Questions relating to mobile computing devices, such as cell phones, tablets, and e-readers. Includes consideration for both small screen size as well as the mobile and "always on" nature of the devices.

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12
votes
8answers
2k views

Responsive web design Vs Separate website for Mobile

Responsive Web design is buzzword these days. which means to create a same website and optimized for all devices. There are also some website which convert the desktop websites into Mobile website ...
14
votes
8answers
3k views

Should we provide “back” button for mobile website?

In mobile website for all smartphones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows phone 7), should I provide a "Back" button inside the webpage even when the browser has functionality to go to back? ...
20
votes
4answers
845 views

How does use in bright sunlight affect how a web site should be designed?

We're building a mobile web site that will mainly be used outdoors in bright sunlight. What design factors should I consider?
7
votes
4answers
4k views

Breadcrumbs: ok to use on mobile site?

Wondering if anyone has thoughts on using breadcrumbs as a method of navigation on a mobile website (for a content site). The breadcrumbs would show the heirarchy of the site as such: Site >> ...
34
votes
10answers
2k views

What's the point in electronic devices beeping on keypress?

Many electronic devices, mostly cell phones, by default beep on keypress. What's the point in that? Once a key is pressed their state is changed and that's reflected in the graphic interface anyway. ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views

Table data in Mobile phones

I want to display a table with 4/5 columns and possibly 100 rows (as in desktop app right now) in smartphones. The table cells are also editable. Now we want to port this desktop app to smartphones ...
13
votes
8answers
1k views

Do you know any comparative resources like mobile-patterns.com [closed]

Mari Sheibley is the lead designer of foursquare and has created this awesome site comparing mobile UI patterns - for example showing how a feed page looks in different applications, etc. I've found ...
23
votes
17answers
6k views

Tools for creating mockups for mobile device UIs [closed]

I am looking for tools that can help me to create UI mockups for different mobile phones such as iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. Is there any application that can do this?
91
votes
17answers
7k views

How could one prevent drunk users from using a mobile application?

Consider a mobile application which for some reason needs to prevent drunk users from using it (e.g. to avoid dreaded "drunk dials" or "drunk texts"). How could "sober authentication" be executed from ...
14
votes
8answers
2k views

How to improve the smartphone keyboard layout?

I have loads of problems with the small keys on my smartphone as my fingers cover them completely. I guess most people have the same problem. The Qwerty keyboard layout was designed for ten-finger ...
5
votes
4answers
986 views

What are some articles talking about best practices and trends for mobile touch screen design? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Are there any good resources about designing touch screen interfaces? Can someone direct me to either an article (e.g. Forrester) or texts that talk about touch screen ...
13
votes
5answers
1k views

How to represent level of difficulty while selecting a game?

I am working on a menu to select from various (3) game variants shown from top to bottom, each variant offering different difficulty levels. The difficulty will be selected by swiping (touch input ...
8
votes
4answers
474 views

How do I handle secondary navigation within a wizard-style form that will work for touch screens?

I am working on redesigning the UI for a Web app that registers users for something work-related (so my audience is captive). One of the main reasons for the redesign is to make it mobile-friendly; I ...
13
votes
4answers
272 views

What's the Best Interface for Entering Canadian Postal Codes on a Smartphone Keyboard?

Typical smartphone keyboards are modal. There is usually a basic QWERTY/Basic punctuation keyboard by default that can be switched to numeric/extended punctuation mode. This works reasonably well ...
4
votes
2answers
999 views

What is the standard on displaying wide tables on mobile devices?

We need to display wide tables (10+ columns) on our new mobile website. Is the standard to: Scroll Horizontally without any indication that the visitor can scroll to the right (like Google Docs) ...
5
votes
4answers
221 views

Social network login or not?

I am developing a niche social networking iPhone app of my own. I was wondering if it would be best to allow the user to connect to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to login to my app ...
40
votes
9answers
3k views

Should users be forced into a responsive design (without the ability to opt out)?

There is nothing worse than getting automatically redirected to a mobile version of a site, and not having (or not easily finding) a "view normal site" link. It's not just that the mobile site is a ...
26
votes
6answers
2k views

Should Mobile-optimized sites allow Zooming?

Zooming is common on mobile because sites aren't designed for it; you need to zoom, generally, you don't want to zoom around. Mobile sites are supposed to not need any form of zooming, and often ...
7
votes
4answers
544 views

Designing for mobile web browsers

What is the best approach for designing a web site to run across most all modern mobile web browsers? Is targeting WebKit based browsers enough?
8
votes
5answers
569 views

On mobile phones why is the green (call) button at the left and red (hang) button at the right side?

Some old mobile phones have switched position of green/red buttons. Currently the green button is at the left and red button is at the right side on mobile phones. Why? That is rationale? Which ...
13
votes
6answers
717 views

Password field in cleartext

I'm building a mobile web app that will request a bunch of information from the user (name, dob, address, etc) and am trying to cut down as much fields as I can. I've noticed a new trend where mobile ...
10
votes
2answers
5k views

'Scrolling divs' in mobile land. Yea or nay?

An interesting problem/challenge came up this week where some mobile designs requested a part of the screen be scrollable. This is quite common on desktop sites--typically a little scrolling box for ...
6
votes
4answers
942 views

How to present heavy data tables on smartphones?

