Optimize Your Interface for Mobile

The experience of using mobile apps (and mobile-optimized websites) can be either a joy or a deep frustration for users. This principle aims to summarize other points from across this book into a “UX for mobile cheatsheet” to help you deliver better mobile experiences.

Much of the frustration experienced by mobile users stems from the constraints the devices place on us. They have a much smaller screen, their touchscreens are more error-prone, and they’re typically on lower bandwidth connections than desktop computers. As a result, getting information out of the device and getting user input into the interface are both higher friction processes than would be the case on a desktop screen with a keyboard and mouse. The UI of these devices attempts to mitigate these constraints with the device-native features listed below.

Device-native features

The two main mobile operating systems (iOS and Android) have a great number...