[LINK] Neilsen initial report on iPad usability

[Ivan Trundle]

On 09/06/2010, at 2:21 PM, Anthony Hornby wrote:

> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html
> 
> Found this interesting reading ... still need to get my hands on one
> and have a play, so no practical knowledge of the thing to contrast
> this with.

The 93-page 10.1MB PDF (talk about usability) goes into much detail. Magazine designers in particular should take note, though they probably won't. Not initially (it looks like most apps were rushed to market).

The report omits an important user perspective: that of an expanding toolkit of dealing with the 'wacky designers' and their interpretation of how things should function.

Cognitive psychologists will have a field day with how people learn the interface, and we will see new ways of navigation and control that will become more commonplace and accepted. For now, though - it'll be a mess. Just dealing with simple matters like orientation needs a good deal of thought.

Any app that needs to offer instructions on how to use it fails outright. Apps that offer simple controls and grouped functions do better (Kayak, for example).

iT