Problem: I've got a table with 10 columns and ~100 rows. What is the best way to present these on small screens? My idea: effective search + data displayed row-by-row. Is there any better solution?
4
votes
1answer
592 views

What are the best practices of designing a validation message on an iPhone App?

I am working on designing an iPhone app and I need to know which validation message style is the most recommended for the forms included. I don't prefer to use a pop up window i need something that ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views

Best way to present navigation for mobile? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: How to structure Android app navigation with many levels? What is the best way to present navigation with around 3 levels of sub-categories for mobile? The problem is ...
11
votes
4answers
2k views

How to design identical UI for cross platform Mobile app?

One client wants to make a native apps for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and and Windows phone. But he wants to make the look of UI identical on all devices as much possible. 1) Is it technically ...
8
votes
3answers
341 views

screen video capturing (usability test) on mobile

I'm trying to figure out how to conduct a usability test upon a handset device (smartphone). it seems there aren't many methods for screen video capturing of a user making use of an app. Do you know ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views

Are “submit” buttons important for forms on iPhone and Android apps?

When inputting text on the last text field in a form on an iPhone and Android app, the enter key can be highlighted or (on iOS anyway) renamed "done", so that tapping it will submit the form. ...
8
votes
2answers
10k views

Android List View - delete row button, delete selected button or delete from item click menu?

Android List view activity with item rows. User needs to be able delete some rows. I know standard way in Android is to use item click menu. But it's 2 clicks. Is it best way?
3
votes
4answers
502 views

Icon for “More”, like more results [closed]

I need an intuitive icon which represents "more" ITEMS (or "more items like this") (or other "similar" items to this item). I have space constraints on the screen, so I can't exactly use a label.
2
votes
3answers
193 views

File manager on a mobile device

I've termed the question "File manager" because it most closely relates to what I am looking for. This question is for a mobile web application but as it is a UX/UI design question any native app ...
2
votes
4answers
2k views

tree-view for mobile devices

Is it a good idea to use tree-view UI structure in iPhone or other Mobile devices? (e.g. for file browsing etc.)
1
vote
4answers
389 views

What UI design should I use for a smartphone app?

On desktop platforms, using the system's control styling, etc. is a very common practice and changing it ("theming") is usually looked down upon unless the application specifically calls for it (like ...
11
votes
4answers
150 views

Should you optimize mobile experiences based on individual handedness?

In abbood's question "How to implement a stack exchange style voting for mobile?" he answers his own question with the following mock-up: My immediate thought was that the up-vote control was on ...
8
votes
3answers
498 views

Should we include a “Back to top” button for mobile websites?

When building a mobile web site that needs to be accessible — do you consider it to be best practice to include a "Back to top" anchor link in a footer menu for long pages? I'm thinking about those ...
6
votes
6answers
382 views

Using a virtual joystick for a game?

Many games for touchscreen mobile devices use virtual joysticks for movement. This has many issues: You can't see/feel where the joystick is pointing when you are using it. You can't feel where the ...
6
votes
3answers
524 views

What's the best way to show you can scroll on mobile devices?

I'm trying to find the best method of showing users on mobile devices that they can scroll in a <div>. As iPhones/iPads don't have scrollbars, I will need an indicator to show that you can ...
5
votes
6answers
529 views

Best way to select quantity of items for an eCommerce mobile application?

I'm designing an e-commerce app, and I'm looking for some options for the best way to select the quantity of an item before adding to the cart The first (on the left) is when the user selects the ...
5
votes
3answers
420 views

On Android, how do you design a very shallow navigation?

I need to create a simple account section in my mobile app with 1-level deep navigation: ___ Register / Account -- \___ Login On iPhone, I'm using a grouped table ...
4
votes
2answers
169 views

How to best enter long digits on a small touch device without using keyboard input

my current task is to create an user interface for a mobile strategy game. stuff can be transported from point a to point b. the user can select an amount of stuff between 1 and 1.000.000. it is ...
4
votes
3answers
133 views

Indicate tappable area on mobile

I am creating a mobile application that can be used as a counter. This app would be implemented in full-touchscreen phones. Here is part of the screen: I want to indicate that users can either tap ...
4
votes
2answers
583 views

Should an image carousel on a mobile site automatically rotate?

Or should the user have complete control? The intention is to have a slider/carousel that shows 6 or 7 images which the user can look through by clicking arrow buttons left or right. But the question ...
3
votes
2answers
119 views

Changing the language of a website

While travelling abroad, I often get pages on websites that are normally in English for me (e.g. images.google.com) served instead in whatever the local language is. The problem is that I can't read ...
2
votes
3answers
683 views

Mobile App Back Button Placement

I am building a mobile application that uses a button to launch the navigation menu (much like the Path or Facebook interface). I also want to add a back button. The standard seems to be to place ...
2
votes
2answers
144 views

Two buttons next to each other in a mobile navbar

I have a UX issue which would be simpler to solve if I had to buttons next to each other in the navbar for a mobile device. In the images below I'm referring to the buttons marked 1 and 2. 2 Will in ...
1
vote
1answer
1k views

What should be the alternate of Hover on Mobile Devices? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: iPad/iPhone alternative for hover states Re-thinking “hover” functionality with touchscreens in mind We have our intranet application using the Megflyouts ...