2011: Year of the Tablet

January 13, 2011

Last week saw the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and a chance to identify the hot gadget for this year. The result? Internet Tablets

With the iPad released last year to much fanfare, rival tablets are being designed and manufactured by the likes of Samsung, Motorola and Levono using the latest Google Android operating system.

What does this mean for web design? Well the principles are similar to mobile design. We have to consider more that users will need larger buttons or target areas to use for links, terms such as click here will be a thing of the past (will your user be clicking or touching?) and hover states will need to not be imperative for communicating as hover is non-existent on a tablet.

Overall, it progresses the idea that the process of browsing websites needs to be further streamlined and that we need to be more cut-throat in what we prioritise for our users rather than bombarding them with several messages and ideas.

This can only improve the user experience through the simplifying of websites and tasks whilst keeping page sizes and load times down. It’s going to be an interesting year ahead!