The fourth-generation iPad is in the market and the fifth-gen version will be here within a few months. As the popularity of this groundbreaking smart mobile device continues to increase, it can be safely assumed that more and more software professionals will learn the skills needed to design and developer iPad apps.
The tips and tricks that work well with web app development and design cannot work on the iPad. The way people interact with the iPad is absolutely different, as they do it directly, through touch. A number of design conventions that work for laptops and PCs make no sense on the iPad. Let’s take a look at the most common mistakes made by newbie designers and developers while creating apps for the iPad.
Creating Low-Res Images for the App
Web designers are under great pressure to keep the app lightweight and they try to reduce image size as much as they can. At times, this results in creation of images that are barely good enough for the smart mobile devices. When such an app is viewed on the iPad which has a high-res display, they look truly awful. Newbie designers can get around this problem by creating the vector images instead of the traditional bitmaps when they begin. By working with vector images, they won’t face any problem if they suddenly need to support high-res device screens.
Designing only for Landscape
There are two modes of orientation in iPad and your app needs to look good in the landscape mode as well as the portrait mode. You must test the app thoroughly and ensure that it works perfectly in both the modes. While iPad will automatically resize the app and make it fit the screen, this can wreck havoc with any design elements that are specially created for only one orientation.
Cluttering the Screen Space
While most people understand the minimalism works the best with small smartphone screens, most forget the same lessons when it comes to the iPad. There is a temptation to fill the app screen on the iPad with all sorts of features and content, but that doesn’t work. Although the iPad screen is not too small, users do not interact with it the way they do with laptops and PCs. Keep the design minimalistic and let the users perform the important tasks in as few clicks as possible.
Not Considering the Read/Tap Asymmetry
There is a read-tap asymmetry on the iPad. So, if you have text in your mobile app or web app that can be read, it is not necessary that the words are big enough to be tapped. While designing an app, ensure that all the tappable elements are big enough to tap. There are too many apps out there that users have to zoom to tap a particular element – make sure that you don’t create another such app. Make sure that your design and text is not too small.
Ignoring the iOS SDK Library of UI Elements
The people who created the iPad did a lot of research and they built the first apps for the iPad. All the design guidelines from the masters are easily available to any app developer or designer who is building iPad apps. Using these already available resources on this library will reduce your work by half. So, do not try to reinvent the wheel – there are lots of ideas, resources and design elements in the UI elements library for your use.
To Wrap it Up
Designing and developing apps for the iPad requires you to forget your old lessons and learn what works on this different type of device. As you familiarize yourself with the device and better understand how users interact with it, the apps you design will become perfectly suited to the demands of the device.