Don’t Bother Designing for the iPad
While, yes, the iPad is very pretty; having a specific stylesheet for the iPad is useless.
Its resolution is 1024×768, which you should be already designing for
As a web designer and somebody who has a small screen, I make sure my websites will fit on that resolution, and why shouldn’t you? The most common screen resolution is 1024×768. Accommodating those with smaller resolutions only benefits you because you are allowing easy viewing to those who have that resolution.
Since the iPad browser views in that resolution, make your website compatible with that screen resolution and the iPad should render it fine.
It’s versatile like the iTouch
The iPad and the iTouch are essentially the same, but the iPad is just a bigger version of it. So, when you think of it, do you really need to design specifically for it? It is very understandable to design for the iTouch, but I never had the need to. The iTouch fits most websites very well in its normal viewing mode and it’s wide screen view.
In short, since the iPad has the same viewing functionality as the iTouch, it will most likely have no trouble viewing most websites.
Again, it’s just a big iTouch
I think people keep forgetting that it is very similar to the iTouch in browser rendering, but it has a higher resolution. With that in mind, if your website renders perfectly on the iTouch, then the iPad will render it similarly.
Nicole,
Some nice points, but I would have to disagree a little bit. Here’s the reason why: While you may not need to adjust the resolution or size formatting, there are a lot of usability issues that are changing. For example, if your design depends a lot on hover states, small links, or center-of-the-page navigation, it could be hard to access with your thumbs only.
Over all I see your point, I just don’t think we should necessarily discount the tablets entirely.
Nice thoughts.
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Nicole Foster Reply:
April 29th, 2010 at 11:06 PM
You make a very good point Preston.
Usability absolutely should be highly considered when making a website. Usually if you can properly make your website usable, it is very possible the website will convert nicely to the iPad. While I do see most website designer disregarding usability, the ones that do often create exceptionally usable websites, thus those websites usually convert very well.
I think it comes down to the structure of your website. If it is built correctly with usability and functionality in mind, I believe that the iPad will be able to handle the website very well. The iPad has very good web standards, so I believe a correctly structured website will have no problem on the iPad.
Heck, I don’t consider my portfolio exceptionally usable, but it converts very nicely on the iPad
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