And you are too hurried to banish the “hamburger” from your app?

hi. We all see what happens to the NAV in applications — familiar "hamburger" replace lower tabbara. Personally, it did bother me when it happened with my frequently used programs: Pocket, Skype, Youtube, and more recently, and VK.

Like this tabbara all should be well. But something happened. Last night my friend and I were talking, we were talking about the phone, and then she said:

she: and by the way, you saw what has become the VC?
the I: hmm... what do you mean?
the she: Yes, there is even now some sort of baddie. So I had not updated. (shows on your iPhone the usual navigation menu in the old style)
the I: lol, and rightly so.

you Know, it surprised me a little. We used to read these reviews in the play store/AppStore, but not live. I thought it was reason enough to think about the situation. Under the cut is a little reflection on this subject.

all I was reminded of the situation with the "start" button in Windows. In eight it was removed, and with version 8.1 returned to its rightful place. You probably realize why this happened? Yeah, right, because user, to put it mildly, did not like. They are accustomed to this element and began to experience discomfort in his disappearance.

For the same reason people become accustomed over time to the side of the main menu. Seeing it for the first time, one quickly learns that all major functions can be found there. The button Burger was criticized for maintainest icons as a gesture of pulling the menu with your thumb from the edge of the screen. But again — and that and the other need to get used to the first time, and then produced a solid user experience.

And now back to the VC and will look at navigation in his example.

redesign navigation

Developers VK lecturing post about the latest redesign of the app and the post, I think many people have seen. Everything is told in detail, in particular, about the decision to replace the sidebar with tabbara. For convenience, we bring out a picture of the evolution of the application interface in terms of navigation:

In General, everything is clear — introduced tabs, which are easier to reach and at the same time simplified access to common features, i.e. instead of two taps on the screen of "Hamburger" -> Messages now only need one tap on the icon messages. It is convenient.

But now consider the nuances.

the Problems of the new design

In tabbar is placed a maximum of 5 icons. And the rest of the items are now moved to a separate screen, which is called the last button of tabbar:

what are the main disadvantages of this decision?

the

the
• Most important: a complete lack of continuity and ignoring, thus, have long formed habits of the user
the
• Button opening the main menu takes a place on the new tabbar, which could be placed in a more useful
the
• Menu became completely modal, and the modality is bad for the same reason Car Lock worse shift'a

OK, but what could have been done differently?

solution: still sidebar plus new tabbar

In this case, tabbar I seem to be comfortable but not able to take on the role of the main navigation item. In this case it is simply a shortcut panel — that is a placeholder for shortcuts.

If we consider tabbar in this role, it would be possible to implement in settings the possibility of customization to the user to specify which labels to put on the panel. Of course the default tabbar be configured, for example, as it is now. And besides, it is possible to make available a selection of "classic" profile, where tabbar do not show up, and all its items remain in the menu on the side.

And the side menu could be left in the same place. Moreover, on the upper titlebar it's the place for menu icons and the user, thus, would not have the feelings of "damn, where's the button... she was here?!".

If the previous side menu will simultaneously exist along with the bottom tabbara, the question arises: can the menu items be duplicated in both places? In fact, the duplication wherever it is still bad, so no. As soon as the menu hits the bottom panel, it is removed from the side, respectively.

conclusion

the Developers and designers of applications often change something, experimenting with interfaces and it is an absolute good for us users. But I don't like the changes that caused rather by the fashion trends that set the industry giants (Google and Apple in particular).

until recently it was believed that small teams have an advantage over corporations greater flexibility, independence, better ability to feel the user needs. And I would like to believe that the same is true today.

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru