Why do we need new Facebook clients for iPad

Facebook has yet to release an official client application for iPad. In its absence, others have developed relatively lackluster alternatives. Their approach is decent, but insufficient; it is not enough to replicate the Facebook web experience. What works online is not necessarily appropriate for a touchscreen. These contenders are hardly different from accessing Facebook.com via iPad’s built-in web browser.

FaceUp rethinks the touch interface and replaces tabs and pages with “friend cards” that a user can move, rearrange, and interact with... like an open digital table top.

A note on these mock-ups

These images shown here represent landscape orientation only. FaceUp for iPad would also be portrait-compatible.

Current options: Friendly for iPad, Social for iPad.

Interface

Change views

Use Workspace View, List View, and View by Name to skim your friends in the manner that you find easiest. Pick the one that works best for what you're doing.

Friend cards

The basic unit of FaceUp for iPad, each card represents someone that you’re friends with. Each card displays that person’s name, photo and network.

Main navigation

Get easy access to your Recent News feeds, Profile, Search, and your Settings (both Account and Privacy) via the top-right navigation buttons.

Viewing your friends

Your friend cards can be arranged in a lot of different ways, which is important... especially if you have a lot of friends. FaceUp offers three effective ways to look at your Facebook relationships; use the one that makes the most sense to you.

The main view in FaceUp, Workspace View, gives you a free-form digital table top to arrange your friends on. To move a card, tap-and-hold one, then drag it around the screen.

Add more cards to the interface by selecting one of the group “stacks” at the bottom... or find a friend using the built-in search feature.
If you need a little structure, select View By Name. FaceUp will rearrange your friend cards into an easily navigable list by last name.

As in Workspace View, you can scroll the top viewing area left and right. Group stacks on the bottom also scroll left and right if you have more than three.
Feeling organized? Use List View to see all your friends in easily navigable lists. Scroll each column up and down to see more friend cards in that group... or swipe the columns left or right to see other groups (if you have more than three).

Useful screens

All of your most important screens are here - your Recent News Feed, your Profile, Search, and Account/Privacy Settings. FaceUp gives you everything you’d expect from the web app... optimized for iPad.

Recent News Feed

See your friends’ recent updates, photos, and shared links in your feed by tapping its icon in the top-right corner. You can “like” or comment on anything right there.

Select a status to view recent comments and “likes” in the column on the right.

Profile

View a friends’s profile by tapping their friend card and selected “View Profile.” Here, you can view all of Facebook’s native applications and functions - the “Wall,” statuses, messages, and chat.

The right side contains useful actions. Photos display at the top of the left side.

Search

Need to find a friend? Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top-right to bring up the on-screen keyboard and search field.

As you type, FaceUp filters your friends and displays the friend cards that match your search terms in real-time.

Workflow: Talking to a friend

Perhaps you want to write on a friend's wall. Let's find him using Workspace View. Use the arrow next to each iPad to cycle through the steps:

  1. Open Workspace View. Use the top-left icons (one on the far-left).
  2. Select your friend. An options menu will fan out.
  3. Select “Write on his wall.” A keyboard will pop up.

When you write on your friend’s Wall, you can attach photos from your Library.

Workflow: Talking to a group

It’s almost your birthday, and you want to get some friends together. Use FaceUp to collect their friends together. Use FaceUp to collect their friend cards, circle them with your finger, and send them a message.

  1. From Workspace View, move a few cards around into a pile/group. Circle this new group with your finger; an options menu will fan out.
  2. You can others to this group by tapping one of a pre-existing group from the bottom row.
  3. Send all your friends a message, or whatever you need to do.