In May, we conducted our first series of usability research sessions with the iPad. The research spanned 5 days for a total of 25 participants, and very quickly we saw certain navigation patterns emerge. Participants consistently struggled with certain apps, while other apps were much easier to use and navigate.
This post will outline a few of the best practices that we have synthesized from our early research. AnswerLab has also published a full report that tackles the question: How can content owners and digital marketers successfully create a digital content strategy across mobile platforms? See our website for more information about iPad user experience research.
1. Don’t neglect information-seeking paradigms
Users have been conditioned by years of web-browsing to expect certain navigation elements. For example: Participants in our test were frustrated when they could not find a way to go Back or return to Home.
Confused, some of these participants used the iPad’s own Home button, thereby inadvertently exiting the app completely. This disrupted the flow and took the users out of the immersive experience of the app, making them less likely to return again.
Users struggled to find their way back to the app home screen in Pinball HD for iPad.
Many participants also felt disappointed to learn they could not search content in the New York Times Editor’s Choice or NPR apps. They said that the inability to search diminished the utility of the app to the point that they would use the website instead of the app going forward.
The takeaway? Provide a simple, discoverable way to go Back or get to the app’s Home screen easily. And if your app contains a lot of content, make sure your users have their preferred method of wading through – search.
2. Navigation elements need to be easily discoverable
In addition to mimicking the basic website paradigm, the navigation elements in your app need to be easily discoverable. Despite the fact that some of the applications we tested had Back or Home buttons, some participants were not able to find them.
In the USA Today app, none of the participants realized that they needed to tap the USA Today logo to navigate to different news sections. Building a great app with rich content needs to be accompanied by a sound navigational structure that allows users to access the breadth and depth of your app without getting confused or frustrated.
Users failed to discover that tapping the USA Today logo would reveal navigation by section.
Other applications that we tested – like ESPN’s Score Center XL, Epicurious, and Wikipanion – had navigation elements that were only obvious when the iPad was in landscape mode. Participants that were already in landscape mode noticed these elements, but those that were using the iPad in portrait mode did not discover that they could turn the iPad 90° to uncover these features.
In landscape mode within the Epicurious Recipes & Shopping List app, users would have been able to sort by recipe categories and favorite recipes.
To ensure that your users discover all of your navigation elements – and don’t get lost in your app – make the most basic elements obvious and provide visual cues for elements that are more advanced or hidden.
3. Swipes are more fun than clicks
The touchscreen tablet platform opens the door to novel ways of interacting with content. Leverage touch gestures like swipes and flicks where appropriate, and where users most expect them. For example, users expect to be able to pinch or spread to zoom content – a convention learned from touchscreen mobile phones – and most participants in our testing understood and were delighted by the action of swiping to the next page in apps like the New York Times Editor’s Choice or Time Magazine.
Apple’s iBook application lets users swipe to turn the page in iBooks.
Again, ensure these sometimes unexpected ways of interacting with your content are discoverable by providing indications or visual cues to your users.
4. Keep an eye out for emerging standards
The iPad has only been available for a few months, so the platform is new and rapidly evolving. As more users adopt the iPad or other touchscreen tablet devices, standards for navigation and interaction will emerge that have yet to be established. Users will become more familiar with these standard interactions over time, but certain functionality may take a while to catch on or, certainly, to become ubiquitous.
In the meantime, make sure your app is simple to use. If you are pushing the envelope to institute your own set of standards, make sure they are discoverable and intuitive. Most importantly, test them amongst your users. Keep an eye out as standards emerge and be prepared to incorporate new best practices as they are defined.
Our latest report will help content owners and digital marketers create a winning digital content strategy across mobile platforms. Go here for more information about the iPad user experience research.
