DOCSLIB.ORG

Perfecting Interface Design in Mobile Apps

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Perfecting Interface Design in Mobile Apps Praise for Essential Mobile Interaction Design “In Essential Mobile Interaction Design, Banga and Weinhold do a great job of explaining what it takes to make a good-looking and easy-to-use app. The accessible language and visual examples of quality work combine to make this book a great resource for those looking to get into app design, or to take their craft to the next level.” — Jon Becker boom. reactive. “Essential Mobile Interaction Design is not merely a book full of pictures and design concepts or one of straight technical drivel. Instead, it is a guidebook for creating human-based interfaces that feature simplicity, functionality, and value. Whether you have questions about how mobile design is different from traditional desktop design, how to work with a developer, or even what tools to use for the creation process, Essential Mobile Interaction Design demonstrates the answer for that.” — Phil Dutson Lead UX and Mobile Developer, ICON Health & Fitness “Filled with nuggets of useful information, this book is a solid resource for the many aspects of designing a mobile app. I’ve found many recommendations in this book that we can use in our apps.” — Lucius Kwok CEO, Felt Tip, Inc. “A well-rounded, easy-to-read book that provides a good grounding in mobile design and how to keep all those small details in mind so that your apps will really shine.” — Dave Verwer Shiny Development and iOS Dev Weekly This page intentionally left blank Essential Mobile Interaction Design This page intentionally left blank Essential Mobile Interaction Design Perfecting Interface Design in Mobile Apps Cameron Banga Josh Weinhold Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are Editor-in-Chief claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware Mark L. Taub of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. Executive Editor The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed Laura Lewin or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of Development Editor the information or programs contained herein. Michael Thurston App Store, Apple, the Apple logo, Apple TV, Aqua, Cocoa, Cocoa Touch, Cover Flow, Dashcode, Managing Editor Finder, iMac, Interface Builder, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iPod touch, iTunes, the iTunes logo, Leopard, John Fuller Mac, the Mac logo, Macintosh, Maps, Mavericks, Multi-Touch, Objective-C, Safari, Snow Leopard, Spotlight, and Xcode are trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Project Editor Android, Google Chrome, Google Maps, and Google Play are trademarks of Google, Inc. Chatheads, Elizabeth Ryan Facebook, Facebook Chat, Facebook Home, and the Facebook logo are trademarks of Facebook, Inc. Packager Bitbucket and the Bitbucket logo are trademarks of Atlassian Software Services. The TestFlight logo Anna Popick is a trademark of Burstly, Inc. SkyDrive, Skype, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 7 are trademarks of Microsoft, Inc. The Twitter logo and the Vine logo are trademarks of Twitter, Inc. The Tumblr Copy Editor logo and the Yahoo! logo are trademarks of Yahoo!, Inc. Chicago Fire and the Chicago Fire logo Melinda Rankin are trademarks of Andell Holdings, LLC and Major League Soccer. The CNN logo is a trademark of Indexer Turner Broadcast System, Inc. The Cincinnati, Inc. logo and CL-900 are trademarks of Cincinnati, Inc. Jack Lewis For information about buying this title in bulk quantities, or for special sales opportunities (which may include electronic versions; custom cover designs; and content particular to your business, Proofreader training goals, marketing focus, or branding interests), please contact our corporate sales Anna Popick department at [email protected] or (800) 382-3419. Technical Reviewers For government sales inquiries, please contact [email protected]. Jonathon Becker Victor Lara For questions about sales outside the U.S., please contact [email protected]. Francisco Velazquez Visit us on the Web: informit.com/aw Editorial Assistant Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress Olivia Basegio Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Cover Designer All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected Chuti Prasertsith by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, Compositor mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission to use material from this Shepherd, Inc. work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to (201) 236-3290. ISBN-13: 978-0-321-96157-0 ISBN-10: 0-321-96157-9 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana. First printing, March 2014 I dedicate this book to Gavin. Although we’ve only just met, I couldn’t be more excited to be your uncle. Hopefully, you’ll be interested in interface design one day so that you can read through this and remind me how silly and archaic our phones and computers once were. —Cameron I dedicate this book to Mallory. Thank you for always encouraging me to take on new challenges and pushing me to always aim higher. —Josh This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface xvii Acknowledgments xix About the Authors xxi 1 A Look at Mobile and Its Main Players 1 The Field of Interface Design 2 The Dawn of the App 3 Defining an App in Today’s Context 5 Build It and They Will Come 7 What Is a Mobile Device? 