Part II. Components
Components, as described here, are a section or subsection of a designed interactive space. They take up a significant portion of the screen and may be as large as the viewport (or larger) or, when smaller, may appear to be in front of other displayed information.
Components must display a range of information types—images, ordered data, expandable lists, and notifications. They also allow the user to interact with the system in some significant, primary manner. Combining them with small, reusable, interactive, or display widgets gives the designer an almost unlimited number of options.
The components that we will discuss in Part II are subdivided into the following chapters:
Types of Components
Components for Display of Information
When you display information, you need to reflect the user’s mental model and mimic the way the user organizes and processes knowledge. Information displayed on mobile user interfaces that ignores this principle causes the user to become lost, confused, frustrated, and unwilling to keep using your product. Patterns found in Chapter 2, such as Vertical List and Infinite List, provide simple, well-understood solutions for displaying lots of information in a structured and contained manner that doesn’t overtax the user’s mental load. These patterns also provide solutions to arranging content where screen real estate is so valuable that every pixel counts. To prevent that, this chapter will explain research-based ...
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