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  • 🚀Get Started
    • What is JourneyApps Platform?
    • Tutorial: Build your First App
      • 1. Introduction
      • 2. Create a new App
      • 3. OXIDE IDE Overview
      • 4. Hello World app
      • 5. The Data Model
      • 6. View Components
      • 7. Queries and Data Sync
      • 8. Simple Navigation
      • 9. View Stack
      • 10. Input Validation
      • 11. View Parameters
      • 12. Data Manipulation
      • 13. Responsive Apps
      • 14. Styling
      • 15. Lists
      • 16. GPS Capturing
      • 17. Relationships
      • 18. Multiple User Roles
      • 19. Deployment and Users
      • 20. Version Control
      • 21. CSV and APIs
      • 22. Conclusion
    • JourneyApps Platform Fundamentals
      • Creating a New App
        • Git-enabled Apps
      • What are Views?
      • What is the Data Model?
      • JourneyApps Syntax Basics
      • Access the Database (DB)
        • Manipulate DB Objects
        • Query DB Objects
      • View Navigation
        • Deep Linking
      • CloudCode Overview
      • OXIDE (Online IDE)
  • 💻Build your App
    • JourneyApps Syntax
      • Syntax Basics
      • Access the DB
      • View Navigation
      • Async & Await
      • TypeScript Apps (Beta)
        • runtime-build package
        • TypeScript App Troubleshooting
      • What's New in V4
        • Updating to the V4 API
    • Configure your Data Model
      • What is the data model?
      • Reference: model
        • field
        • belongs-to
        • has-many
        • index
      • Data Rules
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        • Sync Rules - Limit data synced to devices
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    • UI Components
      • All UI Components
        • actionSheet
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          • body
        • display-3d-model
          • 📖display-3d-model Guides
            • Guide 1: Initialize and layout a 3D model in a view
            • Guide 2: Control playback position
            • Guide 3: Troubleshooting controls
        • display-coordinates
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              • action
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        • optionList
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          • 📖Guide: PowerBI Embedding
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      • journey
        • journey.config
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    • Extend your App with Custom Code
      • App packages
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    • Style & Customize your App
      • Style & configure UI components
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        • Special Requirements for iOS Containers
    • Integrate your App
      • Backend integrations with CloudCode
      • Barcode Scanning
        • Barcode Scanning using Keyboard Emulation
        • Hardware Barcode Scanning
        • scan-barcode
      • Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
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      • JourneyApps Print (Android)
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    • Design Intuitive Apps
      • UX Guidelines
      • Write Effective Copy
  • 📱App Features
    • RealWear® Voice Control
      • Automatic Voice Commands
        • Automatic Voice Commands - Advanced
      • Manual Voice Commands
    • App, Runtime and Container Updates
    • Batch Operations (App)
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    • Webhooks (External)
  • 🌐CloudCode
    • CloudCode Overview
    • Trigger a CloudCode Task
      • Trigger CC with a Schedule
      • Trigger CC via a Webhook
      • Trigger CC from an App
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    • Attachments in CloudCode
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      • Access Multiple DBs in CloudCode Tasks
      • Batch API (CloudCode)
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  • 📥Backend API
    • Introduction
    • API Reference
      • Retrieve All Objects
      • Query Objects
      • Sort Results
      • Limit and Skip
      • Count Objects
      • Create a New Object
      • Retrieve a Single Object
      • Update a Single Object
      • Delete a Single Object
      • Batch Operations (v4 API)
      • Oplog API
      • Retrieve the App Data Model
      • Manage App Users and Sessions
      • Field Representation
      • Error Responses
    • API Limits
    • Update to the V4 API
  • ⚙️Technical
    • Data Synchronization Priority
    • Device Diagnostics
    • JSON1 Query Engine
    • Improve App Performance
    • Security Measures
    • Supported Platforms
      • Web Container
      • Windows Installer
    • Domain Whitelist
  • 🖥️OXIDE
    • Get started with OXIDE
      • OXIDE Overview
      • Components of OXIDE
    • Configure Testing Deployments
    • Edit and Manage Files
      • How to Navigate to a Function
      • Manage External Dependencies
    • Create and Manage App Containers
    • Debugging & Troubleshooting
      • Common Troubleshooting Pointers
      • App Diagnostics Reports
      • Build Logs
    • OXIDE Workspaces
      • OXIDE Trees
  • ❕Deprecated Features
    • Deprecated Features and Components
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On this page
  • 1. Defining your app's navigation
  • 2. Designing your views
  1. Build your App
  2. Design Intuitive Apps