8 A Portable, Pocket Computer 9 Tablets, Too 10 Other Devices That Are Part of the Revolution 11 The Industry’s Key Players 12 Apple 12 Google and Android 13 The Other Players 14 Distinctions between Platforms 16 Conclusion 19 2 Design for Humans, by Humans 21 What Is Interaction Design? 22 Goals When Designing an Interface 25 Designing for Humans 25 Designed by Humans 28 Where to Begin 30 Anticipating Your User Base 32 Mobile’s Role in User Workflow 35 Conclusion 37 x CONTENTS 3 Dynamic Differences in Mobile Design 39 Understanding the Role of Mobile 40 Mobile-Only Interactions 41 Interactions Only Possible with a Smartphone 42 Interactions Only Possible with a Tablet 44 Interactions That Aren’t Possible on Mobile 46 Keyboards and Data Entry 46 Click, Tap, Point 47 Expandability 48 Universal Appeal 48 Interaction Experiences for Phones and Tablets 48 Interaction Experiences for Multiple Platforms 53 Complementing Traditional Workflows 55 Conclusion 57 4 First Sketches of an App 59 What Tools Do You Need? 60 Becoming a Designer 65 Planning for a Specific Platform 66 Starting with a Workflow 68 Meeting Design Expectations 70 Wrapping Up Design Documentation 73 Creating Pixel-Perfect Digital Mockups 73 Reiterating Before It’s Too Late 75 Preparing for the Next Stage 77 Conclusion 79 5 Finding the Right Design Flow 81 The Big Three App Types 82 Native Apps 82 Web Apps 83 Hybrid Apps 84 CONTENTS xi Common App Navigation Methods 85 Single View 85 Stacked Navigation Bar 87 Tab Controller 88 Scroll Views 89 Search-Driven Navigation 90 Modal Controller 91 Gesture-Based Navigation 92 Picking an Interaction Type 93 Minimizing Interface Friction 96 Preparing for Connectivity Failure 98 Conclusion 102 6 Designing for Visual Appeal 103 How Appearance Changes Interactions 104 Skeuomorphic Design 104 Flat Design 106 Creating an App Icon 107 Finding a Unique Look 111 Matching Art to Interaction Design 115 Crossing Platforms 117 App Branding Guides 118 Building Art That Scales 119 Adding the Final Touches 123 Conclusion 126 7 Working with Programmers 127 Understanding Your Programmer 128 Learning Programming Languages 128 From Sketch to Programmable Design 130 Describing Your Design 132 xii CONTENTS Communicating During Development 136 Clear Communication 136 Tracking Issues 137 Learning More 139 Comprehending the Source Code 141 A Designer’s Introduction to Programming 141 Writing Source Code 143 Knowing What to Change 144 Conclusion 148 8 Making Apps Usable by All 149 Knowing Your Audience 150 How Sandboxing Changed Mobile 152 Interactions for the Mass Market 157 Trait 1: Not a Computer Geek 157 Trait 2: Only Uses a Handful of Apps 158 Trait 3: Uses Apps in Short Bursts 159 Trait 4: Follows the 80/20 Rule 159 Trait 5: Likes What Everyone Else Likes 160 Building Multilingual Interaction Designs 160 Designing for Users with Disabilities 163 Conclusion 166 9 Designing for Simplicity 167 The Sophistication of Simplicity 168 Striving for Simple Interaction Design 168 The Difficulties of Simplicity 170 Simple Design Goals 171 Clarity 171 Continuity and Flow 172 Retention and Growth 173 Interfaces That Do It Well 175 iOS’s Slide-to-Unlock 175 Android’s Action Bar 176 CONTENTS xiii Creating Simple Interactions 178 Learning to Say No 178 Making Tasks Obvious 178 Offering Subtle Hints 179 Putting Elements in the Right Location 180 Addition by Subtraction 182 Simplicity through Familiarity 183 Using Well-Known Visuals 184 Following
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Twitter 101 Useful Tools and Resources Toby Greenwalt, Theanalogdivide.Com on Twitter: @Theanalogdivide
