Touchable design and tablet computers like Apple’s iPad are revolutionizing the way companies brand. This new platform demands a new way of thinking and designing and a radical shift in customer experience and understanding.
Cult of Mac got these exclusive excerpts from iPhone photography and design guru Dan Marcolina, also the author of iPhone Obsessed. His thoughts about where the world of iPad design is headed are part of the forthcoming fourth edition of “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler. The book will be published in March, 2012.
Marcolina maintains that it’s about more than designing for a certain device, but designing for a device that transforms the entire interaction process.
“Designing for the tablet lets me direct and deepen the experience of the viewer,” he told Cult of Mac. “I can create brand ‘magic’ like no other format. Imagine the possibilities: the best design with smart video, engaging experiences, and measurable, interactive assets.”
Here’s more of what Marcolina had to say about some key design issues.
Why the designing on the iPad is closer to print than digital:
The experience, although digital, is more like print. The form factor is more like a book the user can hold (without wires) allowing the viewer direct control with touch. This medium engages the user more because it is more personal.
How tablet designing pushes traditional barriers:
Touch, sound, motion, “print design” can now move audiences into an intimate interactive 10-inch space. This requires new thinking, not only scale, placement and color translation, but also navigation, use of sound, motion, iconography. Technical barriers of entry like file size, content viewer platform, iTunes/distribution must be considered. It all goes into shaping the tone and attitude of the brand.
On what good tablet design means for branding:
The tablet offers a full and consistent brand experience. You can be confident that the brand experience is the way you designed it. It is so different than designing for the web, where the playback is altered by size of screen, browser type, connection speed, font limitations. All communication is intentional and not arbitrary. And unlike print– you get immediate response from a call to action, in addition to analytics on page views. It measures the success of the experience.
How good design maximizes advertising:
Unlike the print and desktop web experience, you can offer unique mobile brand enhancements that take advantage of location, direction, speed, angle of view, time of day, user habits. Brands can offer custom-tailored, intimately engaging content. Imagine ads that know your location, time of day, angle of view, speed of travel and your last 10 web searches. As a brand manager, these metrics spawn a whole new approach to connecting with customers. And a whole new complex deployment grid of ad sales are instantly available to “digital publication” ad managers.
You can check out Marcolina’s interactive iPad portfolio as a free download on iTunes called Printeractivideo, visit his sites marcolina.com (Flash version) or marcolinaslate.com (iPad version) or check out his upcoming talk at DesignPhiladelphia.
