With the release of the iPad this past weekend, many web design companies and consultants like us are scrambling to test client web sites on the iPad. Here’s an online application that lets you see your web site on the iPad and what you need to look for.
To see your web site on the iPad, simply go to ipadpeek.com and type in the address of your web site in the site’s iPad interface. Viola!
So what should you be looking for?
- Do your Flash applications work properly?
The iPad runs the Safari web browser and does feature full Flash support, but you should test your Flash site or application to make sure it renders properly. - Where’s the “fold?”
When we design web sites, we pay special attention to where the first screen of content ends. We try to design key pages so that the screen ends while cutting some text or graphics in half so there’s a visual cue to scroll.You look at key pages on your web site to see that this convention has not been broken. If the iPad shows the site differently than you intend it to, you may need to make adjustments accordingly. - Do your forms work properly?
While there’s no reason to think they would not, you might want to run a few form test submissions to make sure nothing is broken.
April 6th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Dave says:
Good reminder, Rick. Thanks for being on top of it.
April 14th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
gavin says:
That is a very cool site!
So, besides flash not working, are there any major differences with the iPad rendering, than in IE7+ or Firefox 2+?
April 14th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
Rick Whittington says:
Gavin,
Someone contacted me via Twitter and said that their web site (for an international airport) was broken on the iPad. I took a look and noticed that the iPad was showing the mobile version of their web site.
Although I didn’t ask, I do believe their web server detects for a mobile device and displays a mobile version specifically for phones and mobile browsers. If you’re detecting for mobile devices server side, check your script and update it to accommodate the iPad. This site shows the iPad user agent if you’re interested.
That’s the only nuance I’ve found to date.
April 14th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
gavin says:
It sounds like the iPad user agent is too similar to the iPhone user agent. Ouch, that means a lot of sites will serve the mobile version to it.
April 14th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Rick Whittington says:
I suspect that’s true, especially if companies don’t update the mobile detection script they are running.
August 12th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Rob says:
Good reminder Rick! Everytime a new product like the iPad, Nook reader, Droid smartphone, etc is released we should do a through QA of our website!
Besides doing a manual click-through of the website I like to take a quick dive into my Google Analytics (or Percent Mobile) website analytic reports to see if these visitors are also meeting benchmark KPIs and checking to see if any specific 404 errors are being reported for these visitor types. Cheers!
February 8th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Bob says:
Actually ipadpeek is useless as it renders the site using whatever browser you at looking at it from. Even looking at ipadpeek via safari is no use as the version of Safari that the Ipad runs is different to the desktop browser and has bugs relating to scrolling that can’t be mimicked on a desktop. You can get the same effect by just resizing any browser window.