    Twitter 101 Useful Tools and Resources Toby Greenwalt, theanalogdivide.com On Twitter: @theanalogdivide So you’ve created a Twitter account, entered your profile information, and uploaded a photo. Now what? Here are a few tools for making the most of your time with the service. You’ll be one of the shining Twitteratti before you know it! Finding Friends and Followers Twitter works best when you have a healthy crowd to talk to and share ideas with. Here’s a few suggestions for expanding your network. If you build it, they will come: Many people will find your account by virtue of their own searches. Be warned that not all of these people are actually interested in what you have to say, or are possibly even real people. Raid your address book: Twitter can scan your address book to see if any of your contacts are on the service. This is a quick and easy way to see who’s out there. The Kevin Bacon method: Once you’ve found a few friends, you can look at their friends, and their friends, and their friends… Discover the tangled web we, um, tweave! Lists: Similar to the Twibes and WeFollow directories listed below, Lists are user-compiled directories of Tweet- ers based around a well defined subject. How many lists are there for your community? Search Tools If you’ve gone through your immediate contacts, there are a few web tools for finding like minds. Twitter Grader (grader.twitter.com): Once you’ve found out your grade, click on the Elite buttons to find out who the BTOCs (Big Twitterers on Campus) are.
    [Show full text]
  • Providing Context for Twitter Analysis
    International Journal of Computer and Information Technology (ISSN: 2279 – 0764) Volume 03 – Issue 06, November 2014 What are we tweeting about? Providing Context for Twitter Analysis Martin Ebner, Thomas Altmann Social Learning Graz University of Technology Graz, Austria Email: martin.ebner {at} tugraz.at Abstract— Twitter is a medium, which is primarily used for real- agreed to use #edmedia13 in their messages. Now any Twitter time communication. Due to the limitations of retrieving older user can search Twitter for such a keyword or hashtag, but the tweets, archiving them is necessary to enable users to access and results are limited and not usable for automated analysis. analyze old tweets. When analyzing tweet archives, more contexts Therefore we strongly propose that access to an Application can lead to better results. This research work aims to determine Programming Interface (API) is needed. Twitter itself provides the value of context for an analysis of tweet archives. First of all powerful APIs for developers to interact with. In general there the current state of the art of Twitter analysis research is are two different kinds of APIs: The REST API and the discussed. Afterwards a tool called TweetCollector is introduced, Streaming API. which provides archiving capabilities. Additionally, a further tool for Twitter analysis called TwitterStat is developed. Finally a The REST API enables a developer to make individual real-world use case is performed and discussed in depth. The requests for sending or retrieving data to and from Twitter. research study points out that providing this context leads to This extends to virtually all interactions possible with Twitter: better understanding of the analysis results.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethics for Digital Journalists
    ETHICS FOR DIGITAL JOURNALISTS The rapid growth of online media has led to new complications in journalism ethics and practice. While traditional ethical principles may not fundamentally change when information is disseminated online, applying them across platforms has become more challenging as new kinds of interactions develop between jour- nalists and audiences. In Ethics for Digital Journalists , Lawrie Zion and David Craig draw together the international expertise and experience of journalists and scholars who have all been part of the process of shaping best practices in digital journalism. Drawing on contemporary events and controversies like the Boston Marathon bombing and the Arab Spring, the authors examine emerging best practices in everything from transparency and verifi cation to aggregation, collaboration, live blogging, tweet- ing, and the challenges of digital narratives. At a time when questions of ethics and practice are challenged and subject to intense debate, this book is designed to provide students and practitioners with the insights and skills to realize their potential as professionals. Lawrie Zion is an Associate Professor of Journalism at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and editor-in-chief of the online magazine upstart. He has worked as a broadcaster with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and as a fi lm journalist for a range of print publications. He wrote and researched the 2007 documentary The Sounds of Aus , which tells the story of the Australian accent. David Craig is a Professor of Journalism and Associate Dean at the University of Oklahoma in the United States. A former newspaper copy editor, he is the author of Excellence in Online Journalism: Exploring Current Practices in an Evolving Environ- ment and The Ethics of the Story: Using Narrative Techniques Responsibly in Journalism .
