6 Ways to Ensure a Smooth iPad User Experience

  The iPad is quickly setting new standards in mobile application development. With its tablet design, Apple has opened up fresh ways for users to interact with content. The higher resolution and larger canvas (screen) of the iPad allows more flexibility and greater options for development of Applications.

For businesses, the iPad is another way to reach customers with applications featuring their products or services. However, when developing applications for the iPad, sometimes too many new features or navigation elements can result in a confusing application with little intuition. 

To ensure the likelihood of a positive reception to your application, following these six iPad user experience tips:

1. Start with user experience

Many developers will begin writing an application and only come to user experience at the end of the process, almost as an afterthought. This is a mistake. First develop the user experience, and how the application will look and feel, then move on to functionality and back-end details. Story-boarding can very helping in mapping out the user experience.

2. Hire a firm specializing in user experience

User experience is so important to the success of an iPad application, that it requires a singular role on the development team. When hiring a company to develop an iPad application, be sure there is one person dedicated solely to user experience.  This person should be working hand in hand with the other developers and the user interface team.

3. Don't hide the user interface

Apple urges developers to downplay the user interface and create applications that focus more on the content itself.  However, iPad users may not be accustomed to this new pared-down aesthetic. To ensure ease of use, keep controls and navigation buttons as visible as in leading iPhone applications.  This doesn’t mean you have to be boring or sterile, but users will appreciate the familiarity.

4. Make it intuitive

Use the controls and standardized interface that are already laid out for the iPhone. For example, it is now second nature for iPhone users to look for an arrow back button in the top left corner of an application. Implementing standard navigation and features like the back button, will make your iPad application that much easier to learn and use.

5. Focus on the purpose of the application

Keep in mind the purpose of the application, how it will be used and who the target audience is. If you’re developing a business application, then it might make sense to enable sharing on LinkedIn. If social features do not add to the application in any way, they may not be worth the clutter of extra buttons.

6. Conduct usability testing

Usability testing can help companies create clear, consistent applications and avoid the pitfalls of the first generation of iPad applications.  Bring in real users to test the application directly on the device. Do not wait until the final days of development to conduct usability testing. Adopt an agile development process if possible, because it will allow you to test usability along the way.

What are your thoughts about developing iPad applications and ensuring a positive user experience?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below.