Sessions at SXSW Interactive 2011 about iPad on Sunday 13th March

With every new “form factor” comes a unique set of design conventions and interaction paradigms. The emergence of tablet interfaces such as the iPad marks a new chapter in digital design. How much of web navigation or smartphone conventions persist in this new world? And what are we seeing that's new? Are there specific wayfinding and browsing mechanisms that make for a satisfying and productive iPad user experience? Based on an assessment of 50+ iPad applications that run the gamut from utility/transactional interfaces to comic readers and other publishing apps, this presentation provides a focused analysis and assessment of navigation methods in a distilled format. Navigation schemas will be explored by interaction design themes, supported by examples, and recommendations on when best to employ them.

LEVEL: Intermediate

Before a single pixel is created, a line of code is written, or a marketing plan is conceived, a prospective app should be looked at strategically. Questions like, “What devices should be targeted?,” “Which category provides the best opportunity for success?,” or "How much will this app cost?," can have direct impacts on the actual development process.

This panel will explore the often overlooked, assumed, or ignored product strategy aspects of application development, describing them conceptually while showing them in practice for successful apps on the App Store.

LEVEL: Beginner

For the masses, the iPad is the latest, hottest, must-have toy. But, for people with disabilities the iPad is life changing: enabling communication, unlocking minds and fostering independence. However in purchasing these devices lays the challenge: oftentimes websites with product information are inaccessible to this market, which has a discretionary spending power of $175 billion in the United States alone.

The session’s goals are to identify some barriers people with disabilities regularly face, making it difficult to participate fully online; explain the four guiding principles of what makes blogs and websites accessible; and offer key questions to begin asking and what resources exist to make sites more accessible to this under tapped market.

By giving short vignettes of how people with disabilities are using iPads, faces are put to the size of this disability market - and putting faces to the need for web accessibility. This brings alive the technical requirements and guiding principles of web accessibility.

LEVEL: Intermediate

The content containers we call websites are failing their users because they put ads and page views before the needs and wants of their users. Users are becoming increasingly fed up and are actively looking for a way around this sponsored content. We are witnessing the emergence of a clear trend, one focused exclusively on making content available to consumers on their own terms. Case in point: Ad Block Plus, far and away the most downloaded plug-in ever. Another example is Safari, which now includes a feature that strips content out of its carefully designed container. Even iPad apps are getting into the mix. Two of the iPad’s most popular apps to-date are Pulse and Flipboard, both of which emphasize readability and relevance over impression-based monetization. In this session, Organic will look at how container cruft, link-bait and social broadcast have made the Web nearly unusable. The speaker will then introduce remedies to the issue, using the examples referenced above as well as a new Organic-designed iPad application that emphasizes content relevance, usability and personalization. The speaker will unveil the application at SXSW, delving into why they built it, how applications like this will shape the industry and, of course, what this means for Web users.

LEVEL: Intermediate

News organizations are investing a lot of faith and hope into news apps for tablets. Although they have embraced the iPad in different ways, similar design, product, and user experience problems have surfaced. What strategies must be applied to craft design experiences that are more illustrious than the browser? Through taming APIs, feeds, and algorithms, can they entice readers, seasoned and new to make an app a part of their daily news consumption ritual? With stakeholders from both the print and digital world, how do teams surface, manage, and design for divergent expectations? We have made it through the launch, and subsequent updates to, the first news iPad apps and will discuss design considerations and constraints we’ve encountered through this process.

LEVEL: Intermediate