With Two Million iPads Sold, A New Device Forces Designers To Consider Touch

Outrageous Growth For A New Device - Selling Two Million iPads Per Month
Apple has sold two million iPads in a two month period, according to the company. Twenty eight days after the iPad's release, Apple sold the first million iPads. One month later, the company again sold another one million of the devices.Recently, Apple began to sell the devices internationally. This July the iPad will be for sale in and additional nine more countries.

Affect On The Design Industry
The iPad has already had an impact on the web design and graphic design industries. More companies, both large and small, have had to shift the way they approach mobile and portable devices, screens and the use of such web-focused technology. Many have stated opinions that the iPad failed to transform the news and media world in the way that Apple purported it would. However, it is very earlier in the game, technologies can often take hold in a more evolutionary way--creeping into the fabric of society with an initial sense of extravagance but later taking on more practical and profound applications with time.

Vocabulary Of Touch
The iPad is a tactile device that uses visual cues to instruct on the meaning of actions. The iPad and iPhone certainly changes our relationship to the screen.  For instance, the application Keynote has implemented a fairly sophisticated vocabulary of touch responses. From single touch, to long pauses, to double finger movements that can reshape objects or zoom in and out, to double tap interactions for deleting and copying. The iPad and iPhone will begin to form a new language of human/computer interactions and commands. Visual designers (from flat graphics to web) will have to guide users through this non-verbal and more tactile vocabulary of interactions. This will force designers to pay much more attention to the object / stylus (or finger as is the case) point of contact as a informative guide to how the user can interact with objects.