When I wrote about the significance of the iPad, one of my main points was usability. The UI of the iPad is significant, because it changes how a user interacts with a computer. I wrote:
The user interface is designed to do what you would expect it to do. Beyond the most simple functions, like button pushing, the iPad user interface allows you to swipe, pinch, and rotate objects. If there are a stack of images, and you want to get a quick sample without selecting all of them, you touch the stack and slightly expand your fingers. If you want to put away or close an object, you pinch. If you want to turn a page, you swipe.
Luke Wroblewski highlighted the iPad’s User Experience Guidelines, all of which describe a new way of interacting with data.
Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for the iPad outline how to create user interfaces optimized for the iPad device. According to Apple, the best iPad applications: downplay application UI so that the focus is on content; present content in beautiful, often realistic ways; and take full advantage of device capabilities to enable enhanced interaction.
The list includes:
- Support All Orientations
- Enhance Interactivity (Don’t Just Add Features)
- Flatten Your Information Hierarchy
- Reduce Full-Screen Transitions
- Enable Collaboration and Connectedness
- Add Physicality and Heightened Realism
- Delight People with Stunning Graphics
- De-emphasize User Interface Controls
- Minimize Modality
- Rethink Your Lists
- Consider Multifinger Gestures
- Consider Popovers for Some Modal Tasks
- Restrict Complexity in Modal Tasks
- Downplay File-Handling Operations
- Ask People to Save Only When Necessary
- Start Instantly
- Always Be Prepared to Stop
The guidelines are available from Apple’s iPad SDK.