    [Show full text]
  • Social Media Stories. Event Detection in Heterogeneous Streams Of
    Social Media Stories. Event detection in heterogeneous streams of documents applied to the study of information spreading across social and news media Béatrice Mazoyer To cite this version: Béatrice Mazoyer. Social Media Stories. Event detection in heterogeneous streams of documents applied to the study of information spreading across social and news media. Social and Information Networks [cs.SI]. Université Paris-Saclay, 2020. English. NNT : 2020UPASC009. tel-02987720 HAL Id: tel-02987720 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02987720 Submitted on 4 Nov 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Social Media Stories Event detection in heterogeneous streams of documents applied to the study of information spreading across social and news media Thèse de doctorat de l’Université Paris-Saclay École doctorale n◦ 573 : approches interdisciplinaires, fondements, applications et innovation (Interfaces) Spécialité de doctorat : Informatique Unité de recherche : Université Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec, Mathématiques et Informatique pour la Complexité
    [Show full text]
  • Bringing Full-Featured Mobile Phone Interaction Into Virtual Reality
    Computers & Graphics 97 (2021) 42–53 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Graphics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cag Special Section on VRCAI Bringing full-featured mobile phone interaction into virtual reality ∗ Huidong Bai a, , Li Zhang b, Jing Yang c, Mark Billinghurst a a Auckland Bioengineering Institute, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand b Cyber-Physical Interaction Lab, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China c Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Virtual Reality (VR) Head-Mounted Display (HMD) technology immerses a user in a computer generated Received 20 July 2020 virtual environment. However, a VR HMD also blocks the users’ view of their physical surroundings, and Revised 31 March 2021 so prevents them from using their mobile phones in a natural manner. In this paper, we present a novel Accepted 8 April 2021 Augmented Virtuality (AV) interface that enables people to naturally interact with a mobile phone in real Available online 18 April 2021 time in a virtual environment. The system allows the user to wear a VR HMD while seeing his/her 3D Keywords: hands captured by a depth sensor and rendered in different styles, and enables the user to operate a Virtual reality virtual mobile phone aligned with their real phone. We conducted a formal user study to compare the Augmented virtuality AV interface with physical touch interaction on user experience in five mobile applications. Participants Head-mounted displays reported that our system brought the real mobile phone into the virtual world.
    [Show full text]
  • Creating an Evaluation System for a Mobile Application Design to Enhance Usability and Aesthetics Jiyoung Choi Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2012 Creating an evaluation system for a mobile application design to enhance usability and aesthetics Jiyoung Choi Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Graphic Design Commons Recommended Citation Choi, Jiyoung, "Creating an evaluation system for a mobile application design to enhance usability and aesthetics" (2012). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 12744. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/12744 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Creating an evaluation system for a mobile application design to enhance usability and aesthetics by Jiyoung Choi A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS Major: Graphic Design Program of Study Committee: Debra Satterfield, Major Professor Roger Baer Fred Malven Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2012 Copyright © Jiyoung Choi, 2012. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4 2.1 Stress 4 2.2 Development of Mobile Technology 16 2.3 Design and Emotion 21 2.4 Design Elements 23 2.5 User-Centered Design for Mobile Applications 38 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 46 3.1 Methodology Overview 46 CHAPTER 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Innovation Opportunities and Business Benefits of Web Apis a Case Study of Finnish API Providers
    Open Innovation Opportunities and Business Benefits of Web APIs A Case Study of Finnish API Providers MSc program in Information and Service Management Master's thesis Antti Hatvala 2016 Department of Information and Service Economy Aalto University School of Business Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Open Innovation Opportunities and Business Benefits of Web APIs A Case Study of Finnish API Providers Master’s Thesis Antti Hatvala 1 June 2016 Information and Service Economy Approved in the Department of Information and Service Economy __ / __ / 20__ and awarded the grade _______________________________________________________ Aalto University, P.O. BOX 11000, 00076 AALTO www.aalto.fi AbstraCt of master’s thesis Author Antti Hatvala Title of thesis Open Innovation Opportunities and Business Benefits of Web APIs - A Case Study of Finnish API Providers Degree Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration Degree programme Information and Service Economy Thesis advisor(s) Virpi Tuunainen Year of approval 2016 Number of pages 66 Language English AbstraCt APIs aka application programming interfaces have been around as long as there have been software applications, but rapid digitalization of business environment has brought up a new topic of discussion: What is the business value of APIs? This study focuses on innovation and business potential of web APIs. The study reviews existing literature about APIs and introduces concepts including API value chain and different approaches to API strategy. The study also investigates critically the concept of “API Economy” and the relationship between APIs and some current technological trends like mobile computing, Internet of Things and open data. The study employs the theory of open innovation, which was originally conceived by Henry Chesbrough.
