Design differences

After research to find design differences between small and large touch screens one result is that not a lot of sources exist which describe the differences between both screen sizes. The used sources are Apple design guidelines, the Apps in the App store and different Internet sources such as the fragmenting programming class from An-droid. Based on the research material the following differences are discovered:

No multi finger gestures vs. uses multi finger gestures: 
Multi finger gestures such as drag and drop are very common for the iPad. For the iPhone multi finger gestures such as drag and drop are not recommended because the screen is too small and larger scale multi finger gestures are complicated to realise for the user. Smaller multi finger gestures are possible for smaller screens, but it would also be good to offer alternatives in the interactions design that are more obvious for the user. [See blog: Second sketches – iPad]

Fragment the content vs. more content on the screen:
It is clear that because of the small screen of the iPhone les content can be shown in-stead of the iPad. Related to this the content has to be fragmented and can only be shown in a series of screens. For the iPad more content can be on a screen. [See blog: Fragmenting]

Functional design vs. realistic imagery:
Also because of the small screen of the iPhone the design is more functional oriented than the design for iPad, which works with more realistic imagery and decoration. Fol-lowing pictures are good example for these differences. On the one hand the very func-tional oriented design for the iPhone and on the other hand the very realistically design for the iPad, which looks like a real adressbook or magazine:

[See blog: Second sketches – iPad]

Additionally it is important to understand that the described design differences are sub-ject to rapid change at the moment because the area of interaction design is influenced for example by new innovations and change very quickly.

Apple, 2010. iPad Human Interface Guidelines. Apple (online).  Available at: http://www.hung-truong.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/iPadHIG.pdf [Accessed 20 November 2010].

Net-A-Poter: Apps. Available at: http://www.net-a-porter.com/app?cm_mmc=GoogleUK-_-Net-App-_-Net-App-_-Net-App&bbcid=2625 [Accessed 20 November 2010].