Building What's Next

Jakob Nielsen’s team ran a usability study on several iPad applications, and published their preliminary results.

Their user base was a group of 7 experienced iPhone users who were new to the iPad. In other words, 99% of the current iPad install base. They tested an interesting cross-section of iPad apps, including heavy hitters like ABC Player, NYT Editors’ Choice, and IMDb. Also included was Alice in Wonderland from the awesome iPhone/iPad shop Atomic Antelope.

The results are none too surprising – here are the highlights.

The lack of consistency trips up users

The chief stumbling block of iPad usability is the very same thing that makes iPhone and iPad development such a joy. iPad is a fantastic showcase for innovative UI. Everyone who uses the device quickly gets into the experience of touching, flicking, dragging. Pinching has to be learned, but once learned it feels natural. This free-form UI metaphor gives developers a canvas for experimentation and whimsy – and Apple gives them a user base willing to accept it.

The experimental and artistic nature of iPad applications rips to shreds any semblance of UI consistency. Every artist/developer has the opportunity to create a new user experience, which leads to thousands of different solutions to the same problems. Many developers feel the standard UI guidelines are a constraint on their ability to create a unique, immersive experience.

IMDb is a great counterpoint that proves an engaging iPad app can be built with consistent UI.

Immersive UI, begging for exploration, yet once you notice the controls at the bottom, it’s obvious how to navigate through the sections. It would help to lose the useless ‘IMDb’ button at the bottom – it only works in landscape mode – but this is consistent, useful UI.

Discoverability eludes new and experienced users alike

The New York Times Editors’ Choice is one of the first and most popular iPad apps. Pop quiz: How do you move on to the next page of articles in the News section?

You flick the screen to the left. Of course! The only clue on the screen that there is more information to be found is the two dots at the bottom. This summarizes the problem with the majority of iPad apps out there – it is only intuitive once you have randomly stumbled upon the way it works.

Check out the IMDb application again- see the subtle clue on the right that there are more movies in the list? This is a nice hint to flick that list over to the right. How many different ways of hinting at more content do you think you could catalog from the top 100 iPad apps?

Some apps like GoodReader have resorted to a “follow the bouncing ball” method of UI discoverability. You start off in a tutorial mode much like a video game. Your first few experiences in the app are accompanied by alerts and animated arrows that guide you through common tasks. I found it helpful on the first launch, and annoying for a while thereafter until the hints subsided.

Every developer is approaching discoverability in their own way. iPad is a delightful device to learn through exploration. Unfortunately, the things you learn in one app are very rarely applicable to other apps.

Whither Apple’s UI Guidelines?

Every true Apple developer is supposed to live and die by Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines. Even in the Mac Office group at Microsoft, these guidelines were the bible by which we reviewed our interface decisions. Each choice was a tradeoff between consistency with Office for Windows and consistency with other elegantly-designed Mac applications. (Mac-like UI was the automatic winner in a tie.)

The Guidelines for iPad and iPhone are much less prescriptive than the Mac HIG. The Mac guidelines are full of nitty-gritty details such as how to display free disk space and how to layout modal dialog boxes.

The iPad Guidelines are a different story altogether – in the iPad HIG in a big blue <h2> tag is “De-emphasize User Interface Controls”! Apple recommends developers create apps in which the “controls are discoverable, without being conspicuous.” In other words, it’s OK to hide the controls to make a beautiful app.

This is going to leave confusion in the app landscape for quite a while.  GoodReader hides its menus automatically until you touch the center of the screen. ABC Player hides its entire library in landscape mode – you have to rotate the device to see other videos.

As iPad users and developers, we have to vote with our downloads, dollars and code for apps that use standard UI metaphors. Every app