Web designers didn't down tools and change their thinking as soon as Apple launched the iPad.
No, there are few professional website designers who'll alter their approach based on one new piece of fashionable hardware. However, the early success of the iPad might well be a signal for a new direction in computing, and hence website design. After all, tablet PCs, with their touch-screens and interactive content, are very different from classic PCs.
But by following a few iPad design principles, you could improve your web design, no matter what the target device...
Standards, standards, standards
Websites with tweaks or workarounds might break on iPad browsers more than they break in conventional browsers.
Ipad interactivity allows for so many different views (zoom, portrait, landscape etc.) that any code weaknesses will easily be exposed.
This forces designers to do something they should do anyway (but often don't): create W3C Standards-compliant websites.
Flashlessness
The iPad is not Flash-compatible. That means those carefully-drawn animated introductions to corporate websites might not even render, let alone get watched. No great loss, you might say.
However, YouTube uses Flash to show videos. But then, the iPad does have applications that can handle YouTube streaming.
More importantly for designers, this could signify a larger movement away from proprietary Flash software towards coding in HTML5. Perhaps it's time to start seriously looking into HTML5 if you're a website designer.
Big buttons, bulbous links
"If web design is Lego, iPad design must be Duplo," according to Information Architects, Inc.
But does that mean bigger, rounder, more pleasing to touch? Or less subtle and more clumsy?
Compared to a sharp little mouse icon, human fingers are clumpy, stumpy and imprecise. It's no good then expecting users to click a link in size 10 font.
Instead, buttons, links and navigation bars need to be larger, more tactile and less precise. While there's no reason to adopt this for laptop screens, as more PCs turn tablet, understanding these conventions will be essential.
Higher value screen real estate
Because the iPad screen is both visual and functional, you can't waste space. That huge logo in the top left corner? Perhaps that's pushing your content links further down the page and making it harder for visitors to use your site.
Similarly, with the iPad, users can't run lots of background windows and applications. That means that your website pages and apps need to do one thing, and do it well. By focusing on specific goals and tools on each page, you make it easier for people.
Bigger folds or zero folds
"Above the fold" is a term used by website designers to refer to the visible portion of a page before scrolling down further. However, the iPad in portrait can display a lot more front page content in one screen.
It means that designers may work in fluid-width page formats using CSS and JavaScript. It means that the old idea of the flat homepage with vertical scrolling text information becomes less relevant.
iPad: The future?
The iPad itself isn't going to change website design overnight. However, it might make some designers wake up to a few core design principles they've been neglecting. As other companies follow Apple with tablet PCs of their own, we could be about to see a new stage in the development of website design.
No, there are few professional website designers who'll alter their approach based on one new piece of fashionable hardware. However, the early success of the iPad might well be a signal for a new direction in computing, and hence website design. After all, tablet PCs, with their touch-screens and interactive content, are very different from classic PCs.
But by following a few iPad design principles, you could improve your web design, no matter what the target device...
Standards, standards, standards
Websites with tweaks or workarounds might break on iPad browsers more than they break in conventional browsers.
Ipad interactivity allows for so many different views (zoom, portrait, landscape etc.) that any code weaknesses will easily be exposed.
This forces designers to do something they should do anyway (but often don't): create W3C Standards-compliant websites.
Flashlessness
The iPad is not Flash-compatible. That means those carefully-drawn animated introductions to corporate websites might not even render, let alone get watched. No great loss, you might say.
However, YouTube uses Flash to show videos. But then, the iPad does have applications that can handle YouTube streaming.
More importantly for designers, this could signify a larger movement away from proprietary Flash software towards coding in HTML5. Perhaps it's time to start seriously looking into HTML5 if you're a website designer.
Big buttons, bulbous links
"If web design is Lego, iPad design must be Duplo," according to Information Architects, Inc.
But does that mean bigger, rounder, more pleasing to touch? Or less subtle and more clumsy?
Compared to a sharp little mouse icon, human fingers are clumpy, stumpy and imprecise. It's no good then expecting users to click a link in size 10 font.
Instead, buttons, links and navigation bars need to be larger, more tactile and less precise. While there's no reason to adopt this for laptop screens, as more PCs turn tablet, understanding these conventions will be essential.
Higher value screen real estate
Because the iPad screen is both visual and functional, you can't waste space. That huge logo in the top left corner? Perhaps that's pushing your content links further down the page and making it harder for visitors to use your site.
Similarly, with the iPad, users can't run lots of background windows and applications. That means that your website pages and apps need to do one thing, and do it well. By focusing on specific goals and tools on each page, you make it easier for people.
Bigger folds or zero folds
"Above the fold" is a term used by website designers to refer to the visible portion of a page before scrolling down further. However, the iPad in portrait can display a lot more front page content in one screen.
It means that designers may work in fluid-width page formats using CSS and JavaScript. It means that the old idea of the flat homepage with vertical scrolling text information becomes less relevant.
iPad: The future?
The iPad itself isn't going to change website design overnight. However, it might make some designers wake up to a few core design principles they've been neglecting. As other companies follow Apple with tablet PCs of their own, we could be about to see a new stage in the development of website design.