Open a spreadsheet, look for spreadsheets regarding that client.
• Open accounting program, look for invoices from-to that client-vendor in the accounting program.

Level of Effort

Training and effort, how to achieve a workflow in the app centric world? It is a big job just getting the information workers trained in each of these applications! Then keeping them hired and trained, showing them where to find information, it gets to be a chore.

User Centric

In an effort to make technology easy for anyone to understand and use, IBM OS2-Warp and early Macs were designed to model the real world . Folders and file cabinets laid out in front of the user in a rich graphical interface. Documentation was graphically presented, just like opening pages in a book.

The powers that be figured that users would pay extra for the hardware, and extra for software, because it was so much simpler to understand and use. They were mistaken, and the rest is history.

How Far We Have Come

For at least a generation, tech grads have been schooled in the application-centric world.

For every technology need, there was a specific software solution requiring specific training in order to use it. There was the necessity of implementing and organizing complex permissions and file structures to make finding information "easy".

Essentially the app centered paradigm created it's own set of problems. And each problem required a specific solution. And they all had to mesh together. And new technologies spawned a need for new technology solutions.

With no time to realize that they are caught up in the confusing and failing paradigm of the app-centric world, some continue searching for the next boxed software solution that fixes the most pressing current problem.

Time to Switch

Computing paradigms that is. The operating system is not really of that much consequence for the average "consumer" of information. If you are producing stuff, then yes, there are choices.

Particularly, training to use a specific application is no longer a concern for modern information "consumers". Good riddance. The WWW and mobile devices, the "app for that" crowd, are embracing real world models. My kids don't even know how to type, and likely they will never need to understand old tech terms like "word processor" and "spreadsheet". The old, application centered concept of an "app" is no longer pertinent. They get along just fine using their Touches.

The 100,000 apps in the app store are not 10,000 word processors, 10,000 spreadsheet applications, 10,000 takes on presentation software. Mostly, they are specifically tailored apps. Apps designed to present a specific subset of information in the most comprehensible, most USER CENTRIC format.

When technology is user centered, users load views of information in designs proven most useful to them. No specific training is required! That is the whole point of a user centric application. It just works, and it works the way the users expect it to work.

OS Switchers

The popularity of Apple OS X with alpha geeks has created a lot of interest in the Mac and a lot of arguments about which operating systems are best. That is the wrong argument. The argument is app centric versus user centric.

The majority of "switchers" jump in wanting to buy the machine, buy and learn the "Mac" applications that correspond to their old applications. These users have completely missed the point and the advantage.

To get "the point" requires going way back, before the days of the paperless office. Oh, that's right, we still haven't got there. That is how far two decades of the application centered computing paradigm has taken us.

The kids on the Touches are already there, at the paperless office that is. They don't even need a keyboard! While governments, big business, and users drenched in the app-centered Kool-Aid of the alpha sales machine keep spending on software, licenses and training, just like they have been taught to do, the next generation of technology consumers is just "playing" and learning. Learning how easy it can be.

Back to the example.

Rolodex-File Cabinet is easily achieved on any Mac. Retraining required, I don't think so. It works just the way people expect it to work.

User centric puts the burden on the machine, not the users. A whole new generation is growing up thinking that is the way it should be.

On to the Future

Over 1,000 members of the Apple Consultants Network have made the commitment to training and technologies that help organizations overcome the complexities presented by legacy thinking and legacy systems.
Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673