Tools of Change: Workship - designing iPad apps | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, ... - 0 views
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shared by Jon Morgan on 14 Feb 11
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Decided that the Apple ad was right and people wanted a “lean back” reading experience.
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Primary challenge: how to design something new, and make it feel familiar. Two goals, let people know it what the Times and people had to understand it immediately after launching it.
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4 rules: great ipad apps are platform savvy, start small and improve over time, demand collaboration to build and are crafted to enhance the lives of human beings.
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Platform savvy: distinct differences between platforms and must take each into account. Apps are not a panacea, need to design for browsers as well, they are the lowest common denominator.
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App should be specific, useful and easy to use. Took several months to introduce full screen photos into the app because it required so many design changes from other departments. You have to start with a simple working simple and then gradually evolve to more complex.
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People expect your app to look and feel the way the platform wants. Need to read iPad/iPhone Human Interface Guidelines. Android, Blackberry have similar guidelines.
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Decision to come out with first app “Editor’s Choice” was a business decision, not a technology decision. Major criticism was that didn’t have full content. But after released full content app received a lot of criticism that had too much content. People seem to be using the iPad app the same way they would use the paper media – breakfast, lunch, evening and weekends.
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How the device interacts with the environment. Different from a computer – can be inside or outside, stationary or moving, focused or distracted.
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Should think about the culture that surrounds the device. Think about platforms as cultures. Five elements of culture: population, market share and demographics; customs, styles, governance and beliefs.
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Touch is the first interaction, working with a hand not a pointer. A clumsy and large interactive method, also a more intimate experience. For USA Today wanted large touch contacts, reduce interactive areas.
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Think about how people are holding the devices – laps, lie down, cradle in arm, flat on a desk, propped up on a counter.
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They put controls, as opposed to tap targets, at the edges to make them easier to access while holding the iPad.
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The Daily is being iterated on a daily basis and everyone should read it to see how it changes day to day.
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What is The Daily selling – an experience. Magazine layouts translating one to one to iPad is a slippery slope because need to train the user when you take non-interactive presentation and make it interactive.
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Dual modes on iPad, landscape and portrait, requires a pretty astute user to figure out what is going on.
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epub is basically HTML, already lots of software that uses it (Kindle Reader, Scribd, Ibis reader, Monocle, Google Docs, Adobe, Treesaver.js).;
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Epub doesn’t have to be ugly and version 3.0 will have a lot of interactive features that may be an alternative to interactive Apps; it is basically a wrapper for HTML 5 and CSS.
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Tablet content has 3 cornerstones: make compelling, steal worthy content; remember accessibility; when in doubt use HTML 5, it can be wrapped in native iOS, like the New Yorker app does.. Will see a lot more advancement in Webkit views. Kindle, as a device, is the most underrated device ever – never have to charge the battery, can throw it around, gets lost in a pile of papers, have a 1,000 books on it for only $130, wireless connectivity around the world, syncs, connects notes.