Designing Websites and Email Campaigns with Tablets in Mind

The Apple iPad, the HTC Flyer, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab are just some of the devices that make up the burgeoning tablet market. These handy gadgets have arrived and surprisingly, stolen a bit of thunder from the smartphone phenomenon. More consumers are doing their computing on tablets, and as this continues to become the in-thing to do, online marketers will need to find ways to cater to this new audience. For most, it starts with the website.

Are more people starting to view your online content on iPads, Galaxys and other devices? If so, here is what you can do to make your website more tablet-friendly:

Think Beyond Mobile

So, you realize that mobile is upon us and have gotten prepared by creating a new version of your site to cater to the mobile user. That’s all fine and dandy, but you are still unprepared as far as tablets are concerned. When you design for visitors using iPhones and BlackBerrys, you are aiming for a much smaller screen. Though compact and portable, most tablets are closer to the size of computers than their mobile counterparts. Because of the differences, you can pretty much take designing for mobile out of the picture. In fact, we recommend it.

Know Where You Stand on Flash

If your conventional website is heavily dependent on Flash, you need to make a tough decision when it comes to optimize for the tablet market. It gets even harder when factoring in that, not all tablet devices are the same. Perfect example - neither the iPad or iPad 2 is equipped with support for Flash. According to Apple, the multimedia technology was left out because of its excessive need for resources and tendency to crash. However, most other devices are compatible with the latest versions of the Adobe platform. With the iPad being the most popular of the bunch, you may want to stick to HTML 5, which has many of the same capabilities and is supported by most competing tablets.

Focus on Layout and Navigation

Although tablets have a considerably larger screen than traditional mobile devices, there is still enough of a difference in size to warrant some fine-tuning. Email templates, website layout, and navigation are areas that deserve the utmost attention when planning your design. Everything from your links and images should be of appropriate size and tablet-friendly. You have to remember that most of these devices operate on touch screen functionality. This means there is no maneuvering and clicking with the mouse. In short, your design could either make the experience comfortable for the tablet user, or unbearable.

They are still relatively new in the marketplace, but it is pretty safe to say that tablets are here to stay. Pretty soon, more of your traffic will start coming from these devices, and if you are not prepared, then you will be missing out on opportunities. Now is the time to start planning how you can create an optimal experience for the tablet surfer.