Ipad Research

User Experience Guidelines
The user experience of iOS-based devices revolves around streamlined interaction with content that people care about. The guidelines in this chapter apply to apps that run on all iOS-based devices.

User experince elements to think about when designing:
Focus on the Primary Task - telling a story
Elevate the Content that People Care About - story - text and pictures
Think Top Down - the way people interact - from top down - focus point.
Give People a Logical Path to Follow- flow of story - pages
Make Usage Easy and Obvious - consistancy
Use User-Centric Terminology - easily understandable for audience
Minimize the Effort Required for User Input - one tap not two
Downplay File-Handling Operations
Enable Collaboration and Connectedness - personal, be apart of the app/story.
De-emphasize Settings - options for settings at start of app not half way through
Brand Appropriately
Make Search Quick and Rewarding
Entice and Inform with a Well-Written Description
Be Succinct
Use UI Elements Consistently - standard and consistency
Consider Adding Physicality and Realism - mimic real life events
Delight People with Stunning Graphics - imagery/pictures/videos.
Handle Orientation Changes- set app to one orientation otherwise file size is too big.
Make Targets Fingertip-Size
Use Subtle Animation to Communicate
Support Gestures Appropriately
Ask People to Save Only When Necessary
Make Modal Tasks Occasional and Simple
Start Instantly - once users no what they want they want it instantly.
Always Be Prepared to Stop - x exit app
Don’t Quit Programmatically - warning messages
If Necessary, Display a License Agreement or Disclaimer
For iPad: Enhance Interactivity (Don’t Just Add Features) - make the story benefit from interaction.
For iPad: Reduce Full-Screen Transitions
For iPad: Restrain Your Information Hierarchy
For iPad: Consider Using Popovers for Some Modal Tasks
For iPad: Migrate Toolbar Content to the Top
Designing for the Ipad - Rules and design constraints

(http://www.informationarchitects.jp/en/designing-for-ipad-reality-check/)

Typography: Is it nice to read?

Is the font big enough?
Is it too big?
Does it render well?
Is the Schriftbild (text impression) inviting or rejecting?
How does it feel to read?

SFX & UX: What about that phony 3D stuff?

1. Make it work seamlessly in landscape and/or portrait mode
2. Minimize full frame swipes, stay within the same frame as much as possible
3. Try to reduce navigation to a left side bar in landscape mode and a pop over in portrait mode

Interaction design: So what works?

1. The limited screen estate and the limited credit on the number of physical actions needed to complete one task (don’t make me swipe and touch too often), pushes the designer to create a dead simple information architecture and an elaborate an interaction design pattern with a minimal number of actions. This goes hand in hand with the economic rule of user interaction design: Minimize input, maximize output.
2. Since the smallest touch point for each operation is a circle of the size of a male index finger tip, we cannot cram thousands of features (or ads!) in the tight frame; we have to focus on the essential elements. Don’t waste screen estate and user attention on processing secondary functions.
3. We found that the iPad applications we designed, made it relatively easy to be translated back into websites. iPad could prove to be a wonderful blue print to design web sites and applications. If it works on the iPad, with a few tweaks, it will work on a laptop.

Useful design tips for your Ipad App

(http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/16/design-tips-for-your-ipad-app/)
(http://mattgemmell.com/2010/03/05/ipad-application-design/)
(http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/MobileHIG.pdf)


- Design For People - Who Are Your People?
                               - What Is Your People’s Story?
- Page Flips Are Better Than Infinite Scroll

Use Modes to simplify UI

Modes, or modal interfaces, are where the user deals just with one particular area of a piece of software at a time. They see only the relevant controls and information for one particular task or type of work; an example would be iPhoto’s photo-editing interface, or the Ribbon in the recent versions of the Microsoft Office applications.
There’s been a history of modes getting some bad press on the desktop. The issue is that they trade stability (things always being in exactly the same place in the UI, and not changing) for simplicity (not having too many controls to look through at once). On the iPad, it’s clear where the winning side of the balance is: simplicity. Modes are completely appropriate on this device.
The challenge is in keeping our UI clear and uncluttered. Not only that, but our UI has to be actually usable with a finger - an incredibly imprecise, enormous, screen-hiding input device - rather than a pixel-perfect mouse pointer. Modes can help us keep plenty of space around. Move UI elements into modes, and/or position them contextually and temporarily - but just don’t go overboard with the number of modes.

• Modes are preferable to clutter.
• But removing a feature might be preferable to adding a mode for it.

The modal organisation of features is better than an all-at-once approach, but don’t let it become an excuse for feature creep. One of the primary rules of iPad app design must surely be that less is more.
Childs Story research:



My first idea was to do an interactive Postman Pat story becasue there are lots of opportunities for interaction such as reading the letters, opening doors, picking the parcel; But the character is so well  developed that it would be hard to do any character development without changing the storyline.



My next idea was to produce a new Mr Men character. There are very simple looking characters so character development would not be a problem but i would be limited on the interaction that i could produce for a story like this.



I then had an idea to produce an interactive nursery rhyme because it could have sing along settings and interactions or choices as to which drain pipe the spider went up. But after more research I found that Insy Winsy Spider had already been produced as an app.