Editor Usability for Symbian
Article Metadata
Description
Application that involves displaying and processing data in text form require editor control. Application may either require modification in existing data or produce new data. To handle these needs application designer must use them in uniform and efficient way.
Since smart phones have limited input capabilities, there are many aspects to be considered when compared to the usual editor components in modern desktop environments. The editor controls of the S60 platform have been designed to be applied and customized to meet the specific text display and input needs of the application.
Usability guidelines
Depending on your input text requirement, design an application in such a way that editor can take correct input
- Provide cursor & scrollbar
For displaying normal text use simple plain text editor. Provide a cursor on the editor so that user can navigate and modify the text. In case the content of the editor is large then provide scrollbar to allow user to scroll to the desired location and also to be aware that there is more content that can be viewed.
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Good text editor example |
Bad text editor example |
- Use number editor for taking integer input
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Good number editor example |
Bad number editor example |
- Confidential information should be hidden
Secret editors can be used for getting confidential input like login name and password, so the same doesn’t get displayed on the screen.
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Good secret editor example |
Bad secret editor example |
- Use Multi-Field Numeric Editors
In case you want to take input of several numeric fields like time editor, date editor, range editor use multi field editors so that the user can enter information in the different fields.
Good Multi-Field Numeric Editor Example
- Use rich text editors if you want to show image in editor
Good RichText editor Example
- While entering text, the user should be given example format with the help of tool tip or by providing the default values.
- For input fields specify the right field length.
- The boundary conditions should be validated before the app goes into the hands of the user.
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