The Dawn Of The iPad – A New World For iPad Developers

Some loved it, some hated it, while others sat on the fence. The iPad has gained mixed reactions from many, but regardless of how you view it, the fact is, we need to change our design concepts to suit it. This article hopes to explore some of the issues to consider for budding iPad developers.

Fluid Width
This concept first came about when tablet laptops were born. When I first bought my own HP TX1000 it came with a very cool flexible viewing design. This meant that when I was seated at a table and working, I could use it via the regular landscape mode, but when I was lecturing, I had the comfort of using it via portrait mode. Combined with the touch screen it made my job a lot easier. And this is the same thing iPad developers have to keep in mind when designing for the iPad.

No Fold Design
One of the best things about the iPad is that there are no vertical or horizontal folds, which means the website does not have to be the same, design wise on every platform. The portrait mode gives users a big portion of the website to be viewed at one go, while the landscape mode makes reading easy and natural.

Flexible CSS
As mentioned before, one of the main features of the iPad is its flexible viewing mode, and this transcends to other aspects of the device as well. Althought the aforementioned fluid design is best, there still times when it cannot be used. And so, iPad developers need to think about using various CSS modes to suit different devices and designs, or flexible CSS that can switch according to screen resolution.

Finger-friendly
The most prominent feature of the iPad is the use of its touch screen, so iPad developers need to design websites that will work well with the touch screen. This means that hover effects need to be adjusted and text links need to be resized.

Goodbye Flash
As you probably already know, the iPad does not support Flash and professional iPad developers don’t think Apple will change its mind anytime soon. This is quite a big deal to most budding developers, as we’ve become quite Flash dependant in recent years, and let’s face it, Flash makes websites a hell of a lot more interesting. But fret not, as Google did with Youtube, iPad developers need to stop worrying about Flash as there are other ways around it.

By now you’ve probably got a general idea of what to keep in mind when designing for the iPad. However, that said both the iPad 1 and 2 are different from regular tablets in many ways, and so my best advice to you would be to hire a good iPad developer such as Jinibot Mobile Developers, to iron out the small details.

For more information on hiring Los Angeles iPad Developers, iPhone Developers, Android Developers or Blackberry Developers, contact Jinibot Mobile Developers at 888.548.1778 or visit their site at http://jinibot.com.

About Jinibot

JiniBot is the leading provider of iPad application development and consulting services. We have mastered this domain and have extensive experience in developing custom mobile applications for iPhone (including iPad) and other mobile platforms like Android and Blackberry. Our highly experienced team brings together deep product design experience, technology expertise and a passion for building world-class mobile experiences.