New answers tagged mobile
0
The project I'm working on has similar issues with progressive disclosure. Our website is littered with info icons that are suddenly useless in mobile. Although I like the dashed underline option, it does present the problem of how to dismiss the info bubble once read.
Think about how to expose more layers of information with the basic mobile gestures of ...
0
It depends on what problem you are addressing? What is the task being performed, who is the user, and what is the context. You may be able to offer both solutions (and a Desktop one) by designing a task flow using the same data in different ways even.
We use different UIs and devices around the same data all the time, for example on LinkedIn or eBay (see ...
0
Tablet is an excellent conceptual bridge between mobile and desktop. It is not, however, often the primary profit driver. It's very important to keep this in mind.
I still tend to work on desktop first, accounting for touch affordances and critical path as I go. That's because, though mobile is on the rise for my clients, most of the dollars are still ...
0
I'd scale with the most common to your organization / project / country / target audience.
I often find mobile inadequate: a cheap android's screen is simply too small for anything useful, and no matter what, the device will be held around arm-length, and it just won't magically scale up: the "window" to the virtual reality inside just doesn't occupy too ...
5
Start with the smallest form factor first (in your case the phone) since the lack of space will give you the opportunity to require you to define the primary focus of the app and what is the primary content that must be provided to allow the user to do his task and not allow you to add too much extraneous stuff.
While moving up to higher form factors, ...
3
I think you need to segment public information from internal team information in two very different views. The more visual cues team participants can have, the better. Public comments should only be possible throough the public view and internal comments (or other tools) only on the team view. That woy your team participants always know where they are ...
1
Having two tap targets so close together would seem to invite mis-tapping. You're also taking up a lot of precious screen real estate with a row containing nothing but the back button.
1
No not at all. A Menu represented by three lines is different than navigating back to a previous page. However I would consider moving the back button (and possably a forward button) functionality to the bottom of the screen instead of stacking navigation items at the top.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups
That way ...
0
If the app does something besides the sweepstakes, it might make sense to require authorization at the moment they want to enter sweepstakes. This way your users will first make a connection (a bond) with your website and then authorizing your app with facebook will be perceived as a less of a barrier ('I know something about the app, therefore I trust it ...
2
I'm not sure I understand your question, but this seems slightly similar to the $300 Million Dollar Button issue to me:
The designers fixed the problem simply. They took away the Register
button. In its place, they put a Continue button with a simple
message: "You do not need to create an account to make purchases on
our site. Simply click Continue ...
0
I would also add that you can have it centered and wrapping on two lines (e.g. three items on top line and two below). You may need to make slight changes to design such as make them appear more button like and are easily click-able.
0
I just came across the same problem while designing a sign up page.
I agree the answers above. I am also surprised the see few new websites like newmyspace.com using the same.
Probably we should be able to find skin to input that give visual cue to users while have only border in the bottom but has some depth(inner shadow or something) inside the input ...
1
It's an accented character selection, which is needed for most latin character based languages. English is pretty unique in it's lack of accents (with the exception of adopted words).
So I would just refer to it as:
Accented character selector
or
Accented character overlay
1
How about 'Special character selector' or 'Alternate character grid'?
When in doubt, just say 'the thingy you use to make letters like ę and ū show up.'
2
I am not sure if this question is duplicate, but You can find the answer here: Periods at the end of a sentence in alert message
"If it's a proper sentence, give it proper punctuation" - DA01
16
If you are writing prose, a . (full stop) is there to show a the end of a sentence so that you know when the next one starts. If you only have one sentence, then it isn't strictly necessary for clarity. Hence, if it's a short notification message of only one sentence, you can leave it out.
That said you should keep to the style guides given for your ...
1
Here goes one ios example what @Matthew has suggested as Scrollable tabs:
5
This sounds like it could also apply to a horizontal main navigation for a site. Brad Frost has several options for responsive navigation systems, but the next two seem most appropriate to what you're trying to accomplish from his options. Here are those two and a third approach:
Dropdown Tabs
A popular way to solve this is to switch from tabs to a ...
4
They are useful during pure media consumption like viewing images, videos, etc.
