Gowalla iPad vs iPhone
I've always loved the design of the Gowalla site and I've used their service sporadically in recent months.
If I am using Gowalla, my preferred method of doing so if through their iPhone app. It's a beautifully simple interface that allows me to 'check-in' effortlessly and to check on other friends whereabouts from the same screen. They have done a great job of making every pixel useful, using the small screen to it's full potential. However, I recently tried their iPad app and found the experience confusingly difficult. I couldn't understand how they managed to produce such an amazingly simple iPhone app and then proceeded to release less pleasing iPad version. The issue I have with their iPad app is with the placement of the core Gowalla 'check-in' feature. The only reason I ever open Gowalla is to 'check-in' and let people know of my location. However, the 'check-in' feature is nowhere to be seen on first inspection. On the iPhone it's impossible to miss the 'check-in' button, on the iPad app it's nearly impossible to find it! The opening screen shows me where I am on a Google map and shows me my friends 'recent activity' but that is all! Why on earth can I not see an option to 'check-in'?! If you go to the 'spots' tab then you are presented with a tiny little '+' icon that if you guess correctly will in fact allow you to 'check-in'. I have two suggestions, this icon should be made far more prominent and it should be available from every page within the app! Anyway, the underlying thing I wanted to get across from this rant is this, just because you have more space to implement features, don't over use the space! If your application has core functions be sure that they are always available and easy to find. What do you think? Have you got any similar examples? Let me know.
