Is there a reason for most menus and controls being located on top of the screen on mobile? It seem to me bottom of the screen would be better user experience to have them on bottom.
The simplest answer to this is that it is what users are familiar with and know. Most experiences use top navigations, so users know to look up top. some trailblazers in UX are exploring bottom navs, and they can work really well, but they require curation and a really simple app structure which facilitates the bottom nav. As citizen developers using power apps, chances are we don’t have the time or resources to have a UX team researching and testing new navigation practices or optimizing our apps information architecture, so the safest route is to stick to well established and understood UX practices.
Using popups, and tabs is said to not be accessible enough for keyboard users. Do you have some advice to oppose those designs to accessibility concerns ?
Hey Alexandre - good question. When accessibility is a concern, it's probably a good idea to steer away from these types of custom controls. We're hopeful that MS develops ways for us to have better control over focus/keyboard navigation in the future. Our general suggestion if keyboard interaction is key for your application would be: navigate to a dialog screen and then back. This makes it no longer "like a modal" but it will provide for capturing keyboard input correctly and give options for resolving any accessibility issues. As for the tabbing scenario, I would suggest a similar approach and move toward a wizard style data capture, allowing the user to navigate through each screen (tab).
There needs to be more talk about Best Practices like this. Thank you!
Thanks!
Is there a reason for most menus and controls being located on top of the screen on mobile? It seem to me bottom of the screen would be better user experience to have them on bottom.
The simplest answer to this is that it is what users are familiar with and know. Most experiences use top navigations, so users know to look up top. some trailblazers in UX are exploring bottom navs, and they can work really well, but they require curation and a really simple app structure which facilitates the bottom nav. As citizen developers using power apps, chances are we don’t have the time or resources to have a UX team researching and testing new navigation practices or optimizing our apps information architecture, so the safest route is to stick to well established and understood UX practices.
Dude, I love you 🤟 Thanks so much
We love you too! 😀 Glad we could help
Using popups, and tabs is said to not be accessible enough for keyboard users. Do you have some advice to oppose those designs to accessibility concerns ?
Hey Alexandre - good question. When accessibility is a concern, it's probably a good idea to steer away from these types of custom controls. We're hopeful that MS develops ways for us to have better control over focus/keyboard navigation in the future.
Our general suggestion if keyboard interaction is key for your application would be: navigate to a dialog screen and then back. This makes it no longer "like a modal" but it will provide for capturing keyboard input correctly and give options for resolving any accessibility issues. As for the tabbing scenario, I would suggest a similar approach and move toward a wizard style data capture, allowing the user to navigate through each screen (tab).
Less BS and more show!
Thanks for the thoughtful comment treehuggerjoe!