I know it is tempting to think that your app is the sole focus of your users. In reality, however, it is very rarely the case. Mobile phone users are interrupted all the time. Incoming calls, text messages, instant messages, Facebook notifications etc. ar very common.
If the Android notification bar is hidden users cannot see the notifications. In many phones by default the notification sound is the same for many of them. This means that the users don't know if they want to ignore (maybe a work email on holiday) or respond (a friend sending IM) the incoming notification if they can't actually see the message.
Notification bar also holds a lot of useful info like network coverage, time and battery status which can be very relevant to the user at any given time.
Simple guideline:
If the Android notification bar is hidden users cannot see the notifications. In many phones by default the notification sound is the same for many of them. This means that the users don't know if they want to ignore (maybe a work email on holiday) or respond (a friend sending IM) the incoming notification if they can't actually see the message.
Notification bar also holds a lot of useful info like network coverage, time and battery status which can be very relevant to the user at any given time.
Simple guideline:
Do not hide the notification bar unless there's a very, very good reason to do so!
Comics app hides the notification bar making the app much less useful as time killer.
Games tend to hide the notification bar. I think that in many cases it isn't necessary to do so. There's no reason why the notification bar could could not be visible in Angry Birds.
Note that is is impossible to hide the system bar (equivalent of the status bar) on Android 3.0.
ReplyDeleteGood pointer. Thanks Mark.
ReplyDeleteJust bring it back when the user presses the Menu key.
ReplyDeleteThis is the default behaviour of the stock browser and users are used to it.
I can't believe so many fullscreen apps don't do this.
Thanks for the comment tacone!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a bit hidden for users though? Would there be a way to indicate that somehow? Of course if all apps would do it all the time it could be a good solution. This solution would definitely be better than nothing!
Juhani, of course it's hidden.
ReplyDeleteBut there are situations where the tradeoff makes it worthier than wasting screen space.
(there was a huge cryout for having a full screen browser on the iphone, for example)
Tabular data display, for instance, it's critically limited by the tiny dimension of phone's screens.
If think that vertical space is abundant, just turn the phone to landscape mode and see if you still think so.
(should I note that all users with a physical keyboard use landscape mode pretty often ? note to self: always allow landscape mode in my apps)
That's a very good point! There's no easy answers for it. As you said it is all about finding the best tradeoffs.
ReplyDelete