Our Poynter conference was, indeed, a pioneering effort, a first look at all that the tablet could do. The messages presented are as valuable two years later.
In reviewing the transcript of the Poynter Tablet Conference, almost two years later, I have encountered some extremely timely, smart material to share with you here from the liveblog of the conference. Note that these quotes were often paraphrased for the purposes of the liveblog. For a full transcript of the Poynter Tablet Conference, go here and here.
“Designing and supporting great apps requires us to be platform-centric. Platforms like the iPad will become like little theme parks. Native languages will be required so the apps feel like they belong to the device.”
“We need to divide the conversation between web browsers and mobile apps.”
“You must know the strengths of each platform you are designing for. We need to know how hard we can push against the constraints of each platform.”
“Great apps require unprecedented collaboration and are crafted to enhance the lives of humans.”
“Still unclear if people like vertical view, as opposed to the more designed horizontal view.”
“Our team is planning for other dimensions. The iPad may be in a different size at some point.”
Discussing editions and the tablet: “Why go to the tablet version of The Times (of London) in the morning? Because there will be unique content. By noon, The Times changes. Taste of stories of the day, plus big breaking news. In the evening, try a lighter version, but still news heavy. This is editioning.”
“Placing print or the web on the tablet is only a temporary solution. Tablets are a liquid medium in which all kinds of content merge.”
“Tablet allows return to print-like grid, typography, architecture, proportions and rhythms.”
“Paper is never going to go away. But newsprint is a highly ephemeral medium. People are shifting to digital. Not surprised to see tablets be the main product of newspapers.”
“Digital publishing will become the economically viable product. By 2020, most major metros will be primarily digital. The era of printing newspapers on paper is coming to an end.”
“Make your app local, current, personalized, convenient, authoritative, exclusive, simple, useful and fun.”
“People are paying for novelty. That’s one reason why 80,000 people paid for the Wired app. But you have to deliver novelty.”
“Many of the best iPad apps work in the cloud, synchronizing between the tablet, phone and computer ...”
“The tablet is in its infancy. We are too critical of ourselves—give the tablet platform time to develop.”
“Parts of apps feel like print, others like the web. The iPad is the overlap of layout and technology, a perfect storm of design and interface.”
“Straightforward applications don’t need much translation or optimization when moving from device to device.”
“Technology does not have to be a bottleneck.”
“This is a lean-back experience. Unlike a website, in which users enter from many different places, there is one consistent way to enter the app.”
“Apple developed an aversion to anything with the word Flash in it.”
“Take advantage of rich graphic capabilities of tablets.”
“One of the things about reading a book or a magazine is that you have a sense of how much is left to complete the content. The web does not offer that. The tablet can and does.”
Discussing the Plastic Logic Que e-reader: “You have to try everything and not worry about what happens. Some things will work and some won’t. Just figure out what things to bet the most on.”
“We are trying to prepare students to come into this new environment and hit the ground running in newsrooms.”