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User Interface design focuses on the user’s experience and interaction with an application or device. The goal of a user-centered design should be to make the user’s experience and interaction as simple and efficient as possible.

Apple’s iPad is a little beauty, and creating user interface optimized applications is another experience altogether. According to Apple, you can take full advantage of the device capabilities to enable enhanced interaction.

Simply converting iPhone apps into iPads Apps might be technically easy but the likely result is compromised user experience. I believe all iPhone App Design must be scaled up to take advantage of the phenomenal features of the iPad. All applications should be rebuilt for the iPad to do justice to the device and of course for a better user experience for people.

Following are a few basic rules to follow when designing GUI interfaces for iPads:

1. Enhance Interactivity

The iPad applications should give people innovative ways to interact with content whilst performing a defined task. Don’t fill the large screen with features that are not related to the main defined task. Don’t get carried away by doing all you couldn’t in designing an iPhone app previously.

2. Reduce Information Hierarchy

Give people innovative ways to interact with content but don’t make them visit many different screens to access the information they’re looking for. When designing, focus on the main screen for primary content and additional tools or information can be presented in an auxiliary view.

3. Support All Orientations

People should be able to interact with iPad from any side by providing great experience in all orientations (horizontal or vertical).

4. Delight People with Spectacular Graphics

The iPad has a good high-resolution screen which supports beautiful, classy and rich graphics. Do justice to the device by designing equally compatible and rich graphics - simple task with high rewards

5. Minimize Modality

iPad applications should allow users to interact in nonlinear ways. Extreme modality interrupts people’s workflow forcing them to choose a particular path.

6. Consider Multifinger Gestures

The iPad screen also provides great scope for multifinger gestures, and sometimes including gestures more than one person.

7. Reduce Full-Screen Transitions

When you perform lesser screen transitions, your application has greater visual stability which helps people keeping track of their tasks. Avoid screen swapping and embed information changes only in the area of user interface that need it.

8. Start and Stop Instantly

iPad applications should start as quickly as possible and stop when people press the home button to open another application.

These are a few basic guidelines every user experience designer should have in mind when designing applications for the iPad.