Regarding the issue of educating the user of their usage: the current standard implementation is quite good enough. Display the controls and additional data when opening the content and then remove them after a few seconds. This tells the user there is all the other information ...
4
If it's just a screen with text on it, then there are two options that work on both a large and a small screen equally well:
Navigate by swiping. Swipe left or right should related to back and forward respectively. This is a common pattern that has proven to work.
Place thin transparent navigation bars on the left and right with a clickable area much ...
0
We should avoid scrolling divs in Mobile web; however, if you really want to have scrolling area within the page you may want to use up/down or left right arrows.
2
I think your best bet would be to avoid layouts on mobile devices completely; just show a full sized image shrinked down to desired dimensions (so user may save it on her device in full size right away without being forced to open it on new page). You could also create two different layouts: one for phones and one for tablets. On phone screen show image ...
14
Yes, there have been formal studies demonstrating that as users become increasingly familiar with mobile devices, they shift increasingly toward using native apps.4 This trend is likely a combination of three factors:
People prefer the familiar. If people know of a site or app that's likely to address their needs, they're more likely to use that known ...
1
If I can use the analogy of writing, then being left or right handed doesn't really affect the way information should be presented, but it does affect the way content is created. The pain of left handed users smudging their writing as they deal with normal book/page layout has become a thing of the past with keyboard and mouse, and in general there hasn't ...
1
I think the challenge in answering the question is twofold. 1) definitions 2) research.
As for definitions, I'm going to make an assumption that we're comparing:
Native App = a self contained application written in native code for the device it's running on.
vs.
Web App = an application written with web technologies using a client/server model where the ...
0
I disagree with some of the points others have made. Unless your app is mostly well designed static content, avoid web apps for mobile. Even in these cases, the app could probably be built to run faster natively in almost the same time. You aren't going to save time using inferior tools. Rarely is this a "tradeoff" type decision, unless you have a bunch of ...
2
Look and feel depends on how you design the web-app. You can design it to look exactly the same as a native app, but you have to choose which native you want it to be like (unless you build multiple web-apps that is). The result is that most web-apps try go for something that is usable by both iOS and Android but looks like neither - which is why people ...
2
I'd say the "handedness" of a user is only of limited information. Many other factors affect the way a user interacts with the touch screen of a hand held device. You could be lying on your side, or perhaps you put your smartphone down on a table. While a gesture (say a sideways swipe) might have a different curvature when performed with either hand, it will ...
1
Not exactly related but this paper works on identifying the hand and adapting the interactions based on it.
GripSense: Using Built-In Sensors to Detect Hand Posture and Pressure on Commodity Mobile Phones
It tackles the problem the other way round, rather than looking at the accuracy of gestures based on handedness, it tries to figure out the grip and ...
6
Situation n°1: The user knows where she can find a location: you can use a combo box instead of a drop-down.
You want you design the combo box adequattly so the user knows she has to start typing in it. You surely want it to be auto-complete.
Below, an example taken of Facebook profile editing.
Situation n°2: The user does not know the location she ...
0
Have a look at the Clear app for iOS an OSX.
Tap and hold to drag an item up and down the list.
Swipe to right to delete the item. I think this is more elegant than having an "Edit" or delete mode because that mode breaks the workflow.
You could do swipe to left for adding to the selection, or simply add a checkmark in front of each item.
Pulling two ...
1
Just divide your content in 2 columns if possible (longer items can be 1 per row).
For reordering you just tap and drag the item, this is what the hamburger icon is supposed to convey.
Have a standard 'Add Item' input field at the top of the list and use a toggle (edit) button to toggle in and out of delete mode. In delete mode just click on item to delete ...
1
Shaking is very appropriate if your device is an Etch-a-Sketch.
2
Ideally, I would have gone for the long press to open up the action menu {edit, delete} but since you took that off the board, I went with a standard drop down hierarchy. Like the one used by wikipedia in its mobile site.
When you click on category, you expand all the entries in that category.
You have the add category button on the top of all categories ...
4
I worked on the Information architecture for a similar app so here are some pointers which can help
Define the primary objective of the app. I know its feature rich but it still will have a primary objective such as enabling hotel bookings or finding hotels
Define the secondary objectives of the app
Check how the app handles these primary and secondary ...
