Design an iPad version of your website

If you think the hype that iPad has created and helped to start a revolution in how we'll view and interact with the net in times to come. With amazing sales already the iPad will without doubt become a standard device for using the net, and this may only keep growing as future versions are released, so perhaps it is time to look into modifying sites for iPad users.

As the screen dimensions of the iPad are dissimilar to mobile devices a separate version of a site is required for full compatibility. As a web designer fortunately this isn't a tough process to finish, and now Safari has an inbuilt iPad testing capability. Here, some things to bear in mind for iPad-friendly web design:

* The iPad has a screen resolution of 1024*768- so if you, like the majority of us, have been designing with 960 pixels (or the 960 grid system), you ought to be fine. Nevertheless it is important to notice the iPad can and will show your website in both portrait and landscape modes automatically - so having some fluidity or pliability is a smart idea. The multi-touch screen implies that visitors will most likely put your design to work, pinching and zooming and so on.

*Remember: It is a touch screen. That suggests folks will be interacting with their fingers. A number of these fingers are large - explaining why it is so necessary to make your clickable links as clear as practical. And use white space wisely - don't group a handful of little links together. They may be straightforward to click with a mouse pointer, not so much with the top of your finger.

* The iPad doesn't support Flash, and likely will not shortly. Create fewer elements that are completely contingent upon Flash. Till you get yourself an iPad and testing on an iPhone browser or on Safari in OSX is usually a good idea. Test that you're XHTML and CSS is valid, test whether javascript is supported.