Hi all, before I put it into an HIG, I wanted to discuss with you a certain UI element that Kontact Touch uses: The element I'm talking about is the "Menu Flap". The thing that most screens in Kontact Touch have on their left side. It works pretty much like the drawers we already use on the Activity Screen and in Files & Co.: Pull it out from the side and it reveals several menu entries, optionally with sub menus. This is certainly not something every App should use, because it is merely a way of making a complex application manageable on a mobile/touch device. Apps that manage to actually reduce complexity to a point where a menu is not necessary anymore simply don't need it. However, if an application is complex enough to warrant a menu but still not too complex for a mobile device, this type of menu is still more touch-friendly than traditional desktop menus and therefore preferable. Additionally it fits well with our drawer concept. And I know that this feature was designed iteratively with user testing, so it's somewhat proven.
Disclaimer: I don't think Kontact Touch is the perfect mobile PIM suite. Personally I wouldn't try to stuff all features of a desktop PIM suite (one which is among the most feature-rich ones I know) into a mobile version in the first place. But I know that the team behind Kontact Touch specifically had the task to create a mobile version with every feature that the desktop version had. And they managed pretty well to make this at least moderately usable. Therefore I would not want to see other applications with menus as full as some of those in Kontact Touch, but even with only a fraction of the features, the Menu Flaps would still make them easier to handle. So what do you think? What is your experience with Menu Flaps? Do you think other applications could make good use of them as well? - Thomas _______________________________________________ Active mailing list [email protected] https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/active
