
Misused mobile UX patterns - keylimepie
https://medium.com/@kollinz/misused-mobile-ux-patterns-84d2b6930570
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radley
Some people learn the rules, but the best also learn the exceptions.

1\. It only appears like everyone opposes Hamburger menus, but it's really
just an obstacle for publishers (blogs, magazines, deals) who are entirely
dependent on discovery to drive engagement. Apps with naturally motivated
engagement (music players, deep social, stores) do better with the menu.

2\. I agree icons should be clear. The best way to design an icon is to search
Google images and look for a common icon, pattern, or symbol. This greatly
reduces the need to label the icon.

3\. Only use gestures that are standardized. Follow the example of major apps
by Apple, Google, & Facebook to determine which gestures are most commonly
used per platform (iOS, Android). Don't deviate from those patterns unless
your app's entire position is to be a gesture-based app.

4\. Onboarding should be optional (skip button), informative, and
rediscoverable somewhere in the app. Coach marks are only essential for
complex screens. Don't show more that one or two highlights else people will
ignore everything. Include an obvious "OK" or "Got it!" button.

5\. Agree - don't show users an empty screen! That being said, apps have
unique needs. Google's collections app expects lots of engagement so it shows
the user how to use the app. Lootsy needs users to start selling ASAP so it's
motivation is reduce steps towards populating listings.

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coldpie
Haha, I love the bit about pictograms. I have to use Xcode occasionally at
work, and it's always a case of hovering over a few dozen buttons trying to
guess which one might do what I want.

[http://codewithchris.wpengine.netdna-
cdn.com/img/xcode_5_wor...](http://codewithchris.wpengine.netdna-
cdn.com/img/xcode_5_workspace_diagram.jpg)

~~~
cjrp
...what does the tuxedo button do?

~~~
wingerlang
It is the "assistant view" which opens a second tab with an editor where it
automatically tries to open related files.

Although it is now looking like this:
[http://i.imgur.com/gA8AwmG.png](http://i.imgur.com/gA8AwmG.png)

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dcustodio
Great article. I find disturbing how some apps are so hard to use not only by
the poor choice of icons, but by not providing immediate and clear ways to
perform the most basic actions.

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gabemart
The Youtube app "before" picture is very gory. A hamburger menu _and_ the
three-dots actionbar icon? That gives me a bit of a cold sweat.

Common UI interactions on mobile devices are beginning to make me feel old.

~~~
digi_owl
As best i recall, they come out of a misuse of Fragments elements.

The original idea of Google's Fragments framework was to produce something
closer to desktop interfaces on tablets. But interfaces that could also
"collapse" to fit the "card stack" thinking of earlier Android.

Meaning that what we now know as the hamburger menu was meant to show up as a
sidebar in tablet layout, and as a first layer in phone layout.

Similarly, Fragments gave us the actionbar where earlier there was a dedicated
menu button. The icon was for when the number of bar entries didn't fit the
available screen space.

Again the thinking seemed to be that the bar would revert back to being the
menu on phones.

