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Mobile/Fennec/Extensions/UserInterface: Difference between revisions
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Mobile/Fennec/Extensions/UserInterface (view source)
Revision as of 18:08, 22 September 2009
, 22 September 2009→Equivalents for desktop UI areas
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Fennec doesn't have any of these! It's helpful to think about what these areas tend to provide, and then look for ways to accomplish the same ends with the tools that Fennec provides. | Fennec doesn't have any of these! It's helpful to think about what these areas tend to provide, and then look for ways to accomplish the same ends with the tools that Fennec provides. | ||
*'''menubars''': random access to many options | *'''menubars''': random access to many, many options | ||
*'''toolbars''': quick actions, alerts, ambient indicators, search | *'''toolbars''': quick actions, quick access to sites, alerts, ambient indicators, search | ||
*'''sidebars''': concurrent/background tasks, tools for content area | *'''sidebars''': concurrent/background tasks, tools for content area | ||
*'''statusbars''': quick access, alerts, ambient indicators, | *'''statusbars''': quick access, alerts, ambient indicators, | ||
*'''context menus''': object related actions, hiding many actions (unfortunately) | *'''context menus''': object related actions, hiding many actions (unfortunately) | ||
So what can you use instead? | So what can you use instead? Here are some ideas: | ||
* Sidebars | * '''Sidebars -> permanent tabs?''' The idea behind sidebars is to provide ambient or close-at-hand access to persistent (list of bookmarks, notes) or updating content (like a twitter feed). On a small screen though, keeping it on-screen isn't really an option. Close-at-hand, though, is an option -- and it turns out we already have a handy mechanism for quickly switching between sets of content: tabs. | ||
*quick access | * '''quick access to sites -> awesomebar screen''' Quick access to a site is what bookmarks are for; if your add-on, as part of its set of function, also adds quick access to a site, consider making it a bookmark. | ||
* Ambient indicators | * '''Ambient indicators -> alerts''' When something happens/changes that a user is going to want to know about, careful and restrained use of transient alerts could work. The alert can point to something more detailed in another part of the UI. | ||
<center>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/menros/3910981334/ http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/3910981334_422f282f13.jpg]</center> | <center>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/menros/3910981334/ http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/3910981334_422f282f13.jpg]</center> | ||
Or better, | |||
Or better, '''ambient indicators -> peek indicators?" | |||
<center>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/menros/3910193237/ http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2633/3910193237_8bea571a09.jpg]</center> | <center>[http://www.flickr.com/photos/menros/3910193237/ http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2633/3910193237_8bea571a09.jpg]</center> | ||
* tap and hold for | Because you can pull slightly past a page edge but stop before fully committing, at which point the page edge snaps back into place, users can quickly peek past the page edge to check on things that are just out of view. The mockup above shows a scheme where users can peek at a badge on a tab thumbnail to, for example, see if there are any new messages in his or her webmail or tweets in twitter. | ||
* '''right click -> tap and hold''' There is currently no mechanism for bringing up contextual actions on an object like a picture or a link. An emerging design pattern with touchscreens is to use tap-and-hold to get at further actions about the tapped object. | |||
===What about preferences?=== | ===What about preferences?=== | ||