Introduction
If you are picking up this book, you don't need to be told how ubiquitous mobile is, how quickly it is growing and changing, and how much it is supplanting desktop computing, and even more traditional media such as film, television, radio, papers and books.
Mobile is so huge and growing so fast, that astonishing numbers from just a few years ago pale in comparison. So much so, that we won't even bother quoting any figures, as they will be quaint far before the rest of the content looses its relevance.
One thing that has not yet happened is true standards of design. There are just now movements to design for mobile first, for the very good reason that in many markets your customers look at your website on mobiles more than desktops.
Yet, too much design is based on older paradigms for desktop, or even for TV or print. Within mobile, too many design discussions are very narrowly focused. They pay special attention to applications on a single platform, or only to the mobile web. And almost always at the specific expense of every other platform. Certainly, almost no one discusses anything but smartphones, despite huge marketshare and vast use rates.
Fragmentation is discussed as a bad thing for marketing, and sometimes for design, but designers themselves contribute too often by focusing on pixel-based layouts, and the specifics of their favorite OS. This does no one any good, and is especially pointless when you consider the user. Devices generally have many more features and methods of interaction in common than their differences might imply.
Serious mobile design now, and especially in the future, will require building for every user, and providing some solution on every platform.
This book offers a set of common patterns for interaction design on all types of mobile devices. A few patterns require specific hardware or form factors, but most are absolutely universal.
Most do not concern themselves at the top level with implementation details. The correct solution is correct whether at the OS level, as an application or as a website.
Of course, there are notes to discuss alternatives, methods and limitations to assist with decision making. And, many of the specific patterns are coupled with alternatives or variations that allow similarly-useful solutions to be achieved on any type of device.
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The Patterns
I - Page
Introduction to the Page section. √
2 - Wrapper
Introduction to the Wrapper chapter. √
Summary to the Page section Page-Wrapup. √
II - Components
Introduction to the Components section. √
3 - Display of Information
Introduction to the Display of Information chapter. √
4 - Control & Confirmation
Introduction to the Control & Confirmation chapter. √
5 - Revealing More Information
Introduction to the Revealing More Information chapter. √
Summary to the Component Section Component Wrapup √
III - Widget
Introduction to the Widget section. √
6 - Lateral Access
Introduction to the Lateral Access chapter. √
7 - Drilldown
Introduction to the Drilldown chapter. √
8 - Labels & Indicators
Introduction to the Labels & Indicators chapter. √
9 - Information Controls
Introduction to the Information Controls section. √
Summary to the Widget Section Widget Wrapup √
IV - Input & Output
Introduction to the Input & Output section.
10 - Text & Character Input
Introduction to the Text & Character Input section. √
11 - General Interactive Controls
Introduction to the General Interactive Controls section.
Dialer √
12 - Input & Selection
Introduction to the Input & Selection section. √
13 - Audio & Vibration
Introduction to the Audio & Vibration section. √
14 - Screens, Lights & Sensors
Introduction to the Screens, Lights & Sensors section. √
Summary to the Input & Output Section Input & Output Wrapup
V - Stuff We're (Probably) Not Putting In the Book
We made up a LOT of patterns as short descriptions, and when we got around to organizing and detailing them... they didn't all sound that good after all. Also, we have to keep the book at a reasonable size. But, we don't want to loose track of these, so here's an un-ordered list of those ideas we've kicked aside. For now.
Attach & Reference - I liked this concept (it was under Input & Selection), but when I started really thinking about it, I realized it was far more about integrating other stuff with the widget, which is not really the way the rest of the book is written. The reason is, there are like half a dozen of these in the world. No one writes (or can write?) a different one. It's OS based, and even the paradigms change slightly between OSs. Android lets you use any number of services, others do not for example. So... maybe later. Contribute to it if you want.
Meter and Levels - Generalized version of what I think of battery meters. For all those things, signal strength, and anything else. Over broad. Also, talked about a bit in the Annunciator Row pattern itself, so redundant.
- Ratings - Star ratings, and the like. Indicates a min, max, common and yours. But, every time a service changes it (IMDB, Netflix) people complain. And that's on the desktop side. It's worse when trying to offer multiples, and interactivity on mobile. No best practice yet.
- Flagging - How you say a piece of content is inappropriate, etc. Some good practices, but all have to be learned (in a comment stream, does it disappear after a while, etc.?) and there's no best practice, therefore. And that's desktop. What about mobile?
- Tagging - Like adding word tags to an image to make it easier to find. Good idea. Problem is that it can be implemented in so many ways. No one good or commonly used best practice for mobiles as yet.
- Augmented Reality - Not really a pattern, and too nascent anyway, and when seen now, generally uses common patterns from other types of interactions. Expect to see some unique ones in the future as AR becomes mature.
Accessibility - Because of the approach we're taking to describing reasoning, and establishing norms for user perception, it's hard to robustly address accessibility. We're starting to gather this stuff down below (see Color Deficit Design Tools for one example) but in the pattern book above are just generally considering and making reference, instead of explicitly addressing every edge case. Maybe we need a followup book "Designing Mobile Computing Devices for Universal Accessibility"???
Screen Stuff - A variety of interesting tips and tricks could go here, but are mostly too much tips and tricks, and not enough pattern. Will be more relevant as lit-pixel displays appear, but may be covered other places, like the Lock Screen, which actually already mentions it.
Design Tools
Things other than the patterns themselves you can use to help design. Templates (including those used to draw the diagrams here), stencils, simulators, emulators, etc.
Script Events - How different mobile browsers handle, or don't handle, DOM events for Javascript/ECMAscript
Emulators - Emulators, prototyping tools, design aids, etc.
Color Deficit Design Tools - And other tools to help understand colorblindness and related conditions.
Drawing Tools & Templates - Graphic design tools, UI guidelines, tips for various tools.
Documentation Templates - Designing documents can be as important to successful implementation as the actual design.
Introduction to Mobile Typography - Overview of basic type terms and some things to watch out for in small screens.
Introduction to Location Technologies - Location is not just GPS. If you think it is, and are designing applications and services that use it, read this.
Set up Photoshop and Illustrator color controls - Okay, not really mobile, but a constant source of frustration. Valid for anyone who works in interactive pretty much all the time.
Events
We're pretty busy with day jobs, freelance jobs and actually writing the book. But if we're scheduled to go somewhere and talk about anything remotely related to mobile, much less the book, we'll post it here:
Float Mobile Learning Symposium 10 June 2011, Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois