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Summary |
These reports are based on 2 rounds of usability studies with real users, reporting how they actually used a broad variety of iPad apps as well as websites accessed on the iPad. We are making both reports available for free to support our loyal audience of usability enthusiasts by providing them with early empirical data about iPad usability. The analysis is less thorough than our normal research reports and does not contain as many detailed and actionable design guidelines as we usually provide. We decided to publish the reports anyway (as our gift to the community) because all experience from the last 30 years of usability shows that early usability findings have disproportionally large impact on design projects.
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox columns, summarizing:
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Why Two Editions? |
The first edition of our iPad report (from 2010) describes the original research we conducted with the first crop of iPad apps immediately after the launch of this tablet device.
The second edition of our iPad report (from 2011) describes the follow-up research we conducted a year later, after apps and websites had been given the chance to improve based on the early findings. Usually, when we publish a revised edition of a research report, we discontinue the older editions. In this case, however, we're keeping both the 1st edition and the 2nd edition available, because they both provide interesting insights into iPad usability and present quite different sets of screenshots and examples. Even though the first edition tested older apps it's still worth remembering the lessons from the mistakes made in these early designs. If you don't remember history, you are doomed to repeat it. Of course, you'll want to start by reading the 2nd edition, but if you find this report interesting, we recommend that you also read the 1st edition. |
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Who Should Read These Reports? |
These reports have important information for anyone who is:
Even though the reports are free, they are still copyrighted information, so we encourage you to not distribute them on the Internet — or otherwise — but instead link to their home on our website where other readers can download it if they are interested. Please do not link directly to the PDF files, but rather follow the guideline to reduce "PDF shock" by linking to this gateway page that summarizes the reports within the format of a simple Web page:
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 Related Report |
| Usability of Mobile Websites: Design guidelines for improving access to web-based content and services through mobile devices. |
| Tutorials |
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Full-day training courses on
> Mobile User Experience 1: Usability of Websites and Apps on Mobile Devices > Mobile User Experience 2: Touchscreen Application Usability > Visual Design for Mobile Devices and Tablets (2-day course) presented at our annual Usability Week conference. |