I still get clients asking for easter-egg level hidden gestures, with the theory being that exploration and discovery result in surprising delight. Maybe, but I always start with what we know works. Simple controls, that work in expected ways. And the most expected controls are those that are visible, and communicate what they will do.
Make sure selectable items are clearly selectable. If it doesn’t look clickable, people don’t know it is. Underlines aren’t bad for text, inline, but especially for apps you mostly need to bound items. That doesn’t mean everything has to be a bold box or default button, but it is pretty easy to design in rows and containers for your actions, or use bounded icons by placing circles or boxes around them.
Visual targets, whether words, icons or some other shape or UI widget must:
- Attract the user's eye.
- Be drawn so that the user understands that they are actionable elements.
- Be readable, so the user understands what action they will perform.
- Be large and clear enough people are confident they can be tapped.
Clickable items need to not just afford their action (making it clear what it does) but do so consistently. If most items in your design are whole selectable rows or buttons, don’t have one row suddenly be an underlined link.
References
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