1 On-screen "back" button can be useful

Contrary to the article, I prefer an on-screen “back” button in Android apps. The way I hold the phone when interacting with the screen is sometimes different than the way I need to hold the phone to click the hardware buttons. I can more easily tap the screen than shift around and press harder to click the button. For applications with a lot of forward and back navigation, it can make sense to keep more of the gestures on-screen.

posted at 01:42 pm on October 18, 2011 by Alan Stearns

2 On Screen Back

@astearns, in situations like that the gestures can be integrated in the app. But an explicit “back” button is different. it is a browser control. Why replicate it (often with different behavior)? We learned this lesson on the Web a long time ago. Site’s that tried to rebuild the browser’s back button moved away from it real fast.

If you need navigation actions make them navigation actions: ideally labeled with their destination/function and secondarily with a non-“back” label like “up” a nav tree or “previous/next in a sequence.

posted at 07:10 pm on October 18, 2011 by Luke Wroblewski

3 re: on screen back

In an application I could see having a onscreen back button due to the fact that sometimes pressing the hardware back button actually closes out the program when you only meant to go back one screen.

Website wise if you’re using an Android phone, Opera mini has an onscreen back and forward button.

posted at 12:12 am on October 20, 2011 by jcgallaher

4 This is why mobile CSS ain't enough

Simply changing the CSS of a normal, desktop focused web site to display the same content on a mobile is a Very Wrong Way of creating a mobile friendly site. You have demonstrated very clearly why we need to completely re-think the architecture for mobile presentation

Good one

posted at 01:27 am on October 20, 2011 by yeosteve

5 Screen Back

@jcgallaher that’s in a native app, not in the Web browser.

posted at 11:01 am on October 20, 2011 by Luke Wroblewski

6 What about Search?

Although the article doesn’t cover this I noticed that in your examples the redesign of facebook/twitter kept a small magnifying glass icon on the top while bagcheck’s search is integrated with the menu at the bottom. Should search be relegated to the bottom menu? Would the average user know to go to the bottom (or click on the arrow) to search for something?

I could see the top menu design having both menu and search icons as well as the logo (a facebook & bagcheck combo).

Fantastic article. I look forward to reading the book.

posted at 12:38 pm on October 21, 2011 by Rheal Poirier

7 Very helpfull

Thank you for this interesting article! It really helpt me clear some stuff out.

posted at 02:52 am on October 28, 2011 by guapamedia

8 Crumb trails

Thanks for sharing this with the A List Apart readers Luke – some incredibly useful and usable information in here. Wondering how you feel about users who are exploring on information rich website being given a crumb trail for orientation purposes? It has its obvious benefits but is likely to add precious height to the header of every page.

posted at 05:08 am on November 2, 2011 by alstevens

9 Amazing

This is a wonderful article, gotta love technology. I wonder how you feel about iphone vs Android?

posted at 11:31 pm on April 5, 2012 by Rave Gear

10 Agree with you

Focusing on content first, navigation second gets people to the information and tasks they want quickly.

posted at 05:04 am on April 20, 2012 by lockandneck