The Thumb Zone: Designing For Mobile Users - TRooTech

“The Thumb Zone” coined by Steven Hoober is very important factor in design & development for mobile user interfaces. You simply cannot ignore the thumb playing across the mobile screens, which is why it should be taken seriously. You don’t want your user to feel inconvenience when using the thumb to interact with your application or website. Poor consideration in design for the thumb is revealed through these inconveniences.

When you conduct the user interface testing on wire frames with the thumb, you might see a sequence for placement, which you would have technically ignored. Isn’t thumb the way to interact with devices? The way the thumb interacts with the top space may differ from the way it interacts with the bottom space of your mobile device.  You will need to consider a few design elements when designing the interface keeping the thumb in mind.

According to Hoober, 49% of the people use a single hand to hold their smartphones, and they rely heavily on the thumb to bear the weight. Clark mentioned that close to 75% of the interactions with the smartphone occurred via the thumb, which proved its importance in accessing a smartphone. There are certain zones that are easy to reach for the thumb, and then there are the in-between areas and finally the ones that are hard to reach. You will need to design for the flow of the thumb zone in this case to make user friendly and interactive designs.

Handling Navigation Issues

Remember a time in mobile world, when you had to deal with dropdown lists for mobile navigation? While the interface was not slick as that of the modern times, it could help you get through the navigation part. While there are various navigation patterns in present times, you are probably still wondering which one is the best fit for your thumb. To understand the natural movement of your thumb, answer questions on whether you app has long list of links or mix menus to deal with? What type of menu suits your website best? If you have long list links then you need a full screen overlay menu, so that there is enough space to organize the different things required from navigation perspective. You will need to align clickable elements so that they are placed near the thumb zone. If there are no long list links, then you may want a sticky menu that keeps moving with your scroll. In case you have a huge website, then you will need to mix menus, and then prioritize the links based on their weightage in your app. The sticky menus are quite user-friendly, and oft visited, while the full screen menus are not high-priority menus. You will need to gather user data, and combine it with best designing practices to leverage your thumb zone and create user friendly designs.

Make the Cards Friendly

The card pattern design is very important in your app design. You may want to get it reviewed in line with your thumb zone to measure the user friendliness. The card patterns are quite popular as they are quick, easy and predictable. They can offer good content with minimal lines, which makes reading easy, and comprehending better. These cards allow you to perform certain actions such as send, save, done and close. Weather apps have actionable links within the card. You will need your thumb to work on the card to either save or share it.

While the weather based apps may use the thumb zone, there are apps that don’t use a thumb zone. You may want to check the card pattern, and then figure out if you need to design it for the thumb zone or not. There are some issues in here that you may want to address. A close button to the top corner of the card may be common, but it does not suit the thumb patter. You may want an alternative solution for this.

Gestures & Movement

Gestures are important when you are testing user interface for your app development. Tap, double-tap, swipe, pinch and press are common gestures, and some of them use the thumb. When designing the gestures for your app, you will need to design them for the thumb zone, so that these gestures can be performed naturally. You will need to study the swipe and other gestures and figure out how exactly does the movement occur? There is an assumption on how the thumb moves, and the reality is slightly different. Make sure your swipe gestures are away from the hard to reach areas. You will need to provide enough tapping space on your mobile app.

With the thumb movement given some thought, you are ready to launch the app. You will definitely get more users on board if you have given some thought to the thumb approach on the app. 

17 Handy iOS Apps for Planning Your Perfect Christmas - TRooTech

Christmas is indeed the time of the year when you are all ready to go merry. You are making plans for the long holidays, and trying to get your last minute shopping done for the grand festive season. Planning the holidays can become a bit cumbersome if you don’t have the right assistant to check all the details for you. Have you bought presents? Are you ready with the Christmas tree? The shopping part, if you are working till last minute, can become an issue.

Well, especially for the Christmas season, there are apps that you can install in your phones and ease yourselves out. These apps will help you plan the perfect Christmas. Here we will take you through 17 iOS apps that you should have for Christmas season.

1.   Amazon

When it comes to Christmas shopping, the first app that comes to your mind is probably Amazon. With the delightful varieties and the interactive interface, you can create wish lists and shop in just a click. Apt app for all your Christmas goodies!

2.   eBay

When you are hunting for something unconventional to be gifted this season, you may want to give eBay a chance. With its differentiated marketplace, you might just stumble upon someone who is selling just the video game or phone you wanted to gift this season. The auctions are the best ways to purchase interesting gifts.

3.   Etsy

Do you want to gift someone something that’s personalized and customized? You may want to try Etsy instead of creating something on your own. The massive creative community on board will definitely help you gift something innovative and nice.

4.   No More Socks

Planning gifts for holidays has never been this fun! With this app, you can plan for all the holidays where giving a gift is a necessary. You can even open your wish list and plan the budget for these gifts.

5.   Toast

Instead of giving the gifts a lot of thought, find out what your friends may like to get as a gift. Integrate a wish list with this app, and give your friends and relatives what they have always wanted. You can even plan your budget accordingly.

6.   BigOven

Food is an important part of any festive occasion. When it comes to grocery shopping, you need an app that can tell you which groceries you will need for the festive season. Planning the food is another thing altogether. This app gives you a shot at grocery planning, and has stored a lot of recipes that you can cook during Christmas.

7.   Cooking

What if you don’t know cooking but have a hoard of recipes in your phone? Cooking will tell guide you through the whole process of making the dish, and getting it ready in time. Right from cooking techniques to the substitutions in the recipes, this app works well for people who can’t cook.

8.   Epicurious Recipes

If you are a beginner cook, this is your guide and friend, and for the ones who have aced the art, this is your treasure trove. It takes you through the whole process of cooking, and has some delectable recipes on board

9.   Look & Cook

With only 44 recipes, it is your unconventional recipe app. The app comes with a visual overview for the recipes, making cooking easier for you

10.               How to Cook Everything

If you want to learn cooking, this is your best bet at it. It will take you through a range of recipes that can be perfected with ease. Pocket this app to achieve your cooking goals.

11.               Yelp

If you are planning to go out and have dinner, then use this app to know the favorite places in town where you can grab some interesting dishes. Yelp will help you find the ideal restaurants serving a range of delicacies.

12.               Tigris and Euphrates

Build your empire and gain points for the different leaders. It is an interactive board game that lays out the struggles in the ancient Egypt among the powerful leaders. It is a strategy game, and is pretty fun. This festive mood you can play this game and engage in a heartwarming time with your family

13.               Ticket to Ride

This family game is about building the first pioneering train line across America. The easy to understand rules and effective concept make it a fun game. You may not want to miss this game this festive season.

14.               Carcassonne

This is a tile lying game with basic rules. A strategy game with easy rules and interesting methods, you are definitely going to be addicted to it.

15.               Catan HD

This multiplayer strategy game works on the concept of trading resources, which has not found too many takers till now. These traded resources would be used to build roads, towns etc. The idea is to create real human interaction.

16.               Forbidden Island

This is a family game where you will not be working against each other, but actually with each other towards a common goal. It is fun and interactive, giving out the essence of being a family

17.               Ultimate Yule Log

This is the app that guarantees the open fireplace ambience that gives the ultimate Christmas atmosphere. It will add glow and warmth to your festive celebration.

If you want to plan for iOS app development for your business, get quote from TRooTech Business Solution.