Requirement 3: Maximize Productivity

As much fun as it is to play with gadgets just for the fun (nerdiness) of it, the only gadgets worth mastering and using are obviously the ones that can actually "do" something. And really gadgets only exists to help you "do" something in your life. This is the effective definition of productivity. The cool thing is that you get to define just what that something is that you're doing. If you're a surfer, then a tide widget is actually useful to you. If you're living in landlocked suburbia, then you probably have less use for something like that. The good/bad/complicated part is that each individual has to define what is useful to them in their life. To help me evaluate different products I need to create a system that is both broad enough to accept every one's "working style/needs", yet still narrow enough for the evaluation to mean something. Luckily there are a few things that every gadget must fulfill for it to be useful to anybody.

Firstly, it needs to be user-friendly. Apple really latched on to this idea and leveraged it to create the immense popularity of their i-line of gadgets. There were many mp3 players on the market before the iPod, but Apple made it easy enough for my grandma to use. There were many multi-function cell phones on the market before the iPhone, but Apple made it fun enough to spend hours staring at that tiny little screen. Much as I loathe the plethora of "i-Gadgets" that have spawned since, I have to give credit to Apple for doing something really right. (Hey, even Hitler knew what he was doing some of the time ;P)

Secondly, it has to actually do all the things that you need it to do with minimal modifications. This doesn't mean that it has to be the slicing-dicing-julienne fry making-sledg-o-matic, fulfilling your every gadgetry need. But it should at least do the job that it was designed for. My recent failure with my Google Docs presentation is a prime example. I need a presentation tool that can insert equations for my math students including both subscripts and superscripts. Yet in all of my searching and piddling with the presentation tool I could not find the advanced text editing abilities or an appropriate equation editor add-in. I should not have to sacrifice quality or capabilities just to use the "cloud-computing" web app equivalent of an existing "offline" gadget. Additionally, it should foster creativity and inspire you to work in new and different ways. Despite all of our technological advances over the past century sometimes the most powerful tool we still have is a simple plain white sheet of paper and a pencil. While I don't normally advocate tree-killing paper consumption, the plain truth is nothing is as flexible or open as the tabula rasa. As a mathematician I'm constantly having to stop, draw a picture of the problem, then keep going with the equation. And while there are lots (well more than there used to be) of equation editing tools, nothing beats the feel of chalk on the blackboard or pencil on paper for feel and flexibility.

Thirdly, it should take less time to use the gadget than it does to complete the task "manually" (without the gadget). This is where productivity and cost intersect. Time is an asset just as much as money is. So I propose that the definition of a productive gadget is one that actually saves you time! Example: I have a rubric that I use to grade discussion board posts for my online math class. By posting that rubric on a published Google Doc I can update it once, and instantly all of my students have access to the latest version of the grading scale for their assignments. Sure I could save it as a PDF and upload it to each and every course and section that I'm teaching, and then have to replace it every time I make an edit, but good god why? This type of efficiency is unique to hyper-linked communication and is another one of the superpowers of cloud computing. Sometimes time savings comes from good design and usability. Just as sometimes time sinks come from excessive buttons (oh delicious, shiny buttons!), dials, and blinking lights. Much as it pains me to abandon tinkering with gadgets for the sheer fun of it, I'm not actually being productive unless I'm producing something, saving time, or keeping focused on my tasks.

So the three requirements for a "productive" gadget can be summarized as:

• Usable - "even grandma can figure this newfangled gadget out!"
  
• Functional - "hey look it actually works!"
• Efficient - it saves me time, but it's not distractingly fun to use
  

I'm open to other suggestions/definitions of productivity. I'll be honest, I'm no business major so I'm sure I'm missing something.