Make your application touch-centric
A touch-centric experience on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet means that users interact with content by using gestural interactions, such as swiping, instead of "poking" UI components. Avoid cluttering the screen with UI components and design your application to take advantage of the gestural interactions. For example, allow users to zoom in to a picture by using the pinch out gesture instead of tapping a button to incrementally zoom in.
Bezel gestures
The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet supports gestures from the device bezel (the frame around the display area of the screen). The "swipe from the bottom of the screen" gesture is a core interaction, which displays the application list. If the application list is displayed already, this gesture displays the open but minimized applications. There are other bezel gestures that are available for you to use as shortcuts to features in your applications. These gestures include the following:
|
Gesture |
Expected result |
|---|---|
|
Swipe from the top of the screen |
Displays a menu for settings or options |
|
Swipe from the left or right side of the screen |
Switches applications |
|
Swipe from the top corners of the screen |
Displays application notifications and status indicators |
|
Swipe from the bottom left corner of the screen |
Displays the keyboard |
Interactions with content on the screen
If they apply to your application, you can implement the following interactions to allow users to directly manipulate content on the screen.
|
Gesture |
Expected result |
|---|---|
|
Tap |
This gesture initiates an action. For example, when users tap an application icon, the corresponding application opens. |
|
Double tap |
This gesture focuses on the targeted area of the screen (for example, by zooming in or out). |
|
Drag or swipe |
This gesture moves the content on the screen in the direction of the drag or swipe and at the corresponding rate of speed. For example, users can move slowly through a list by dragging a finger on the screen, or they can move quickly through a list by swiping across the screen. |
|
Touch and hold |
This gesture highlights a sequence of characters, a word, a link, or an item, such as an email or picture. |
|
Multi-touch |
With two touch points, this gesture highlights a block of text or items. Up to four simultaneous touch points are supported and they can be application-specific. |
|
Pinch out or pinch in |
This gesture zooms in to or out from an item. |
|
Pivot |
This gesture rotates an item or the view. |
Best practices
- Carefully consider where you place UI components. Try to keep a 15-pixel margin around UI components and around the edge of the screen, especially along the top and bottom of the screen. Otherwise, users might inadvertently open a menu or display the application list.
- Use a target area of at least 5.5 mm for custom UI components, or at least 4 mm if the component extends across the full width of the screen. It's a good idea to test the size of the target area with users. Components need to be large enough to touch with a finger, and this size depends on the layout of the screen and the proximity to other UI components.
- Add visual cues to encourage users to explore the gestures in your application. For example, you can add a slider that users can use to adjust a value by dragging a finger across the component.
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