The Right Feel for an iPad Stylus

November 9, 2010

In general, iPad styluses follow an incorrect cognitive mapping. The vast majority of them are designed to look and feel like a pen. Why? Writing or drawing on the iPad feels nothing like using a pen or pencil. For one, the fidelity is way too low. For one, the fidelity is way too low. Also, it is pretty awkward to rest your palm on the screen of the device because it throws off the capacitive detection. Writing on an iPad, to me, feels like writing on a dry erase board. Fast, simple, low fidelity. The perfect iPad stylus is one that feels like a dry erase marker.

I’ve never used an iPad stylus that didn’t feel weird. I couldn’t articulate why, except to say that the tips all felt too wide and squishy. But Dan Provost nails it here: it really behaves more like a whiteboard for writing or quick sketching, and any stylus and corresponding software should be designed as such.

Commercialize the dry-erase-like stylus, and I bet a lot of people will buy them. I sure would.

Wow, nails it. I’ve used the Pogo Sketch quite a bit for this kind of sketching, and its adequate, but not perfect. I’d buy the dry-erase-like stylus in a heartbeat. EDIT: And it needs a chisel tip.

(via marco)

9:08am | URL: http://tmblr.co/Zb00ay1Qvv1C
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(Notes: 178)