47
votes
Accepted
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
While space is an obvious part of the equation, it's not the main one, you could simply have a sliding physical keyboard just as previous generations of smartphones and be a happy camper. However, ...
35
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
What caused this decline in the use of physical keyboards?
The iPhone
What is the impact on the UX of mobile devices?
This is a pretty deep question and is tough to answer objectively.
I would ...
23
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
The main reason is versatility. A keyboard in software can be easily adapted to different layouts, different character/symbol sets and different cultures. In addition, custom keyboards such as Swype ...
22
votes
Multiple notifications for the same thing
Good, practical question. In my experience with working on a booking platform recently, we touched/worked on this. More thoughts:
Why this is probably done: To ensure that the notification reaches ...
6
votes
What is the best mobile number authorization strategy?
Both are equally good in terms of security.
According to me the first senerio is good enough and adapted one.
We are used to first senerio.
The second senerio doesn't making much changes and ...
5
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
Most probably because of 2 trends in the smartphone industry.
Phones get thinner and thinner, and losing a physical keyboard makes a phone a lot less thick.
Screens on phones kept getting bigger, and ...
5
votes
Accepted
Do users care about notification settings?
It depends on how many notifications you are sending, how frequently they are sent, and how relevant they are to the user at the time.
If you are only sending one or two notifications a day (...
5
votes
Selecting between two options in smartphone app?
The above two screens are an example of 'Navigation' and they are not used for 'Selection' in general.
Since you have mentioned it's an app that lets you choose food items, What If the user wants to ...
4
votes
Why do manufacturers allow Android's 'takeover'?
To keep costs down
I would rephrase the question as 'Why do manufacturers sell devices with seemingly insufficient memory?'. The answer is to make the device more affordable, particularly in ...
4
votes
Accepted
Why colors are set to high saturated in most smarphones?
Because smartphones are used outdoors...
I suspect it is mostly fashion and showing off, as Koen Lageveen suggests here. However, there is a potential usability benefit. Smartphones are more likely ...
4
votes
Why do most smartphones have the charging slot at the bottom?
I feel like there are many valid reasons for this design decision.
You already stated one by yourself: docks and other accessories wouldn't really work with the port being on top on the phone.
Another ...
4
votes
Accepted
What's the name of this iphone control?
This is a segmented control, from the Human Interface Guidelines (Apple)
For Android, you get a reference to Material Design. They have a toggle button .
3
votes
Accepted
Keyboard layout for (learning to / switching) hands
Flipping the keyboard is unlikely to be advantageous to someone forced to use their left hand.
It's your brain that locates the keys to be pressed and coordinates your hand and finger into position. ...
3
votes
Why aren't dynamic phone ringtones more mainstream?
Sonification is the general term for this, and has been a topic in HCI research for a long time. Your question brings up a lot of interrelated, complex issues, but in my opinion the basic question of ...
3
votes
Why do manufacturers allow Android's 'takeover'?
It sounds like there is more to the story than meets the eye, so I'll try to tackle it from a number of different perspectives:
Firstly, it would appear that you have created some bias through the ...
3
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
This is actually a really good example of Darwinian evolution in action:
The natural analog might be something like a flight-capable wing on an ostrich: The natural habitat for ostriches favours ...
3
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
In the past people used to use cellphones mainly to talk and text only, nowadays people doesn't use smartphones JUST for that, so you don't need to use the keyboard all the time but just on demand ...
3
votes
Determining app compatibility and iPhones?
TL;DR
It is ultimately the developer's choice of which older device to support, based on their time, effort, and the current adoption percentage of those devices.
Explanation
This actually boils down ...
2
votes
Are smartphones accessible or operable by blind people?
Yes, smartphones with touchscreens can be used by blind people.
Just like with any other computing device with screen, a screen reader is needed, which outputs what is displayed on the screen in a ...
2
votes
Multiple notifications for the same thing
This is not a complete solution, but perhaps an idea to reduce the annoyance.
Both emails and the Amazon app are able to determine (with some reliability) if the user has read the message.
Email ...
2
votes
What is the best mobile number authorization strategy?
I have to be honest and say I have never liked the idea of verifying mobile phones as a security measure. More places are starting to use this as their sole verification method, which causes major ...
2
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
The reason why apple specifically veered away from a physical keyboard was because of this question:
"If I don't want a keyboard, why do I need to have one present?"
This truly speaks to the idea ...
2
votes
Why do most smartphones not have a physical keyboard?
It can be that physical keyboards will come back some day.
Of course, they make phones more bulky etc., but virtual keyboards are extremely bad for fast typing and ESPECIALLY in many languages other ...
2
votes
Why colors are set to high saturated in most smarphones?
Seeing that bright and colourful display and might cause you to think "wow this is a great phone I'm going to buy it". That experience and the moment of purchase is actually a pretty strong part of ...
2
votes
In landscape mode on a smartphone, should the positioning of control elements be based on whether the phone points to the right or left?
Go for consistency, generally, so the user doesn't wonder why the app is showing differently depending on the landscape position (the general expectation is it will not, I presume).
That said, there ...
2
votes
UI controls during full screen reading
To me the problem is not so much the presence of the buttons as the position, one at each end of the screen, what means:
two more possibilities to make mistakes clicking the wrong point.
If both ...
2
votes
Why do most smartphones have the charging slot at the bottom?
Having watched a lot of phone teardown videos from JerryRigEverything, I can safely say that placement of ports depend entirely (especially, of late) on other components.
A lot components NEED to be ...
2
votes
Cross or left arrow to return to the previous page?
Left arrow seems more appropriate in this case, you are not trying to close the whole flow but to return to the previous route, if you provide a little more context about where are you on the process (...
1
vote
Image size high-fidelity prototype
Resolution should match the target device whenever possible, both for prototypes and production. For instance, images for an apple retina mobile screen should match its @2x/@3x guidelines, but also ...
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