iAutism

Almost 30 years ago, when I was 13, I got my first computer, a ZX Spectrum, for Christmas. I spent the following three days absolutely devoted to it, until my parents forced me to leave the computer and go outside. That computer changed my life in many ways, but seeing it in perspective, one of the things I miss most from those times was that the applications then were developed by one or at most a few people who had just a small business or no business at all. The Internet did not exist, but if you needed to contact the developer by phone or postal mail, the author himself answered you directly.

When I was 18, two colleagues and I developed the first Spanish accounting application for a graphical environment. One of them produced, among other things, graphic icons and a user manual, and answered all user queries. I remember a sarcastic comment from his mother: “Our son didn’t do well at the university, but look at these pictures: they’re so beautiful!” The general feeling was that there was a whole world to explore ahead of us.

But computers became more popular, more professional, and many software giant grew into giants. Now, the feeling is that if there is anything I dislike, for example, in the word processor (Word) that I use to write these lines, it is more practical to wait for the next version and see if it then does what I want. Yes, I can submit a suggestion or a complaint, but I think they will surely be stacked among many hundreds of others, and, frankly, in the end, I don’t send anything.

Flashback
The emergence of the iPhone and now the iPad has again changed, in my opinion, the rules of the game. Suddenly, hundreds, even thousands of new developers have appeared, creating thousands and thousands of new applications with radically new concepts or at least an entirely new interface. The App Store allows someone to create an application on his own and to sell it worldwide and earn a living from it if the application is good enough.

With the perspective that three decades in the industry give me, I see these years as a new “golden age of innovation in computing.” And I see the iPhone, iPod and iPad (and, to be fair, other similar equipment from other manufacturers) as if they were a new continent, where there is much to explore, where there is room for many people to install and to do new things, and where the terrain and the climate are different from those that we know.

This has many different implications, but there is one that I am particularly interested in: in many cases, the developers are again, small businesses, full of enthusiasm and creative spirit and, above all, much closer to their customers.

Valuable feedback
When I downloaded the wooden puzzle game Puzzle Wood HD, made by Digital DoReMi (which I analyze in the Review: Wood Puzzle), I loved it for its graphics and sounds. However, when my daughter started playing with it, I saw some details that I dislike: for example, in one of the puzzles, there was a piece that blended with the background color; when a puzzle is started, it appears finished and it remains in that form until the user shakes the iPad or touches the “shake” word; and when you finish a puzzle, you have to touch an arrow to go to the next one.

These are pure details, but some of them represented a barrier to my daughter when playing alone. Was it something that only happened with my daughter, who has autism? I had the opportunity to see a very young child “without autism” playing the game, and I found that he experienced the same barriers.

I went through all the puzzles and all the interactions and began to write what details I would change -the application was already very well done, and I found only a few things to change. But I even got the idea of an autopilot mode that would show the puzzles one after another.

I sent a message to DoReMi including all these suggestions. They answered very fast with a message of gratitude. Later, I received another message including a few codes to download for free for another DoReMi games (although they are not expensive at all). A month later, in October, DoReMi launched Wood Puzzle HD version 2.0. They have improved some aspects, changed everything I suggested and implemented a “babymode”, which is more or less the autopilot mode.

I insist: Puzzle Wood was already a great application, distinguished by Apple itself. I insist too: I only sent a few comments. DoReMi deserves all the credit for that version 2.0.

What I would like to highlight is that in this new world, iDeviceLand, as I like to call it, individual feedback is again very valuable. Developers are smaller, much closer to users and working hard to innovate, and all this makes them more likely to listen to their customers.

The difficulties for a child with autism interacting with many “generic” applications, such as games, are not so strange. If you try one and find barriers, explain it to its developer! In iDeviceLand, it is much easier to have your opinion heard.

-Francesc Sistach
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This post is also available in: Spanish