DEECD iPads for Learning
To showcase the project, the DEECD wanted a public website heavily optimized in its presentation and content to fully leverage the iPad's touch screen.
The Brief
Late in 2010 Lava was approached with a particularly interesting case study that we’d like to share with you. An iPad related tender arrived from the Victorian Government Department of Education & Early Childhood Development (DEECD). In short, they are running a trial in Victorian schools where iPads are being used for various purposes to determine their feasibility and best practice applications. It’s a fascinating project, covering schools such as The Royal Children’s Hospital.
To showcase the project, the DEECD wanted a public website heavily optimized in its presentation and content to fully leverage the iPad’s touch screen.
Lava’s Solution
Being an iPad optimised site meant we had some new user functions available, that is not possible on a typical mouse driven desktop website. We used swipe, touch (to replace clicking), and drag and drop. The trick was matching these up against the site map and determining the best combinations. For example, the limited screen real estate on Home gave us an opportunity to enable the user to swipe to see more of the feature case studies (i.e. we could now use one space on the screen to present a bigger pool of items). Touch was great for the main menu (with big buttons for fingers!). Drag and drop was a great fit for the Multimedia Gallery, where users can drag photos to enlarge, and videos to play.
The iPad screen works to a fixed resolution, so it’s very contained. Rather than cheat and incorporate lots of scrolling, we disciplined ourselves to determine smart ways to use the screen space and interactivity. Orientation was also a key consideration. Yep, that means adjusting the site so that it changes when the user turns their iPad on its side - Scary! To do this justice, our graphic designers were again involved, rather than leaving it to the discretion of the programmers. A real positive of optimizing for the iPad was that we could build to a single operating system, 1 browser and 1 resolution, therefore fully utilising HTML 5 and CSS3.
When researching and planning the build, we quickly discovered there are very few quality iPad optimized sites in the world at present, aside from say nike.com. Most sites instead present in their traditional generic desktop browser version. Therefore, many of our references came from observing layouts and interactions used for iPad Apps. We looked at things like the ABC (Australia’s) great news app, and how it handles presenting many content items. The Flipboard app was another key reference. It’s put together beautifully and in particular, we love how it presents text content scrolling and also how it adjusts from landscape orientation to portrait (and vice-versa). This is crucial to iPad site design.
The iPads for Learning project and Lava-built iPad optimized site is truly innovative and has been embraced wholeheartedly by the education community.
Testimonial
Dear Lava,
I would like to acknowledge the remarkable work you have done on the iPads for Learning website. While your tender stood out from the crowd, the complexity of our requirements and the tight timeline to "go live" was always going to place extreme pressure on both your creativity and construction abilities.
The Request For Quote stated that "The website needs to be aesthetically beautiful", a phrase we deliberated over including. I am glad we did. We also asked for a cutting edge website that would utilise the abilities of the iPad and draw visitors in its own right.
This website design has exceeded our expectations and is constantly described as unique and the best presented website on an iPad. It has been a source of pride for the trial team to see the content we have developed presented in such an extraordinary manner.
Your work ethic, approachability, flexibility in accommodating design changes and professionalism have driven this project and made you all a pleasure to work with.
On behalf of the iPads for Learning Trial Team please accept our thanks not only for the construction of a truly exceptional website but in the manner in which you have conducted yourselves.
Regards,
Pat McGarry
Senior Project Officer, Ultranet
Office for Government School Education
Department of Education & Early Childhood Development
