The iPad needs a content creation system

The iPad is screaming out for a system to make interactive content designed for that intimate touch based user interface.

Powerpoint is a computerization of the old-fashioned photographic slide. This metaphor is continued down to the presentations being called decks. The iPad needs a presentation software as slick and versatile as Powerpoint and Keynote are but is constantly aware that the audience is a single person rather than a room. With that knowledge of an audience of one the program should explode interactivity.

Audience response systems can be grafted on to slide decks but questions and interactivity should really be central to the iPad presentation experience. Change the presentation from a slide show to an exploration.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that Steve Job reminded everyone of HyperCard during his interview with Walt Mossberg at the D conference. I don’t think it was deliberate name dropping but rather he had been spending a lot of time thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of that technology because he is guiding and overseeing the development of a similar technology to be authored on Macintosh’s and consumed on iPads.

This program should be akin to Garageband, iDVD and Keynote. Consumer grade software that allows an amateur to produce pro-level documents. Imagine using an interactive iPad program is the followng situations:

• Teachers could produce class room materials, such as course packs, lab manuals or study guides
• Restaurants could develop menus with wireless ordering
• Conferences could create on-the-fly lecture notes with interactive commenting

All of this could be done with Objective-C but the idea would be to expand the market of content creators from sophisticated programmers to the entire universe of knowledge workers. Done right this would create an explosion of iPad specific content. and hopefully relieve med students of the endless dreary morning reports and noon conferences.