iPad Design Tools & Resources

by February 9, 2010

Apple's iPad has yet to be released to the public but that doesn't mean you can't start designing applications for it today. Here's a number of resources that can help get you on your way.

iPad Interactions

Video of New iPad Interactions

During Apple's 90 minute unveiling of the iPad, a lot of new multi-touch interactions were shown off. But they went by fast. Now you can quickly just catch the UI in action on Apple's new native iPad and iWork applications in these videos.

iPad Interesting Moments

The idea of this collection is to capture the interesting moments during the various iPad interactions (slow down time) to understand the nuances in their design. Explore the image galleries for these interaction snapshots.

iPad Photoshop Template

The iPad Photoshop Template was constructed using vectors, so it’s fully editable and scalable. You’ll notice there are a few new UI elements as compared to the iPhone interface.

iPad Stencil for Omnigraffle

This is the first version of an OmniGraffle template for designing iPad apps. It contains backgrounds, title bars, buttons, selectors, and other iPhone UI elements. The text is fully editable on lists, title bars, buttons, and scroll wheels.

iPad icon Photoshop template

A Photoshop template based off the exact overlays, outlines, and masks the iPhone and iPad OS use to mask icons. It’s made up entirely of shape layers and layer effects and should be completely pixel-accurate.

iPad User Experience Guidelines

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPad outline how to create user interfaces optimized for the iPad device. According to Apple, the best iPad applications: downplay application UI so that the focus is on content; present content in beautiful, often realistic ways; and take full advantage of device capabilities to enable enhanced interaction.

More..

More design-centric articles about the iPad