Craig Federighi says iPadOS cursor was inspired by Mac & Apple TV paradigms
Apple recently introduced a new cursor experience in iPadOS -- one that software engineering chief Craig Federighi says was by necessity a combination of how users interface with the Mac, and the Apple TV.
The iPadOS cursor is compatible with both computer mice and trackpads.
The iPadOS cursor was launched alongside mouse and trackpad support in iPadOS 13.4 and the new iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. Rather than adding an exact duplicate of the macOS cursor, Apple designed the new user experience from the ground up for iPad.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi recently sat down with TechCrunch to explain how it did so.
"There was a process to figure out exactly how various elements would work together. We knew we wanted a very touch-centric cursor that was not conveying an unnecessary level of precision," Federighi said.
As part of that development, Apple took advantage of a "focus experience" similar to the Apple TV. The company also worked to provide a "greater sense of feedback" for users when dealing with text.
"Part of what I love so much about what's happened with iPadOS is the way that we've drawn from so many sources," Federighi explained. "The experience draws from our work on tvOS, from years of work on the Mac, and from the origins of iPhone X and early iPad, creating something new that feels really natural for iPad."
It's also worth noting that the same core design team responsible for the iPadOS cursor was also the team that worked on the Apple TV interface.
Going into the development, Federighi said that the team wanted the iPadOS cursor to "reflect the natural and easy experience of using your finger when high precision isn't necessary" but was able to transition into high precision tasks like editing text.
So Federighi and the team came up with the circle that transforms depending on the context -- such as the focus around a button, or the I-beam when dealing with text.
"We set out to design the cursor in a way that retains the touch-first experience without fundamentally changing the UI," Federighi said. That means it can adapt to customers who never use a trackpad on iOS, or those who switch back and forth between touch and trackpad.
The Apple SVP of software also detailed some of the work on the iPad trackpad gestures, stating that many of them are "analogous to those on the Mac."
Because of that, users won't "have to think about them or relearn anything," but Federighi noted that the gestures "respond in a different, more immediate way on iPad, making everything feel connected and effortless."
Although the cursor and trackpad support in iPadOS were released alongside Apple's proprietary magic keyboard, third-party accessories from manufacturers like Brydge and Logitech are also compatible.
The iPadOS cursor is compatible with both computer mice and trackpads.
The iPadOS cursor was launched alongside mouse and trackpad support in iPadOS 13.4 and the new iPad Pro Magic Keyboard. Rather than adding an exact duplicate of the macOS cursor, Apple designed the new user experience from the ground up for iPad.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi recently sat down with TechCrunch to explain how it did so.
"There was a process to figure out exactly how various elements would work together. We knew we wanted a very touch-centric cursor that was not conveying an unnecessary level of precision," Federighi said.
As part of that development, Apple took advantage of a "focus experience" similar to the Apple TV. The company also worked to provide a "greater sense of feedback" for users when dealing with text.
"Part of what I love so much about what's happened with iPadOS is the way that we've drawn from so many sources," Federighi explained. "The experience draws from our work on tvOS, from years of work on the Mac, and from the origins of iPhone X and early iPad, creating something new that feels really natural for iPad."
It's also worth noting that the same core design team responsible for the iPadOS cursor was also the team that worked on the Apple TV interface.
Going into the development, Federighi said that the team wanted the iPadOS cursor to "reflect the natural and easy experience of using your finger when high precision isn't necessary" but was able to transition into high precision tasks like editing text.
So Federighi and the team came up with the circle that transforms depending on the context -- such as the focus around a button, or the I-beam when dealing with text.
"We set out to design the cursor in a way that retains the touch-first experience without fundamentally changing the UI," Federighi said. That means it can adapt to customers who never use a trackpad on iOS, or those who switch back and forth between touch and trackpad.
The Apple SVP of software also detailed some of the work on the iPad trackpad gestures, stating that many of them are "analogous to those on the Mac."
Because of that, users won't "have to think about them or relearn anything," but Federighi noted that the gestures "respond in a different, more immediate way on iPad, making everything feel connected and effortless."
Although the cursor and trackpad support in iPadOS were released alongside Apple's proprietary magic keyboard, third-party accessories from manufacturers like Brydge and Logitech are also compatible.
Comments
I like that the iPad is getting more powerful with each new edition.
so now I have the new folio keyboard/case. The new Brydge Pro +, with trackpad, and the Magic Keyboard. Whew!
they all work as expected. The Brydge cursor can be just a tiny bit jerky at times, but not as annoying as some reports make it sound. The lag is really very small. While it doesn’t exactly support all of Apple’s gestures out of the box right now, they announced a firmware update for this that I imagine will fix that. Since the Brydge was developed and built before the Magic Keyboard was announced, there was no way for it to support gestures it didn’t know about. Some commentators seem to be very ignorant about the way development works, and wrote their articles and reviews as though that was a permanent defect, which it wasn’t.
one thing I can now express my annoyance about that involves all three keyboards, because at first I thought it might just be the way the Folio worked, Is that none of them seem to be able to recognize that the word “I” needs to be capitalized. Sometimes they do it, and sometimes they don’t. The onscreen keyboard, which I’m typing on now, doesn’t have that problem. It’s not just the “I” either. They work more like the Mac keyboard in this regard than the virtual iPad keyboard, and that’s disappointing, because I’m used to the way that works, now having used them for ten years.
but then, for several iOS upgrades, the text replacement has been wonky altogether. Sometimes words I have set in there work, and sometimes not. It stopped working properly somewhere around iOS 10.
