Question

I’ve gone through the HIG PDF and could not find an answer to this sort of scenario in an app. Basically is it okay that say a part/view(s) of my application (for the iPad) is Landscape orientation only (left and right supported) while another part/view(s) of the same application is made Portrait only (normal and upside down)? Or is that a sure recipe for rejection?

Answer 1

I don’t think it’s a sure recipe for rejection. It’s a sure recipe for a funky user experience though. I suspect the Apple reviewers will question why that is. If there’s actually a valid reason why you would require your users to rotate their device in the middle of using the application then that might be ok. I think in most cases, Apple will simply ask you to support all orientations and use scroll views when things don’t fit or rearrange your user interface based on the current orientation to make it work.

So in short, if you have a valid explanation why that is, you might want to add it to the Notes for the reviewers section in iTunesConnect when submitting your app (to avoid the question and the rejection).

In my opinion, simply try to support all orientations if possible. It’ll make for a better UX, avoid weird customer questions and bad comments in iTunes store from users who simply can’t understand why you did that… Just my 2 cents 🙂