Snippet: Guilty of Looking Like an Idiot ☇

Michael Heilemann refutes a forum post, providing some much needed perspective on display distances:

It’s a thorough analysis in all but one small detail, namely the distance at which people use their mobile devices. Not only does he assert at what distance he assumes people use these devices (15-22”/38-55cm), he asserts that if you do anything else, “you look like an idiot”.

Let me count the ways in which I look like an idiot:

1. When I’m in bed, with the iPad resting on my chest, just around my nipples at less than 10”, I look like an idiot.
2. When I’m sitting at my desk, head in my hand with my iPad flat on the desktop, at about 12”, I look like an idiot.
3. When the iPad is in its dock on the kitchen counter and I’m leaning in to read a recipe, I look like an idiot.
4. When I sit in my couch, with a pillow in my lap and the iPad on top of it, I look like an idiot.
5. When I’m talking to my wife on FaceTime, and I pull the iPad closer because I miss her, I look like an idiot.

And so on…

I’m guilty of at least three of these myself…