2
It looks like a reverse engineering of Information Architecture of the application. Break down the application to its basic elements and then piece them together based on functionality.
You can start with a rudimentary hierarchical breakdown of the features.
List down whatever you action items (links/buttons/etc.) see on the home page
Select one link and ...
2
I will acknowledge that you really are designing an app to make the world better by giving really relevant information from the right people to the right people.
You do not want to pollute your content with a floating button. Your readers are probably going to read the whole text before wanting more information, so a button at the end of the article does ...
1
Firstly, the floating button is a bad idea. That is the equivalent of Sony putting a "buy more Sony products" button over some of the film that you are watching. It's poor UX and will annoy users. For the record, if any app did that to me, it would be about 10 seconds before I deleted the app.
If you want people to contact you, first, make an app worth ...
4
You could put them next to each other just like on the desktop version, but keep only one in view. Flipping to the left and right would allow switching between the packages and comparing the features. Be sure to clearly delineate each feature.
Additionally, it might be useful to be able to look at a comparison of a single feature across the three packages.
...
2
The answer depends on the amount of data a refresh would require.
Small
If a user has already selected refresh, then they have already indicated their wish to have whatever it was refresh. So it makes sense that you refresh it when you are next able to, thus saving the user an additional button press.
The catch here is that you need to make sure that ...
2
Yes, modals are usable for simple content on mobile.
In fact they are used by Android in the settings when you change an item. In iOS they are much less common, but if you use them in a sane way for very simple dialogues, they are okay.
1
I think it is would be ok to use modal, but before you do so you could consider these things:
modals may be considered as nags - just search Google for "nag screen iPhone" and you will find that most of them are modals. On iPhone most of the modals I can see are "Would you like to rate this app?" - this kind of message does not give much profit for the ...
1
Aside from the other negative comments about shaking as a gesture, I would also point out that on iOS devices, at least, Apple intended the shake gesture to be used for "Undo", and implements it as such in many of its own core iOS apps. So you may also have the problem that even if a user knows about shaking, it won't do what they expect it to do.
0
I think "Shaking" as a control is horrible.
Since you're so often on the go with your app (phone/pad) you very easily activate it by mistake. That is a big annoyance for the user.
When you want to do use the shake it's hard to make sure you do it exactly once or if it triggered at all. Shaking also have to drawback of you not able to see the screen while ...
2
Definitely no to shaking. It drives me nuts when my ipad shifts to a new screen or goes to the next news post simply because I tried to re-position the way I'm sitting.
Unless this app is a game that uses directional physics or is an interactive feature, I would avoid using shaking as a refresh at all costs.
As JohnGB described, both Twitter and Facebook ...
1
I agree with not relying in the Shake for the refresh feature, the Shake is not very intuitive, it's indeed mostly used for games or when clearly stated but some will people prefer to click than to shake, specially if they are doing other activity like walking, speaking, etc.
Re-think your layout and I am sure you can squeeze a little refresh icon in one ...
8
I definitely wouldn't do this; the pull down to refresh mentioned in John's answer is probably the most common gesture. Though if refreshing isn't automatic or is a common action for non-power users I'd personally recommend just sticking with a button; you have a pretty universal "refresh" icon at your disposal and refresh is quite often initiated from a ...
5
Shaking is a physical gesture. Apart from a physical gesture, there should be a primary digital counterpart too.
Volume can be controlled by sliding the volume bar of clicking the volume buttons.
Phone can be answered by swiping/moving the slider or clicking the handsfree button.
Physical gestures can be thought of as short-cuts, it is fine if you have ...
41
Don't rely on shaking as the only way of selecting any common action. The exception is novelty apps like whips or throwing dice.
For other apps it is poor UX as it:
Is uncommon behaviour for many users, as most apps (sanely) don't use this action.
Has poor discoverability as there is no cue on the screen letting you know how to use it. There may be an ...
1
In my experience, using a Tab Bar is useful when users switch frequently between options in any moment in any point on the application. Tab Bar is usually persistent so the user can switch with only one tap. An example could be tabs for differents views of the same item type (like apps in App Store)
The hamburguer menu is better when options are scenario ...
Top 50 recent answers are included