    [Show full text]
  • Getting Off the Treadmill: Evaluating Walking User Interfaces for Mobile Devices in Public Spaces Shaun K
    Getting Off the Treadmill: Evaluating Walking User Interfaces for Mobile Devices in Public Spaces Shaun K. Kane,1,2 Jacob O. Wobbrock1 and Ian E. Smith2,3 1The Information School 2Intel Research Seattle 3Transmutable Networks LLC DUB Group 1100 NE 45th Street, 6th Floor 4742 42nd Ave. SW #326 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98105 USA Seattle, WA 98126 USA Seattle, WA 98195 USA [email protected] {skane, wobbrock}@u.washington.edu ABSTRACT Using a mobile device while moving limits attention and motor ability and can result in reduced performance. Mobile devices that can sense and adapt to contextual factors such as movement may reduce this performance deficit. We performed two studies evaluating the feasibility of walking user interfaces (WUIs) that adapt their layout when the user is moving. In a pilot study with 6 users, we evaluated the effects of different button sizes on performance when walking while using a portable music player. Results showed significant interactions between size and movement. In the second study, 29 users evaluated the performance of a WUI that dynamically changed button sizes as the user moved. Results show that our dynamic user interface performs at the level of its component static interfaces without any additional penalty due to adaptation. This work adds to our design knowledge about walking user interfaces and provides lessons learned in evaluating mobile devices while walking in Figure 1. A participant interacting with our adaptive walking public spaces. user interface (WUI) on an ultra-mobile PC. a user who is typing a text message while walking down the street Categories and Subject Descriptors: H.5.2.
    [Show full text]
  • A Little Birdie Told Me About Agriculture: Best Practices and Future Uses of Twitter in Agriculutral Communications
    Journal of Applied Communications Volume 94 Issue 3 Nos. 3 & 4 Article 2 A Little Birdie Told Me About Agriculture: Best Practices and Future Uses of Twitter in Agriculutral Communications Katie Allen Katie Abrams Courtney Meyers See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/jac This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Recommended Citation Allen, Katie; Abrams, Katie; Meyers, Courtney; and Shultz, Alyx (2010) "A Little Birdie Told Me About Agriculture: Best Practices and Future Uses of Twitter in Agriculutral Communications," Journal of Applied Communications: Vol. 94: Iss. 3. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.1189 This Professional Development is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Applied Communications by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Little Birdie Told Me About Agriculture: Best Practices and Future Uses of Twitter in Agriculutral Communications Abstract Social media sites, such as Twitter, are impacting the ways businesses, organizations, and individuals use technology to connect with their audiences. Twitter enables users to connect with others through 140-character messages called “tweets” that answer the question, “What’s happening?” Twitter use has increased exponentially to more than five million active users but has a dropout rate of more than 50%. Numerous agricultural organizations have embraced the use of Twitter to promote their products and agriculture as a whole and to interact with audiences in a new way.
