Aza Raskin: Mobile Firefox and Designing Without Modal Overlays

In the concept video I recently did for laying out the interface paradigms for Firefox Mobile, I listed five guiding principals. Touch it with your finger Large targets are good Visual Momentum and Physics are compelling Typing is difficult Content is king It?s these principals that inform the design of new features long after the original design as been coded, released, and iterated on. In discussions with the perspicacious Mike Beltzner, another design principal emerged.  6. Use modal overlays sparingly, if at all. To be sure we are on the same page?I?m may be partaking in the dangerous hobby of coining new terminology?an overlay is simply a content area that sits in front of the content beneath it. The aspect that makes a modal overlay modal is that when it is up, the content ?beneath? the overlay cannot be acted upon until the overlay is dismissed. Although a modal overlay may be visually transparent, it is never interaction transparent: you must always take action, like clicking ?okay?, before continuing with your workflow. While I?m living dangerously, I?ll toss one more phrase into the mix: a state-forgetting modal overlay is an overlay whose state is reset every time it is summoned. That is, any work you do in the overlay is lost when you dismiss it. Some examples of modal overlays are dialog/monologue boxes, ever-so-Web-2.0 Lightboxes, and the bookmarks interface for Mobile Safari. view original article
Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:44:33 +0200

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