One of the areas that I revisit from time to time is how user interfaces are designed for mobile devices. Despite being crucial to user adoption most developers don’t worry too much about the interface design for desktop applications. Luckily due to monitor/screen sizes going up this is less of an issue as we can usually work out the mess and still be productive. Unfortunately on a mobile application if you don’t get the user interface right (or at least make an effort to think about how a user might use your application) your application will not be used (full stop!).
So, lets start with the basics – these are guidelines for usability not necessarily guidelines for good user interface design:
- Designing Windows Mobile 5.0 Application UIs
- Mobile2Market Program with handbooks for Pocket PC and Smartphone
- MobileHCI – yet to check this out in much detail but looks really interesting!
- Little Spings Design blog