UX Guidelines

PreviousDesign Intuitive AppsNextWrite Effective Copy

Last updated 2 years ago

1. Defining your app's navigation

This is a guide on how to define the items in your menu or on the home page of your app. Start by thinking about all the types of users who will interact with your app and how they will be using it. How does it fit into their daily lives? What do they need to try and achieve? What are the parts of your app they will interact with most frequently? The aim of this exercise is to help you structure your app's navigation in a way that allows your users to move around as quickly and easily as possible.

These steps are based on .

1. List all your app roles & users

Start with your app’s built-in roles. If one of the roles has more than one type of user, list all of these too.

2. List all their tasks

Start with the most important user first, and list all the tasks they have to do.

3. Group similar tasks

Note which tasks can be grouped on the same view under one header or as a part of the same flow.

4. Prioritize tasks

Once the tasks have been grouped, determine which of them need to be accessible from the home screen. Bring links to the most important tasks forward to high-level screens. If there are tasks that need to be performed in a hurry or regularly, make sure the user doesn’t have to go through too many clicks to get there.

Use this to plan your home menu for the specific role, making sure every task is accounted for according to its level of priority.

If your app has more than one role, repeat this process for every role so that they can see their most important tasks first. If your app has only one role, but multiple users with multiple tasks, prioritize your home menu according to the most important tasks performed by the most important users.

2. Designing your views

Once your navigation and flow have been designed, you need to determine how each view should be laid out.

Optimize for simplicity and speed

Each view should have as little clutter on it as possible. To minimize cognitive load, try and reduce the number of decisions a user should make on one screen. Consider how many buttons you really need - if you have many buttons, ask yourself whether you are trying to do too much in one view. A good way to optimize for speed is to make it obvious what the next step should be, so one primary call-to-action on your view makes it obvious what should be done next.

Optimize for consistency

Optimize for affordance

It is important to remember that your users interact with other apps too, which shapes the way they expect your app to work. Before selecting components for your screens, look at how other apps solve similar problems and consider which component would be best for the task your user needs to perform. Make sure your component does what it looks like it should do. The best way to check this is to find someone who has never seen your app before, show them the component and ask them what they expect would happen when clicking on it.

When choosing an icon, remember that certain icons already have certain meanings attached to them. It might be tempting to use a gear icon for a list of gears and machinery, but a gear is already associated with "Settings". Arrows should be used carefully - left and right arrows mean "Back" and "Proceed"; up and down arrows often mean "Upload" and "Download". Some icons can be ambiguous: a pencil sometimes means "Create New", but it often also means "Edit", so a plus icon may be less confusing when you want to add something new. Unfortunately, not even the most popular apps agree on what icons mean, and the same icon can mean something different to an iOS and an Android user. As with choosing the right component, the best way to make sure you've picked the best icon is just to ask someone with a fresh eye and do a bit of research online.

One UX practice that comes in handy here is the pattern. Essentially, it says that when users need to move through a process it's better to break up different parts of the flow into its smallest elements and just have one action per page. Using this pattern will limit the number of buttons on a view and be less confusing for your user.

If you want your users to get used to your app as quickly as possible, make sure all the components behave in similar ways across your app. If you use the to display your user's logged audits on one screen, have a similarly styled list wherever audits are displayed across your app. If an is clickable on one screen, make sure it is clickable on other screens too. Your user will learn how to interact with the components you choose to use in the app, and if the way the components behave changes in different places it will cause prolonged confusion and frustration for your user.

For more best practices in UI/UX design, you can read .

💻
One Thing Per Page
list UI component
object-table
this UX Pin article here
Google Material Design guidelines for navigation