If you were building a site for sight-challenged people, you wouldn’t use tiny font sizes and impossible to read text, so if you are designing a site that is specifically aimed toward Tablet PC users, then it’s logical to design it so that it is optimized for folks actually using Tablet PCs.

As a Tablet user for 167 days (only know that because there’s a counter on the front page of this blog), I could go on a rant about some Tablet PC oriented sites look and behave uncomfortably in a Tablet PC, but I’ll save that for another time. If you’d like to attract Tablet PC users in large numbers, then consider that besides obviously having good Tablet PC oriented content you probably want to have a design that is friendly for Tablet PC users to actually use.

I don’t have any Tablet PC specific websites, but if I did have a tablet PC website then I’d try to do at least some of the following to make the site easier and more Tablet PC-user specific:

- portrait mode. keep in mind that some Tablet PC users prefer Portrait mode (I use this 95% of the time). This means if you have a really wide website it will require scrolling in a tablet. Grab a pen and try scrolling with it sometime? It’s not as smooth experience as using a mouse. It is possible with Javascript to detect the user’s screen resolution:

<SCRIPT language=”JavaScript”>
<!–
if ((screen.width>=1024) && (screen.height>=768))
{
window.location=”landscape.html”;
}
else
{
window.location=”portrait.html”;
}
//–>
</SCRIPT>

Consider using something like that to see how a Tablet user is viewing the website and redirecting or reformatting the content to be portrait view focused. 768 pixels wide is the most common format for portrait. That’s more narrow than the older, less used 800 width. So if your site looks messed up at 800 pixels, imagine how it looks with 32 pixels less.
- slate users usually don’t have keyboards by default. Slates do not come with keyboards (took me a month to buy one), so think of your UI for a moment and consider if you are requiring a lot of typing for tablet users to interact at the site. If/when you can support ink or audio on your site then take advantage of it.
- think ink. It may sound cliched, but come up with innovative ways for us tablet users to share in ink with others at your website. Ink is one of the coolest aspects of owning a tablet so a site which thinks all text and little to no ink isn’t really catering to Tablet users. A good example of thinking ink is Tablet PC buzz using ink signatures for their messageboards or, even better, Channel9 actually allowing users to post in ink.
- color scheme and outside viewing. Consider using a color / design that can be easier seen outside and also in poor lighting conditions. Tablet PCs are meant to be mobile and assuming they are used primarily in an office condition is flawed.
- user bookmarks customization. Allow Tablet users to customize their favorite bookmarks of your site on the homepage of the site. Again, this is a non-keyboard thing. Provide one click frontpage bookmark saving for each primary area if there is not already a very visible, obvious link on the front page. If they can customize their favorite links on the front page of your site it makes it easier to navigate to them. Sure, Greasemonkey could be used to provide a handy mod like this for your site.
- choose shorter, easier to type/remember domains. Would you want to ink (or type) one character at a time: thissiteisgreatfortabletpcusers.com? If you don’t have a short domain that means something, then choose one that does. Consider using URL shortening services like TDurl.
- everything else I forgot to list. Helps to actually be a Tablet PC owner I suppose, so if you want to design a killer Tablet PC website so probably the first thing to do is become a Tablet PC owner. I’ve probably left out a ton of additional great ideas, so feel free to use the comments to add your ideas on the subject.

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