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Mobile design guidelines

Gong & Tarasewich take design guidelines typically used for desktop applications and transform them for mobile applications. Short and clear.

“Design for multiple and dynamic contexts
Allow for single- or no-handed operation
Design for small devices
Design for limited and split attention
Design for speed and recovery
Design for ‘top-down’ interaction
Allow for personalization
Design for enjoyment”

Link: Guidelines for handheld mobile interface design (pdf)

Comments 1

  1. 3eyes wrote:

    Its interesting but I think a few things are misguided. For example (from the PDF)

    The “look and feel” should be the same across multiple platforms and devices
    Elements of mobile interfaces such as names, color schemes, and dialog appearances should be the same as their desktop counterpart
    Create input/output methodologies that are device independent – avoid using methods specific to mobile platforms where possible

    This is all just so wrong, a mobile application is situated within the context of a differnt platform, with differnt screen sizes and differnt forms of input. The UI should not look like its desktop counterpart, it should look like other apps on the mobile device, for example following Nokia UI guidelines. A mobile apps input should reflect mobile UI, it should fit the device not the desktop.

    Whilst its important for both consistancy in the interface and graphical elements, as designers it is important to know what context something is situated and make choices based upon that. For example would it make any sense at all to use Windows design paradigms on a Mac just because it would make the app consistant? No because its more important the application fits into the environment its used in.

    Posted 29 Nov 2005 at 4:20 am

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