Screen Layout Usability
Article Metadata
Description
One of the most frequently asked questions is "for what screen resolution should we design our app?" Also most of the mobile devices enables user to switch between portrait and landscape orientation. Also the testing criteria UNI-10 says: The application should function and render its display as specified, regardless of the device screen resolution and format. Thus design application in such a way that it match the display resolution.
Some usability guideline
- Make sure that the application's content is easy to view and interact with when displayed in either resolution.
- Display a proper message if user switch to the mode which is not supported by your application.
|
Showing proper message if aplication does not support current screen mode |
- Design each control of application in such a way that it will resize itself when user change resolution.
|
Good screen example which show |
Bad screen example which not showing |
Contrast this with the below implementation where the display scales well for the mode changes.
|
UI Visible in portrait mode |
UI Visible in landscape mode |
- You should take care of menu, dialogs also if you are creating a custom menu & dialogs.
- While switching from portrait to landscape mode and vice versa, the number of lines or items may change. So a generic UI design should not assume a certain fixed number of items.
- The placement of popup windows should be adjusted in the landscape mode so that they remain in close proximity to the softkey texts.
- In the landscape mode, the placement of status pane components should be consistent with other applications.