    [Show full text]
  • Titans and Trolls of the Open Source Arena
    Titans and Trolls Enter the Open-Source Arena * by DEBRA BRUBAKER BURNS I. Introduction .................................................................................... 34 II. Legal Theories for Open Source Software License Enforcement ................................................................................... 38 A. OSS Licensing .......................................................................... 38 B. Legal Theories and Remedies for OSS Claims .................... 40 1. Legal Protections for OSS under Copyright and Contract Law ..................................................................... 40 Stronger Protections for OSS License under Copyright Law ................................................................... 40 2. Copyright-Ownership Challenges in OSS ....................... 42 3. Potential Legal Minefields for OSS under Patent Law ...................................................................................... 45 4. Added Legal Protection for OSS under Trademark Law ...................................................................................... 46 5. ITC 337 Action as Uncommon Legal Protection for OSS ..................................................................................... 49 III. Enforcement Within the OSS Community .................................. 49 A. Software Freedom Law Center Enforces OSS Licenses .... 50 B. Federal Circuit Finds OSS License Enforceable Under Copyright Law ......................................................................... 53 C. Commercial OSS
    [Show full text]
  • Mobile Interaction Design: Techniques for Early Stage In-Situ Design
    10 Mobile Interaction Design: Techniques for Early Stage In-Situ Design Marco de Sá, Luís Carriço & Carlos Duarte LaSIGE and Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon Portugal 1. Introduction The recent globalization of mobile technology and its overwhelming presence on everyday life through various societal groups and activities has raised its importance to unprecedented levels. Mobile devices’ diverse shapes, small size and distinctive characteristics impel their use in diverse and ubiquitous scenarios, cementing their presence within our work, social and entertainment activities. Accordingly, as they assume a greater meaning and a wider role of functionalities, a corresponding amount of new usage paradigms is also emerging. Consequentially, designers are increasingly faced with new design challenges, needing to cope with added difficulties of creating solutions for multiple contexts, users, purposes and new ubiquitous usage behaviours. Simultaneously, they need to cope with and leverage the small size factor and the peculiar or mixed interaction modalities (e.g., touch screen in concert with keyboard or voice) that define the trends of emerging mobile devices. Contrastingly, design problems for mobile devices, and corresponding solutions, have only recently begun to be partially and superficially addressed. Difficulties and challenges are spread through various stages of design. Three phases are particularly interesting: (1) requirements and data gathering on mobile contexts; (2) prototyping for small devices and (3) evaluation on real-world settings. Currently used approaches and existing methodologies still lack specific techniques to support design on such demanding conditions, hindering the design process and resulting in poor software regarding usability. Even recent approaches generally rely on simulations, lab experiences or derive directly from non-mobile techniques, colliding with studies that have clearly demonstrated the need to take the design process out of the lab when it comes to mobile devices.
    [Show full text]
  • East Meets West on Flat Design
    Applied Research East Meets West on Flat Design: Convergence and Divergence in Chinese and American User Interface Design By Baotong Gu, Georgia State University and Meng Yu, Georgia State University Abstract Purpose: This study is designed to examine two design approaches: skeuomorphism and flat design, in both American and Chinese contexts. Questions explored include, What underlines this new design trend in American vs. Chinese cultures? How has this new design emerged? How will it evolve in the future? What culturally, underwritten aesthetic and rhetorical principles are at play? Method: Samples of user interface (UI) design are collected from both cultures and examined to compare similarities and differences wherever possible. In-depth textual analysis is used to deconstruct particular design cases. Results: Our analysis indicates that while flat design is the new trend, skeuomorphism has its place in UI design; each design has its advantages and shortcomings; and effective design may require the integration of both approaches. Our study also reveals that designs are culturally sensitive and that each particular design is contextualized and rhetorical. Flat design’s popularity in the Chinese context has its unique rationale due to social, ideological, cultural, and linguistic reasons. Conclusion: Savvy designers combine professional taste and culturally sensitive perspectives to produce effective designs that work for their particular contexts. Keywords: user interface design, flat design, skeuomorphism, Chinese UI design, Chinese element Practitioner’s • Skeuomorphism and flat design are and allows culturally universal affor- Takeaway: not mutually exclusive. They are both dances so that it can be localized with- useful in their own right. in any particular geopolitical context.
    [Show full text]