The list below are the top items that if addressed would materially improve my productivity with the iPad.
Keyboard
The ideal solution for me would be for Apple to allow us to customize the keys present on the keyboard. With that said, I do understand from a technical and usability perspective of how that could be problematic. If they could just address the following issues with keyboard, it would help immensely.
- Cursor / Arrow Keys
Not having arrow keys is a complete miss for Apple. Their are several benefits to having arrow keys but the biggest one is to help all those people who attempt to place a cursor in the right spot – it almost never happens and having a couple of arrow keys is a lot simpler and faster than dealing with the pop-up magnifying glass.
Solution: Replace the Right “.?123” key
- Delete Key Functionality
Not to be confused with the “Backspace” key, the “Delete” key allows you to delete from left to right. Editing without this capability is painfully tedious.
Solution: Implement the Delete key when in CAPS mode.
- Ability to access other common special characters.
Take your pick, but I could use any of the following keys: ? ” ( ) : ‘
Solution: Allow users to replace the right SHIFT key with the characters they use the most.
Calendar
- Attachments
Apple has decided to not let you access attachments to scheduled meetings and not let you see all notes that may come with a calendar invite. I’ve heard this might be addressed in iOS 5 and if it is, I can’t get is soon enough!
- Day View- Inability to see Appointments
Early morning or late day appointments can be easily missed as there is no indicator on the page to show that their are appointments on that day outside of the viewable hours.
- Day/Week/Moth View – Inability to swipe to next day
Apple has trained us to swipe in all directions – it’s just annoying to not be able to swipe left or right to go the next or previous day. Instead, you have to click on a really small numerical representation at the bottom or side of the page.
Notifications
Current implementation is just horrid. Without spending time detailing why, I will just say that Apple recognized this and iOS 5 makes material changes here and everything I’ve seen shows a drastic improvement!
File Storage and Access
Admittedly, Apple does not want people to think about files but the fact of the matter is that when utilizing the iPad for business purposes, you normally don’t think about the application you want to use but rather the file you want to access. Not being able to manage those files easily and in a common way for all files makes using the iPad for work difficult at best.
One thought to “Top 5 Missing Features of the iPad”
Nice write up; however, fixing these issues does not appear to have been a priority in iOS5. The addition of the split keyboard is nice, but unfortunately they did not appear to address the items you list. Sigh.