We have all been waiting anxiously for the unveiling of the iPad Mini and have been especially wondering what the UI design will be like- more importantly how large will the UI design be? The difficulty for Apple is that for loyal customers who already have an iPad and an iPhone, an iPad Mini is a device that is a combination of the other two. With large phones and small tablets, it’s important to look at the space of the UI and to consider what elements could fit in the UI design and how what the use case of the device would be. I can imagine myself using the iPad Mini when I am travelling light, but what would I use it for? The iPad Mini runs in direct competition with the Kindle Fire and I am not sure that many people would pay the extra money for the brand of the iPad Mini. Amazon has referenced the specs and it wins if you consider the screen resolution, sound quality and the fact that it can play HD films.
For designers of apps, the iPad Mini also poses another difficulty. Now designers must scale iOS apps for three different sized devices. This is a challenge. However, there are different tools out there for drafting UI designs, which can help with this. The best strategy I would advise would be to create a mockup of a UI design for a mobile app or webpage first, then adapt it to fit the UI of the iPad Mini and then of the iPad. It’s a lot of work, but I think this is much better than having to cut things out of your existing design. UI designs are much better when the core features are there that are necessary.
