About the WiPad

The Wired iPad app seems to be the first one that people are really taking seriously, following Popular Science‘s early foray into the arena.

The major sticking points against it so far seem to be based around its size (500mb), the fact that it’s made up of flat, exported PNGs, and how you aren’t sure when to scroll down, and when not, all of which are eminently fixable.

Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects (who design news websites, among other things) however has spotted what he feels are more fundamental issues with the design. Over on the IA blog, he takes a much closer look at the grid and typography of the thing, and in doing so ends up in a fascinating conversation with the font designer of much of Wired‘s content, Jonathan Hoefler, and the creative director of NYT Online, Khoi Vinh.

What you get is a fascinating masterclass in some current design thinking (and disagreements) over designing for the iPad, and for screens in general. Essential reading, basically.