All iPads Landscape or Portrait Mode - what is most common?

[rui no onna]

Always in landscape unless an app forces portrait.

With Stage Manager, even forced portrait is avoidable.

 

[BhaveshUK]

Thank you very much for your thoughts and time.

Here is the latest email reply from the marketing firm:

"We did implement a workaround and hope this helps change what you are seeing on your iPads. Our developer has added a landscape mode breakpoint to to the website and tweaked pages in the areas you called out. This should help things look as normal as possible in landscape mode. This is our absolute best option without manually redesigning every element of the site.

At the end of the day, of course, this is your website and we want you to be satisfied with the finished product. If you would like, we can scope out this additional work and provide you with an estimate and timeline. Please let us know if you would like to explore that."

What do you suppose a "workaround" means? Should this be an acceptable fix? Could this "workaround" fail if future devices have slightly different screen sizes, dimensions or ratios?

I appreciate the collective wisdom of the group.

Reviewing the above information, I'm going to link this guidance from Elementor directly about breakpoints. From that last email, it sounds like they added an additional breakpoint "Tablet Extra" (by default, 1200px to 1366px). When they mention tweaking pages, I feel they have adjusted elements wholesale across all breakpoints with the hope it will make your issues go away with minimal effort on their part.

I personally do not feel it is the "absolute best option", it is simply the cheapest and easiest option for them. The actual absolute best option would be to manually design every element of the website across various breakpoints to work according to your vision. The phrasing at the end around scoping out additional work with estimates and timeframes rubs me completely the wrong way as this should not fall out of the scope of your original budget.

 

[darngooddesign]

"iPads, and almost all other tablets, are built to be used primarily in portrait mode. Landscape mode is really designed for videos, movies, gaming, etc. That doesn’t mean people don’t use landscape mode to browse the web, it just isn’t the primary intent of that setting. This is why so many websites or apps don’t rotate at all when using an iPad or tablet.

First of all, that is simply not true. Every iPad keyboard has them positioned in landscape.

Secondly, it doesn’t sound like your developers know anything about web accessibility because rotation lock is a compliance failure. I suggest you have a serious conversation with them about accessibility and your site because you are legally responsible for making sure your site is accessibile.

Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.4: Orientation | WAI | W3C

 

[Macky-Mac]

Landscape or portrait.....an interesting question with interesting responses.

I use my iPad in landscape mode except for the rare site that will only do portrait.

I do recall that in the early days of tablets, there were a lot of sites that were in portrait mode only, but those seems to be less common these days. I suppose that the early success of the Kindle e-reader suggested that reading books would be a major use for tablets, and that may have lead developers to initially think that portrait mode was the way to go.....at least until it became clear that tablets were becoming more than e-readers.

 

[cthompson94]

iPad Pro 12.9" 99% landscape

 

[rui no onna]

Landscape or portrait.....an interesting question with interesting responses.

I use my iPad in landscape mode except for the rare site that will only do portrait.

I do recall that in the early days of tablets, there were a lot of sites that were in portrait mode only, but those seems to be less common these days. I suppose that the early success of the Kindle e-reader suggested that reading books would be a major use for tablets, and that may have lead developers to initially think that portrait mode was the way to go.....at least until it became clear that tablets were becoming more than e-readers.

I have a feeling that has more to do with phones than e-readers. Mobile websites will be optimized for devices with more marketshare and I expect smartphones have the largest marketshare.

I reckon most phones tend to be used in portrait unless watching videos, taking pictures or gaming.