If you don’t have a mouse or touchscreen available, you can’t get much better than a six button control schema.
I know most UX/UI/IxD blog posts are about web design, but I prefer the all-encompassing design for mobile devices. Software is so much more fun if you get to do the hardware, too. I have a few things I want to write about, but every time I start one of the articles, I realize I also want to describe—or at least link to—what I call the six button control schema. So… now I can link here.
Every project I start is based on it. Every good device uses it. It’s versatile and variable; simple and straight-forward. It can be described simply as “up, down, left, right, yes, no.”
The most important part of the control schema is the structure of the menus. They have to be well laid out, organized, and repetitive. The buttons shouldn’t have too many functions each (it’s tempting to have “right” double as “yes”) nor should there be any redundant buttons. The placement of each button should not only clearly reflect what it does, but also how it relates to the others.
Plenty of products get this right. TiVo has a beautifully simple UI, the TV is straight forward, the PSP and PS3 (despite switching from horizontal to vertical menus) is one of the best on a game console.
Obviously, the ones who get it wrong are the cheaper, less sought after devices we may have to deal with on a daily basis.
Menus seem like they’re the easiest thing to design. Move the cursor up and down, select something, move on with your life. Yet, so many (it seems all) computer monitors and TV sets have horrendous settings menus. Sure, these menus don’t seem to add much nor will they be used on a daily basis, but a poor one can really devalue a product. They always use five buttons: up, down, left, right, and menu. The directions are fine, it’s the “menu” button that messes everything up. Sometimes it opens the menu, sometimes it selects, sometimes it goes back, and sometimes it closes the menu. It’s never consistent; you’re always having to read the manual or look around the screen to find it’s function.
One of the more irritating examples are (dumb) cell phones. They do the worst thing an interface can do: hold over schemas. When cell phones first made an appearance, they were slow and could only call people, so they needed buttons specific to that. You could only really call people and hang up on them, so why not add green and red buttons to do just that! And put two buttons underneath the screen to function as any button imaginable!
But now large, color screens are in every phone and they can do much more than just call. Looking at the Motorola RAZR, it has an 11 button control schema! How nifty. Up, down, left, right, select, clear, answer, end call, a shortcut, screen button #1, and screen button #2. What does “answer” do when you’re not getting a call? It selects things. And “end call” goes back, just like “clear”, even though “screen button #1” is labeled “back” 90% of the time anyway. The shortcut only seems to be there to create a balance, even though it throws that balance off by not being a navigation button.
The six button schema is great. It works on menus, lists, and grids. Just don’t try and over complicate it. ∞
