"iPad users not our target audiance"

padser

Seems like a very weird position to adopt in a post stickied for the entire site.

As someone who access boards through a range of devices (desktop, laptop, mobile and tablet - along I'm sure with lots of other users) it seems really strange to me to tell me that when I'm on my iPad I'm not the target audience.....

Dav

You're not getting the full context of the statement. iPad isn't the target audience for the new layout - it's built for a full computer that uses a mouse and keyboard for navigation, not a touch screen device. touch.boards.ie is designed for iOS/Android/touch screen browsers until such a time as we roll out an iOS and Android app for the site (which is very much on the cards). We had an iOS app almost finished, but we weren't happy with it - it had nothing to distinguish it really from just using the touch site, so we've gone back to the drawing board with it.

I hope that clears things up for you.

seamus

You've misquoted it:

"This isn't to say we're leaving iPad users in the dark, but that they're not our target audience currently but we will improve things as we go along"

Basically meaning that while those on iPads will experience some issues for the moment, these issues won't be addressed in the short-term because there are only so many resources to go around. However, the issues will be addressed later on.

Any design of a site can't accomodate everyone's needs simultaneously. You first focus on your big audiences - in this case people on desktops and laptops. When you have 90% of them happy, then you can start looking at the smaller large audiences.

iPads operate on a halfway house because they don't come with a pointing device, and a few other specific differences. This means that it becomes very difficult to redesign the site for both traditional computers and tablet devices at the same time. However, they also differ from smaller mobile devices primarily due to screen size - so the touch site which works well on iOS, is really designed for small mobile devices.

This means you need a third tier - a site layout which accomodates a touch interface, but also makes good use of the extra screen space.

As the number of users on tablet devices is currently quite small, this is something that will have to wait until the upgrades for the bigger audiences are done.

Boards.ie: Danny

The position we adopt is in relation to the new style only, it is only mentioned in the announcement about that. The new skin is not for iPad users. It was designed for display on a desktop with a minimum width of 960px wide with a full feature complement and accompanying speed (the new site is very javascript heavy).

The iPad is an embedded touch screen device and currently it is incredibly hard to debug for - there are no developer tools, no javascript console; it's an absolute nightmare if I'm honest and no amount of Firebug Lite will help. Currently (on an iPad at least) the new skin is functional.

iPad visits to the full Boards site account for 5.92% of all visitors. The investment of time and resources into getting the new skin fully functioning on an iPad can be better spent elsewhere like providing themes and feature improvements for the 90% of users on a non-embedded machine and doing other projects. There are plans to upgrade the touch website down the line - a site which was designed for touchscreen and small resolution devices like the iPad and iPhone.

Hopefully this clarifies the matter from a technical standpoint/reasoning

Danny

Rabies

How has the % of mobile viewers grown over the last few years?

Many people still using m.boards or have they migrated to touch.boards ?

Blowfish

Boards.ie: Danny wrote: »

The iPad is an embedded touch screen device and currently it is incredibly hard to debug for - there are no developer tools, no javascript console; it's an absolute nightmare if I'm honest and no amount of Firebug Lite will help. Currently (on an iPad at least) the new skin is functional.

Would looking into integrating something like Tapatalk not be easier than writing an app from scratch? I know you've hacked vbulletin so it definitely wouldn't be just plug and play, but it should still be doable and is cross platform too so would work for all touch devices.

I should say also that I actually find the touch site pretty decent, the only thing I miss really from the desktop version is the notifications thingy that came in with the new beta, the other discrepancies are minor enough

[Edit] Actually, never mind. Found an old post from Conor saying that along the way you've pulled out the plugin system for vbulletin. I imagine with that it'd be pretty nightmarish to try and integrate third party plugins at this point. :-)

dr.bollocko

Can you also send me a Bluetooth keyboard that makes it easier to type on my iPad?

iPads grand for browsing IMO.