Ah, you made my point for me. I used the Mac a little bit in 1984, and a lot beginning in 1988. Believe me, the Mac was pretty simple to use and understand back then. That included people who never used a computer before. You hardly needed any instruction at all. It slowly became more complex over the years, with a big jump with OS X, which made a lot of things more complex. It’s been a long time since macOS has been what Apple originally envisioned.
that doesn’t make it bad. It is much more complex because computing has become much more complex. With much more powerful processors, bigger monitors, vastly more memory and storage, far more can be done now, and that required more complexity. That’s just the way it is. But the iPad was designed to go back to the original concept of not needing to know much about how a computer works to be able to use it well. Even that’s become more complex over the years since I bought the first one. But it’s still far less complex to use, even with iPadOS, than a modern Mac is, because Apple cleverly made it so that you can ignore that added complexity if you don’t want to use it.
if it’s true that we will see macOS on ARM, that will make that transition much easier, as we’ll likely see a bunch of iOS apps on macOS too. macOS apps that will be written for native running on ARM will make it to iOS as well.
a long time ago, after the iPhone first came out, I proposed a Universal OS for Apple that would have each device run whatever it needed on that device, with a UI that was appropriate. The apps would be downloaded to each device in the form needed for that device, with the functionality appropriate for that device. The files generated would work across all the devices, with apps being more capable of doing more complex work on the files as you went up to the most powerful of the devices. We see that happening now.
the reality of it is that all of Apple’s devices run some set of their Unix based OS. The Mac runs the full one, and less of it as you go down. So, in a sense, right now macOS and iOS are already one OS with the differing UI required for the different screen sizes and intent. If we see that ARM Mac, then it will essentially be complete. Apple can deny that they’re merging the OS’s, but to all intents and purposes, they will have done it. The difference in UI wont matter if the same apps run across all the devices from, at least the iphone to the Mac Pro.
in addition, Apple has, the past few years, increasingly sandboxes macOS the way iosism sandboxes. Sell an app in the Mac store, and it needs to be sandboxes, just the way an ios app is. We can see ho things are getting closer.
if you can’t see that happening, then you need to look more carefully.
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/docs/bom/anthrophilic.html
...it's still a great read. His description is even closer to the iPad than it was to the Mac:
- This is an outline for a computer designed for the Person In The Street (or, to abbreviate: the PITS); one that will be truly pleasant to use, that will require the user to do nothing that will threaten his or her perverse delight in being able to say: "I don't know the first thing about computers"
- The computer must be in one lump.
- There must not be additional ROMS, RAMS, boards or accessories except those that can be understood by the PITS as a separate appliance
- Seeing the guts is taboo. Things in sockets is taboo
- There must not be a plethora of configurations. It is better to offer a variety of case colors than to have variable amounts of memory.
- And you get ten points if you can eliminate the power cord.
- It would be best if it were to have a battery that could keep it running for at least two hours when fully charged.
- The system must not have modes or levels. The user always knows where he or she is because there is only one place to be.
...some prescient requirements! Many still hold true. Raskin even got the ipad's price right:
- The end-user cost for this machine should be $500 or less
($500 in 1979 would be $1777 today!)
A great resource for some of the original Mac history is Any Hertzfeld's Folklore.org. Here's the page for Raskin:
https://www.folklore.org/ProjectView.py?project=Macintosh&characters=Jef Raskin
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt
I think many here have had that fear -- there was vehement opposition to ever adding a cursor to the iPad probably because of it.
But, IF it ever happens it will be because MacOS and Macs simply became redundant. But that is unlikely as both MacBooks and Macs simply serve a different function than the iPads. There may be a lot of overlap but they each serve a niche the other cannot.
Conversely, my 13 year old grandson who is pretty well versed in computers wanted a MacBook for Christmas so I got him one thinking (presciently as it turns out!) that he might need one for school (now cyberschool!). He couldn't stand it. I ended up installing WIndows 10 under Bootcamp for him -- now he loves it! He simply didn't have the urge or the patience to figure out how to maneuver in MacOS.
when my dajfher was 2 and a half, she started using my PowerMac. I bought her her own Syquest disk for her stuff, showed her how to use it, and off she went. She was barely reading, using Reader Rabbit; Ready For Letters, but I had told her previously that she needed to be able to read the menus and such. When she was 4 I bought her a new PowerMac 450. Yeah, a lot of computer for a four year old. But she learned to read on mine a year before. I was interested in seeing what she could do. This was in 1995, I think.
Plus take SideCar to its logical end iPadOS could even become the interface we drive macOS with when we do need that that complexity.
It is the core interface experience Apple customers will know or could be with further development.
To me it sidelines macOS to the point it supplants it but never replaces it, there will still be people who need complexity beyond what it can offer but they will still be serviced somehow.