Design Devices Signs
Words | Detailed information |
Icons | Pictures that represent tasks or objects |
Labels | Short phrases used for identification |
Frames | Shapes used to set content apart |
Color Fields | Visually highlighted areas on the screen |
Animation | Images that use movement |
You may be saying to yourself that you go to web pages all the time on your iPad and you do not like it when they create a specific mobile version that you have to use instead of the full site.
After all the iPad and Android tablets can view standard web pages without a problem and there is no need to create a mobile version for them.
While the iPad and Android tablets handle full-sized websites with ease, there is one interface aspect that is different:
Touch Screens.
Touch screens may not seem all that different from clicking with a mouse, but there are a lot of things that you just cannot do with a touch screen, or you cannot do easily.
And with the growth in the touch screen tablet market growing, if your website does not keep up, it will be left behind.
Basic Touch Screen Design Rules
When you are designing for a touch screen you have to think about how it is being used. There are things like gestures, taps, and multi-touch that you should consider.
- Tapping is not accurate, unless the customer has the fingers of a toddler, even with the very accurate software controls, it can be hard to tap and be precise.
- Gestures are different from taps: In order to scroll a long page on a touch screen, the user swipes one finger up the browser window.
This may not seem significant until you realize that browsing with a mouse, you move the mouse down.
- Two (and more) finger taps: A user can use multiple finger taps on the device at the same time to control it.
- High glare devices: The screens of most touch screen tablets are made out of a sturdy glass. This means that they can be very hard to read, with a lot of glare, in bright light situations.
Plus, with all the touching, they get finger prints and smudges on the screen that can affect how your pages look.
- On screen keyboard: While some users have a wireless keyboard they connect to their tablets, most tablet users use the on-screen keyboard for data entry. And these can result in some typos.