How Usability Failed the Apple Newton

This is the story of engineering design driving a product. As discussed in another location, when engineering design is not combined with principles of usability, the result is normally a failure.

When people think of the earliest personal data assistant (or personal digital assistant) they may think of one of the early Palm products, or perhaps something made by RIM. Some may think back to the Wizard (or the Willard as on Seinfield). But few will remember the Apple Newton. When I ask my students if anyone has heard of this product, the only hands that go up are those attached to the non-traditional, techno-geeky students that occasionally grace my classroom: the younger students have no idea what it is.

However, the Apple Newton actually deserves a special spot in the history of computing, because it was the first real pda with an independent operating system, with internet connectivity, and with peripherals that allowed the functionality to be expanded in a multitude of ways.

It was developed by Apple in 1993 and was supposed to save the company from the declining sales it had been experiencing at that time (remember that the pc--assisted by Microsoft--was absolutely clobbering Apple). Apple invested a ton of money into the Newton, and especially into the peripherals they were going to offer at the same time. Such peripherals included keyboards, speakers and music system, portable dial-up modems and docking stations.

Further, the device itself contained a bunch of very revolutionary functions. For example, the Newton featured a handwriting recognition feature, a feature relatively common now but virtually science-fiction then. As mentioned earlier it also featured a fully independent operating system. The Wizard, on the other hand, contained only limited functions, while the Newton could really do anything a computer at the time could do. Further they released a number of Newton-specific software applications. And finally, the thing was able to connect to the 'net through a small dial-up modem.

All of these were firsts.

However, with all these firsts, there were also many problems. The handwriting recognition software was unreliable at best. The OS was flaky and slow. The peripherals (and the device itself) were expensive. What's more, the whole thing was bulky and big--it wasn't that portable due to its size.

All of these things added up to a product that was 'neat,' but wasn't that usable. How usable is an over-sized 'portable' device anyway? How usable is a handwriting interface that only translates half of what you write?

Essentially, the Newton was a product driven by a "look what we can do" attitude. It wasn't a response to any need, only a collection of really cool concepts that weren't ready for release.

Make sure that your products are driven by the right reasons: do people need or want this product, or do you? Is it ready to be released, or do the concepts need to be perfected first? Is the product usable, or just cool?