It’s
been a funny old week for Microsoft
Surface. A lesser known marketing
agency has been catapulted in to the spotlight after they published a post
describing their frustrations setting up the Surface device.
If
Laurel and Hardy had been tasked with setting up Surface then this would be
their perfect script.
"After 20 full
minutes of looking and reading (on how to turn the device on), the three of us,
each with a 4-year college degree, finally punted and called the help
desk"
They
later admitted their drama was embellished for comedy effect. So surely this humorous account of technical
ineptitude would be dismissed as one person’s struggle to conquer basic
tasks? No, instead the controversy that
this post ignited saw the mavens set to work.
“Our sleepy little
company blog could count on about 20 hits a day (thanks Mom!), and as of today
we’ve gotten over 20,000.”
Hundreds
of twitterers jumped on the bash-a-Microsoft-bandwagon and this sorry story of
one company’s failure to plug in the device spread like wildfire, with alarmist
headlines such as “Microsoft Surface
sucks a whole bunch to set up.”
Why
did this post create such a stir? Because where Microsoft is concerned, there
are always people looking to have a pop. This tweetsteria was quickly followed
by the same company’s naive quip asking why they ship a multi-touch device
with a keyboard! Again, the bash-a-Microsoft-bandwagon wheels started rollin'.
For
any reasonably intelligent individual, plugging the Surface device in shouldn't
be a challenge.
For
any practitioners in multi-touch design the reason for shipping a keyboard and
mouse is clear. Audio & visual cues don't compensate for tactile feedback.
Without haptic feedback, virtual keyboards don't quite cut it. Of course the
user mode is gesture-based but to administer a PC with a virtual keyboard! no
no no. It will happen but they’re just not there yet.
But
the tweets kept on coming with twitterers rejoicing at the revelation that
Microsoft Surface is shipped with a keyboard.
And
then came the twist...the marketing agency did a u-turn. They pulled their original post and replaced
it with a sort of apology
come more accurate view of the events.
Was this because they realised that their stab at humour had attempted
to undermine a landmark device that has brought natural user interfaces to the
mainstream?
But
this replacement post served to fuel a further wave of tweetsteria with
headlines such as “Microsoft contacts blogger and has it removed”.
STOP!
Aren't we missing the point?
Natural
user interfaces have been around for several decades but we are finally seeing
mainstream adoption. The iPhone has accelerated the interest in multi-touch, no
longer niche, but with Microsoft Surface natural user interfaces have truly
come of age.
Microsoft Surface incorporates
naturalness, encourages social interaction, and brings playfulness to the
party. We are living in interesting
times. Microsoft Surface offers a
different way of interacting and manipulating content. This is not a subtle change but a revolution
in the way we interface with digital content. I am glad to be involved in this
interaction revolution.
We
should be celebrating this new interaction paradigm and applauding the
technology giants we-love-to-hate. However, the past seven days for Microsoft
Surface has been all about the circus surrounding one team’s struggle to set up
the device! Any setup shortcomings pale in significance to this giant leap for
the next generation of user interactions.
Of course the Surface device is flawed and yes, there is
much to criticise. What device isn't?
Microsoft Surface is at the beginning of a long journey and I imagine
that by 2012 it will be a very different beast. But it’s presentations like
Tap is the New Click that remind me we
are living in exciting times.
Fortunately this circus has a happy ending. The agency’s latest
post recognises that “the Surface
unit itself is a fantastic touch-screen computing experience ...” and “it is a great platform that will be exciting
to watch develop in the future...”
hear hear.
The
Marketing Company clearly understands the value of Microsoft Surface in evolving this
interaction paradigm. Had they envisaged
the “web-muck” that would follow their post it is unlikely they would have
posted their original comedy-take-on-events.
Not because they shouldn’t shout down Microsoft, but because this has
distracted everyone from the huge step that Microsoft Surface has taken in bringing
this new interaction paradigm to the masses.
Instead
of celebrating the shortcomings of Microsoft Surface, let the engaging experiences make the
headlines.