The Usability and User Interface Design of iPad Apps Revisited

Shortly after the iPad was launched Jakob Nielsen, the usability guru, released a study on the user interface design of the early iPad apps. His overall conclusion back then was that due to a lack of user interface design guidelines many apps had unique ways to wield them. A double-tap might do one thing in one app and quite another (if nothing at all) in another. As a result many users simply had to get lucky to truly understand the interactions that belie the various apps and their user interface designs. In all fairness it was more than just a lack of user interface design guidelines that was problematic but that developers only got their hands on the iPad at the same time as consumers, thus predicating a rush to ship apps.

A year later and Nielsen has revisited the user interface design of iPad apps. Naturally the user interface designs of iPad apps have improved but some findings are replicated in the new study.  The read-tap asymmetry still holds true. This is when text large enough to read is too small to tap thereby making the user interface design more frustrating. In the same vein touchable areas tended to be small and close to each other resulting in accidental activation. Navigation remains problematic though. Many users are not given enough indication of many of the tap-able links on the user interface design. The same goes for swipe-able areas whereby some users would swipe the wrong area and consider the app to be broken. On the positive side apps are now integrating back buttons, broader use of search, homepages, and other elements into their user interface designs. Considering how nascent the iPad is the signs are all-together promising.