iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
-
Upload
luon -
Category
Technology
-
view
3.163 -
download
1
Transcript of iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
August, 2011
iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
LUON | www.luon.com 1
Introduction
In 2010, the year the iPad launched, The Nielsen
Norman Group conducted a first usability study
reporting how real users actually used a broad
variety of iPad apps as well as websites accessed on
the iPad. In 2011, they did a second round, fine-
tuning their previous findings. The results are two
+100 pages reports containing their findings,
recommendations and screenshots.
This document synthesizes these recommendations
onto 5 pages for use as a quick reference or
checklist.
The full reports can be downloaded for free from
the Norman Nielsen Group website:
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/mobile/ipad/
Geert De Laet
Technology evangelist
LUON
iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
LUON | www.luon.com 2
Features
Assume you’re designing for a multi-user device
iPads are more a family device than a true personal
device.
Design for repeat users
Apps work best when they are designed for
customers who are already fans of the brand and
engage with it on a regular basis.
Your iPad app should have a secret weapon
compared to your website, it should deliver extra
value
Do not make users work more in your iPad app
than on your website
Example: don’t make users pay or register for an
app containing freely available content from the
website
Do not design an iPad app as if it were an iPhone
app.
The iPad is less ‘mobile’ than the iPhone and used
in another context where a condensed, space-
saving presentation of information does not apply.
If a feature is only available in one orientation, tell
users that they will find extra content by turning
the tablet
If your app needs more than 20 seconds to
download content and become fully functional,
think seriously about how you are going to
entertain the user during that download time.
Keep users at the same location (within the
content) when they change orientation.
In particular, when users rotate the tablet back to
the previous orientation, reestablish the previous
view
Any task flow should start with actions that are
essential to the main task.
Users should be able to start the task as soon as
possible.
Provide a search box
Content
Make sure your app contains enough content for
research.
Especially for e-commerce apps, people are unsure
about how secure iPad is compared to other
devices. Hence they will not very often buy via
their iPad, but rather browse and research items
Keep the same content available in both
orientations, at both article level and page level.
To make the content consistent at the page level,
look for natural breaking points (e.g. new
paragraph) and keep those in both orientations.
Epicurous.com secret weapon: recipes in a
format easy-to-read in the kitchen
iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
LUON | www.luon.com 3
If you must include instructions, make them clear
and simple
If you must include instructions, focus on a single
feature at the time.
Present only those instructions that are necessary
for the user to get started
Design
Beware of read-tap asymmetry
Read-tap asymmetry is the effect that content is
readable, but the links and widgets are too small to
touch reliably
The best target size for widgets is 1cm x 1cm for
touch devices
Don’t place targets to close to each other
Use padding as a solution for small targets
With padding, although the visible part of the
target may be small, there is some invisible target
space surrounding it, so that if a user hits that
space, their tap would still count. With touch
devices, users expect padding in tabular views!
Make buttons look tappable
Users don’t know that something is touchable
unless it looks so
Make efficient use of the big screen
Use popovers only
if the content is only a few lines and there is no
scroll
if the user needs information from the
underlying page (in which case it should be
readable)
Otherwise, use a tabular view on a page
Bing instructions are clear and simple.
They focus on a single feature.
Tapping anywhere inside the cell will
activate the button
An example of a popover with few lines and
no scroll.
iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
LUON | www.luon.com 4
Use small modal views only if there’s enough space
to display all needed info
Otherwise, if there’s a lot of content to display like
for example on product pages, use a separate page
If you use swipe gesture for navigation,
make sure that the page contains enough space
safe for swiping next to the two vertical sides
avoid covering the pages with carousels and
other design features that interfere with swiping
During the initial download of the app, display a
progress bar, not a spinning gear
The controls that are related to a task should be
grouped together and reflect the sequence of
actions in the task.
Do not use startup sounds, animations or videos
Navigation
Don’t use the logo for navigation
If you use swipe gesture to navigate, give visible
cues (arrows, tips) to indicate the direction of
navigation
Add a back button to the navigation bar, and make
sure that it also works on the home page
Use the same navigation scheme in landscape and
portrait mode
For iPad magazines, the navigation bar should
contain a table of contents link taking the user to a
table of contents page in the magazine.
Especially for iPad magazines, where the table of
contents is often used, make sure that it is
easy to access
scannable, explanatory & clearly formatted
Use navigation bars built into the actual page
rather than the iPad’s tab bar at the bottom.
The iPad’s tab bar at the bottom is far less
frequently used than its iPhone equivalent.
When designing a carousel for navigation, it is
important to move the carousel display so that it
starts or is centered around the product or article
that the user is inspecting
Modal views are little ‘popup’ windows that block the underlying page until closed
A carousel is an interface element used for scrolling through items on part of the page.
iPad Usability Best Practices Checklist
LUON | www.luon.com 5
User input
Minimize user input on the iPad:
Compute information for the user
Be tolerant of typos and offering corrections
Save history and allow users to select previously
typed info
Use defaults that make sense for the user
Keep the user logged in if the app doesn’t store any
sensitive information
Allow the users to decide if they want to be kept
logged in if the app contains sensitive info
About LUON
LUON is a customer relationship marketing agency.
By developing campaigns and programs based on
smart ideas, relevant content and a matching
experience, we help brands benefit from a fruitful
relationship with their customers. It's all a matter
of making the right offer at the right moment in the
customer’s lifecycle, across all relevant interactive
media.
Every project we work on is based on clear and
measurable objectives. Which helps us in our
burning ambition to achieve extraordinary Return
On Marketing Investment, together with great
clients such as Unilever, Sony Ericsson, Vaillant,
Tech Data, Thomas Cook, Microsoft, Fnac and Ello
Mobile.
Contact
Geert De Laet
Technology evangelist
@geertdelaet
Gert Lintermans
Client Services Director
+32 478 32 46 00
LUON bvba
Brusselsesteenweg 560 - 3090 Overijse – Belgium
T +32 2 686 00 10 - [email protected] - @LUON
http://www.luon.com/