This webinar has been created to focalize the details of the user interface of two apps: Jumping Man and Sky Sudoku. These apps have been submited by developers that also attends other webinars. Therefore such apps has been analyzed in the webinar considering their graphics and user interface design.
Jumping Man.
Jumping man is a game where a man is running and the user must make him jump through different obstacles that appears while he is running.
The application has been analyzed by the specialist Jan Krebber and then discussed at the webinar.
The first topic was the application's navigation map. Then the specialist started to explain several hints to improve the application.
From the point of view of the Nokia's guideline to publish apps it has been suggested that this app needs to avoid the use of a graphic return button because there is an already existing hardware back button. So the suggestion is to use the hardware back key instead of pause, back and exit software buttons.
Also it has been remarked the need to avoid the use of long names that usually appears truncated in the application list. It has been suggested to use short names because a long name makes the apps look very unprofessional. It was also suggested to use square launcher icons but rounded icons for the application list. Those and more icon settings are described in the icons' guideline published here.
For more details about graphics good practices you can find a lot of resources here.
There was also suggested to use a vertical canvas orientation to avoid orientation errors.Another suggestion was to make bigger buttons using an standard space touch area of 7mm x 7mm minimum between them in order to make them easy to touch using the fingers. Also the use of touch down feedback to the user, in other words, to change color of the surface of a button when it is touched in order to make evident the touch action.
About the game playability it was suggested to make the touch-action faster. Also to avoid adding adds while the user is playing but its good to show them when the game is paused. Pay attention where the buttons are placed because in the case of this game the jump button hides the incoming obstacles and make hard to avoid them.
When the game starts put the sound off by default in order to avoid undesirable noise when it is started. If you use web-page links in the game you have to keep the links working and avoid broken links because it makes look the entire app incomplete.
The game idea is simple and good however those remarks can improve the game user experience.
Sky Sudoku
This is a game is based in the well known sudoku. In this case the remarks started at the splash screen use, because it is irrelevant and then it has been suggested to remove it. Another important remark is to avoid usin
g abbreviations and brackets in the menu options and dialogs however in the case of this game it looks like something has failed with the app localization resources. So maybe the hint here is to verify that the app works with all the features before publish it.
About the gaming experience it has been suggested to not use a bold typeface font has an indicator instead use a background color. Avoid highlighting places where the user cannot effect because it makes the game playability confuse. Also it must be considered that
the game canvas is prone to select undesirable boxes and replace numbers by accident. The check state must have a uncheck state. At the help section it must be available a description of all the available features and possible values. If dialogs are used they must be clear. It has been proposed to use TextBoxes instead of lcdui Alerts.
The recommendations provided are:
There are lcdui and lwuit guidelines that are very useful when you're deciding how to design your app. Nokia also provide us with stencils for Inkscape and Adobe illustrator that enable us to create and edit graphics.
Reference:
Webinar presentation
Jumping Man.
Jumping man is a game where a man is running and the user must make him jump through different obstacles that appears while he is running.
The application has been analyzed by the specialist Jan Krebber and then discussed at the webinar. The first topic was the application's navigation map. Then the specialist started to explain several hints to improve the application.
From the point of view of the Nokia's guideline to publish apps it has been suggested that this app needs to avoid the use of a graphic return button because there is an already existing hardware back button. So the suggestion is to use the hardware back key instead of pause, back and exit software buttons.
Also it has been remarked the need to avoid the use of long names that usually appears truncated in the application list. It has been suggested to use short names because a long name makes the apps look very unprofessional. It was also suggested to use square launcher icons but rounded icons for the application list. Those and more icon settings are described in the icons' guideline published here.For more details about graphics good practices you can find a lot of resources here.
There was also suggested to use a vertical canvas orientation to avoid orientation errors.Another suggestion was to make bigger buttons using an standard space touch area of 7mm x 7mm minimum between them in order to make them easy to touch using the fingers. Also the use of touch down feedback to the user, in other words, to change color of the surface of a button when it is touched in order to make evident the touch action.
When the game starts put the sound off by default in order to avoid undesirable noise when it is started. If you use web-page links in the game you have to keep the links working and avoid broken links because it makes look the entire app incomplete.
The game idea is simple and good however those remarks can improve the game user experience.
Sky SudokuThis is a game is based in the well known sudoku. In this case the remarks started at the splash screen use, because it is irrelevant and then it has been suggested to remove it. Another important remark is to avoid usin
g abbreviations and brackets in the menu options and dialogs however in the case of this game it looks like something has failed with the app localization resources. So maybe the hint here is to verify that the app works with all the features before publish it.
About the gaming experience it has been suggested to not use a bold typeface font has an indicator instead use a background color. Avoid highlighting places where the user cannot effect because it makes the game playability confuse. Also it must be considered that the game canvas is prone to select undesirable boxes and replace numbers by accident. The check state must have a uncheck state. At the help section it must be available a description of all the available features and possible values. If dialogs are used they must be clear. It has been proposed to use TextBoxes instead of lcdui Alerts.
The recommendations provided are:
- Use the hardware exit key to exit the game.
- Reduce level hierarchy and the quantity of settings in order to reduce undesirable complexity.
- Remove option menus from the game canvas to gain screen real state.
- Simplify the game canvas restructuring it in a simple manner and changing the interaction.
- Reduce the options.
- Direct people from the game to the game developer homepage.
- Propose to acquire more game levels and sell batches of them a small prices.
There are lcdui and lwuit guidelines that are very useful when you're deciding how to design your app. Nokia also provide us with stencils for Inkscape and Adobe illustrator that enable us to create and edit graphics.
Reference:
Webinar presentation
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