OK, this criteria may not be the firmest point for the success of the Tablet PC in today’s marketplace. But I have to point out, some of these ideas are not half bad! While a number of the points made in this article from DevX.com are pretty obvious, a number of them would quite likely be overlooked if we did not have them slapping us in the face a good portion of the day.

I’ve seen a lot of Tablet PC applications, and when it comes to the user interface—some are good, but others are not so good.

I’m not talking about the underlying application design, or the back-end connections to databases, wireless networks or the Internet. Rather, many applications simply weren’t intuitive to use with a stylus in one hand, tablet in the other.

In some cases, the applications were nothing short of annoying—and we all know that annoying software turns into neglected shelfware. Worse, a bad experience might turn users off the Tablet PC concept altogether, hurting your chances for selling them new tab-friendly applications.

Based on my experiences, and with some input from my colleague and from überprogrammer Larry O’Brien, I’ve come up with a list of eight essentials of good Tablet PC user interface design.

These should all be “Doh!” in their obviousness, but be honest: Do all the apps that you’ve created adhere to these simple design goals? If not—why not? And what are you going to do about it?ppy customer.