- Engineering
Menus/Navigation handlers in mobile
Navigation and menu handlers are an important element of mobile apps and mobile websites. Below is a small study I did on my iPhone, and the conclusion I came to: there’s no standard for where the navigation handler sits across apps.
Most websites follow the right-side menu handler, including Twitter Bootstrap.
But when it comes to apps, almost all of them follow the left-side menu handler.
Unfortunately, some apps still follow the right-hand side menu handler.
As a right-handed phone user, I always prefer the menu handler on the right side, but there’s clearly no consistency across apps. I’d like to see Apple let users customize the menu handler’s position to suit their preference. For websites, it’s a bit more complicated, though web designers can still make an informed decision based on UX testing, in-lab user testing, and anonymous data tracking with tools like Google Analytics. This becomes especially straightforward when designing for a well-defined target audience.