So Easy a Baby Can Use It

I’m beginning to wonder if Apple created the iPad with 2-year-olds in mind. I don’t know many 2-year-olds, but one I do know well can run her family’s iPad with more confidence and grace than I can.

 

When Apple debuted the iPad, I really didn’t see a need for it. It seemed like an over-sized iPod Touch. However, it only took one night of babysitting said 2-year-old to shift my entire perspective. When she finished dinner, I asked if she would like to play with her new “computer” — a Leap Frog Leaptop^TM, made to resemble a laptop but which in reality is just a game to learn your ABC’s. She replied, “Yes!” But instead of heading for her Leap Frog, she went right for her parents’ iPad.

 

I could feel an oncoming heart attack thinking she was going to drop/crack/break this pricey bit of technology that I had no clue how to use. When she made it safely over to where I was sitting after bumbling across the kitchen, my next wave of panic was how I was going to calm a 2-year-old who was upset with me because I had no idea what to do with an iPad.

 

To my surprise, she began to school me on how to use the iPad. She knew to press the unlock button and slide the lock on the screen, and she headed right for the section where her games were located. When she wanted to watch a music video, she knew exactly how to pull up the player, find the right album, and play the song and video.

 

Apple is on to something here. Create a product that is cool enough to appeal to the early adopters and techies but is also simple enough to reach the Johnny-come-lately generation of — toddlers.