Designing Mobile Applications
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In recent discussion with a good fellow ("VCsala":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/member/5474) here at the forums, we were discussing on designing mobile applications and which is a better approach, leave the user specified themes on your application, or design your own buttons.
What I suggested is that one should design the application and have nice buttons, but also keep platform behavior as it is, for example in a recent application that I am currently working, I kept the platform behavior, Options menu and Back menu also the application title, clock, network etc. instead of making it a full screen application, screenshot is below:
!http://imgur.com/s6DSf.jpg(ss1)!
I would like to continue this discussion here (because we were discussing this topic on a non-appropriate place) and learn from your experiences which will lead to better Nokia applications and more users :D
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[quote author="VCsala" date="1293389730"]I also recommend after we have collected some good practices to write a how to wiki arcticle on mobile application ux design best practices.[/quote]
That would be perfect. But first I think we should continue our discussion here and then update the wiki accordingly.
I just create a wiki page "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI
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[quote author="Milot Shala" date="1293391664"][quote author="VCsala" date="1293389730"]I also recommend after we have collected some good practices to write a how to wiki arcticle on mobile application ux design best practices.[/quote]
That would be perfect. But first I think we should continue our discussion here and then update the wiki accordingly.
I just create a wiki page "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI[/quote]
I create a Spanish version of the wiki page "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI_Spanish, I like the idea of a repository with best practices and usability patterns.
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[quote author="metRo_" date="1293396199"]Another thing that is important, in my opinion, is triyng to design the UI according to the SO. We can design a very good UI and very easy to use but if it is very diferent from the SO the user will always lost some time in the begin to adapt to it.[/quote]
And what does SO mean?
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I create a Russian version of the wiki page "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI_Russian too.
It's good idea, because programmers usually isn't designers, and therefore good applications sometimes has ugly interface and no many users as a consequence -
[quote author="Vass" date="1293399944"]I create a Russian version of the wiki page "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI_Russian too.
It's good idea, because programmers usually isn't designers, and therefore good applications sometimes has ugly interface and no many users as a consequence[/quote]Great, here's the Albanian version.
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[quote author="Milot Shala" date="1293398490"][quote author="metRo_" date="1293396199"]Another thing that is important, in my opinion, is triyng to design the UI according to the SO. We can design a very good UI and very easy to use but if it is very diferent from the SO the user will always lost some time in the begin to adapt to it.[/quote]
And what does SO mean? [/quote]
I would venture a guess that he meant OS....
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[quote author="fcrochik" date="1293400983"]
[quote author="Milot Shala" date="1293398490"][quote author="metRo_" date="1293396199"]Another thing that is important, in my opinion, is triyng to design the UI according to the SO. We can design a very good UI and very easy to use but if it is very diferent from the SO the user will always lost some time in the begin to adapt to it.[/quote]And what does SO mean? [/quote]
I would venture a guess that he meant OS.... [/quote]
Yes I thought so :D
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[quote author="metRo_" date="1293396199"]Another thing that is important, in my opinion, is triyng to design the UI according to the SO. We can design a very good UI and very easy to use but if it is very diferent from the SO the user will always lost some time in the begin to adapt to it.[/quote]
That's true. I gave an analogy building Android application and Symbian application. In the screenshots on the wiki you can clearly see that users will expect bottom Options and Exit or Back buttons, on Android every device button (back, menu, home and search) should do what is expected, this should be done if you want happy users.
One example is that on Android your application should not have an Exit button, because users would expect back button to actually exit the application, the same goes for Symbian, users expect an Exit action under Options menu (usually the right button is Exit, Back or Hide).
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[quote author="fcrochik" date="1293405077"]
[quote author="metRo_" date="1293404969"]sorry! yes, is OS, in portuguese is "Sistema Operativo - SO" :p[/quote]That is interesting. In "Brazilian" Portuguese we call "Sistema Operacional".[/quote]
Interesting! In Albanian we call it Sistemi Operativ or Sistemi Operacional
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[quote author="Milot Shala" date="1293405263"][quote author="fcrochik" date="1293405077"]
[quote author="metRo_" date="1293404969"]sorry! yes, is OS, in portuguese is "Sistema Operativo - SO" :p[/quote]That is interesting. In "Brazilian" Portuguese we call "Sistema Operacional".[/quote]
Interesting! In Albanian we call it Sistemi Operativ or Sistemi Operacional[/quote]
Now I can say I know one world in Albanian: Operacional :) The sad part is that probably doesn't sound at all like in Portuguese :(
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I updated the "Wiki":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Best_Practices_for_Designing_Mobile_UI, maybe it is a good idea for all of you to update it too, also if you add more things to the wiki, let us know here :)
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I saw this link on the meego thread. Haven't had a chance to look into it so here it is:
"Design and User Experience Library v2.1":http://library.forum.nokia.com/index.jsp?topic=/Design_and_User_Experience_Library/GUID-A8DF3EB8-E97C-4DA0-95F6-F464ECC995BC_cover.html