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Setting out to design an iPad app is a strange experience... we've always been used to having some constraints -- a window sized to just the size you need plus

Setting out to design an iPad app is a strange experience... we've always been used to having some constraints -- a window sized to just the size you need plus a title bar at the top, a menu bar either on the window or at the top of the screen, a Start menu or Dock at the bottom of the screen, etc. With the iPad it's more like "Hello, big blank canvas. How am I gonna fill you up?"

taitems 17y ago
Selfplug: This is something I collected to show what other iPad developers/designers are up to: http://tumblr.com/xjl76lu8h http://tumblr.com/xjl76lu8h
- DenisM 17y ago
  This deserves its own post - "what we know now about emerging iPad app design".
  - taitems 17y ago
    I tried, it sank to the bottom of the new items list sadly.
    - DenisM 17y ago
      I see. I think a more audience-relevant title would do better, such as "what kind of UI design can we expect from the new form-factor that is iPad".
      - taitems 17y ago
        You could always chuck a hash tag on it and try it yourself haha.
edwilliams612 17y ago
And designing for the iPad when you only have the simulator only makes it harder. Sure, it's a giant iPhone, i can imagine what it will be like, but I don't really have a feel for how I'd hold/use it, and the design implications that has.
- bruceboughton 17y ago
  Why can't you make a low-fi prototype? This is probably what they did inside Apple.
  - glhaynes 17y ago
    I got a Notepod+ (http://notepod.net/ http://notepod.net/) for this very purpose - gives a sense of the size/basic feel of the thing and provides a nice place to sketch prototypes. First thoughts: - it's slightly smaller than I'd expected - the screen, though, seems large because when you're wanting to look at something closely you naturally bring the "device" closer to your face... you don't do this nearly so much with a traditional notebook - whoa, that's a lot of screen space to fill up... I need boundaries! - I really wish this expensive notepad could surf the web, that'd be awesome.
  - edwilliams612 17y ago
    yeah that's a good start... but there still in no substitute for actually manipulating the UI with your fingers instead of a mouse and spending some time with the real device.
allenbrunson 17y ago
it is pretty weird. i've mostly ported my iPhone game to iPad, and there is a lot of wasted space. if this were a "regular" OS, i'd just make its window a little smaller. but i don't have any choice, i have to use the whole screen. here's how i think it will go. i am of the opinion that apple isn't going to allow third-party apps until after the iPad has been shipping for awhile. (i have no real information to back this up. just a hunch, based on available data. if anybody knows better, please correct me.) by the time us little guys are allowed on the device, we will have experience with apple's own apps to use as design cues, just like what happened with the iPhone.

taitems 17y ago

Selfplug: This is something I collected to show what other iPad developers/designers are up to: http://tumblr.com/xjl76lu8h http://tumblr.com/xjl76lu8h

DenisM 17y ago
This deserves its own post - "what we know now about emerging iPad app design".
- taitems 17y ago
  I tried, it sank to the bottom of the new items list sadly.
  - DenisM 17y ago
    I see. I think a more audience-relevant title would do better, such as "what kind of UI design can we expect from the new form-factor that is iPad".
    - taitems 17y ago
      You could always chuck a hash tag on it and try it yourself haha.

edwilliams612 17y ago

And designing for the iPad when you only have the simulator only makes it harder. Sure, it's a giant iPhone, i can imagine what it will be like, but I don't really have a feel for how I'd hold/use it, and the design implications that has.

bruceboughton 17y ago
Why can't you make a low-fi prototype? This is probably what they did inside Apple.
- glhaynes 17y ago
  I got a Notepod+ (http://notepod.net/ http://notepod.net/) for this very purpose - gives a sense of the size/basic feel of the thing and provides a nice place to sketch prototypes. First thoughts: - it's slightly smaller than I'd expected - the screen, though, seems large because when you're wanting to look at something closely you naturally bring the "device" closer to your face... you don't do this nearly so much with a traditional notebook - whoa, that's a lot of screen space to fill up... I need boundaries! - I really wish this expensive notepad could surf the web, that'd be awesome.
- edwilliams612 17y ago
  yeah that's a good start... but there still in no substitute for actually manipulating the UI with your fingers instead of a mouse and spending some time with the real device.

allenbrunson 17y ago

it is pretty weird. i've mostly ported my iPhone game to iPad, and there is a lot of wasted space. if this were a "regular" OS, i'd just make its window a little smaller. but i don't have any choice, i have to use the whole screen. here's how i think it will go. i am of the opinion that apple isn't going to allow third-party apps until after the iPad has been shipping for awhile. (i have no real information to back this up. just a hunch, based on available data. if anybody knows better, please correct me.) by the time us little guys are allowed on the device, we will have experience with apple's own apps to use as design cues, just like what happened with the iPhone.