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IPAD 2 BUYERS’ GUIDE
On iPhone vs. iPad
OmniFocus is the only Omni Group app to be offered on both
the iPad and iPhone - an easy opportunity for the company to
bring code from one device to another. But it didn’t. “Really,
we didn’t move the iPhone version to the iPad - it was a total
redesign for the iPad,” Case notes, “and is each time we take an
existing title to a new platform. The solutions that worked on
the iPhone didn’t work on the iPad and we had to think about
how best to use the screen real estate available to use. Since
people use their iPhones differently than they use their iPads,
it was also an opportunity for us to rethink the software and
in this case, that yielded Forecast and Review,” the former a
new feature that will will migrate to OmniFocus for iPhone.
IDESIGN
Designing Notification Sounds For iPads
“[Y]our usable frequency range is narrow,” Case mentions;
lows become scratchy and highs get buzzy through the iPads’
speakers, so mid-focused, inoffensive sounds are best. “The
whole point of a notification sound is to get your attention
and, not only do you never know what mood you’re going
to be in when you get it, but you’re going to hear this sound
potentially several times a day, sometimes in succession. So,
it’s important that it doesn’t scream ‘FIRE’ - a common mistake
for notification sounds - when what it really means is ‘Hey, I
have that thing you asked for when you have a moment.’ “
On the Advantages of iPad
Extra screen space doesn’t always
justify new multi-touch gestures.
“You can’t play water polo in your
bathtub - there simply isn’t enough
room to put an app like OmniGraffle
on your iPhone and do it justice, so
even though OmniFocus was a good
fit for the iPhone, it might not be
for all of our applications,” explains
Case. “We started thinking about
all sorts of gesture combinations
that we could do, but in the end we
felt like they actually made the app
harder to use.... All that said, we will
occasionally introduce a gesture as
a short cut, like twisting a shape in
OmniGraffle to rotate it.”
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