Orientation issues in tablet device publications
The tablet revolution is here and, as often happens when a new technology opens up a field of application, designers seem to have erased their past memory.
When DVD menus rolled out, for example, they were tarnished with usability issues which were already been solved at the state-of-the-art of software and website interface design.
It looks like tablet publishing will be no exception. All the interaction possibilities, with use of nested slideshows and scrollable parts, smell like user’s nightmare.
Here’s a recommendation for publishers to please keep in mind two things:
- design around user, not content
- don’t forget to hire an Information Architect!
Context indicators
The simple use of context indicators can improve dramatically the quality of user experience. Put a dot page control bar (iPhone style) in image series.
Design your own context indicators when there is no granted solution in sight, helping the community to build new conventions for new interaction cases.
Contextual sequence suggestion or related content
Learn from Amazon and YouTube: in a rich (and often messy) environment, give the user indications about related or interesting content, instead (or aside) of relying on his orienteering abilities.
Maps
Provide permanent maps. Let the user always know where he is and where he can go from there, but most of all where he comes from.
Multiple exit points
Provide multiple exit points. Create a forgiving environment with emergency exits with safe landings (home page, history)
Explicit history
Consider showing in a permanent way pages visited previously, reducing them in size and giving them a smaller part of the screen in consideration of their sequence in navigation history (the older, the smaller)
