Design Principles; Design For A Limitless Screen - Blackberry PlayBook Ui Manuallines

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UI Guidelines

Design principles

If you are used to designing for a smartphone, you might have organized the screens in your application in a hierarchy. Try

to avoid this approach when you design applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Instead of creating an application

with a hierarchy that users have to navigate, create an application that has a flat structure. Think of the screen as a window

into your application instead of a container for the entire application. For example, if the number of photo albums does not

fit on the display area of the screen, show part of a photo album at the edge of the screen so that it is obvious to users that

they can view more albums by swiping up or down on the screen.

Use a canvas strategy

The large area of a typical computer interface allows you to present an application with a mix of content and UI

components. The same application that is created for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet requires a different strategy. In most

situations, your application should make use of the entire screen, use gestures to control workflow, and access additional

options only when necessary.

If you have a large amount of information to present, try to think of the screen as a frame that contains a small view of a

large canvas. Users can move the view by dragging a finger in any direction, or by swiping to move the view quicker or a

greater distance. For example, you might use this type of interaction when navigating within a map or large image.

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