Getting Handsy With Phablets

I last wrote about the (possible) success of phablets. But what does that mean for app designers and developers?

The Atlantic says the 4.7" iPhone 6 “feels like the perfect phone in my hand,” and I personally agree. But Mashable thinks “mobile app experiences are getting more sophisticated, and phone design has progressed to a point where the trade-off in usability isn’t such a bad deal after all.” There are “huge advantages to having a huge phone” like the iPhone 6 Plus (5.5"): reading, emailing, watching videos, and taking photos. Given the US Department of Commerce’s report that 54% of mobile phone users aged 25 and older use their phones for taking videos and photos, 6 Plus may be a more compelling, popular option than I’d expected.

Just as we now distinguish between app design and development for handset vis-á-vis tablet, we might consider distinguishing between handset, phablet, and tablet — that’s the significance of the screen size difference. As John Gruber says, 6 Plus “feels more like a new device — a hybrid device class … — than it feels like a bigger iPhone.”

The burden might be shifting to UX and UI; user behavior will change accordingly. There are two ways I imagine we could handle the challenges of larger screens.

1. Split the Difference

Apps could take advantage of the need to operate the phone with two hands by splitting the screen vertically, adding right-aligned features that supplement or complement those on the left-hand side. iOS 8 allows developers to develop uniquely for larger screens — i.e., 6 Plus-optimize, so an app on an iPhone 6 or smaller might be single-column, while the app on a 6 Plus would be laid out in two. Two-column views exist for almost every built-in iPhone app in landscape mode.

2. Gestures

Gestures (e.g., “swipe right to go back”) were introduced to Apple devices in iOS 7 and expanded in iOS 8; Android devices running 5.0 Lollipop also enjoy an expanded set of gestures.

Designers can tell you why gestures are great, but the thing that sticks out to users like me is the lack of sore thumbs: gestures keep our thumbs within a comfortable range of motion, rather than straining to reach the tippy-top or very bottom of a screen to complete an action.

Gestures centralize the controls and the action. I think Apple also conceded this in moving the power button from the top of the device to the side. Apple also quietly acknowledged and allayed these challenges with Reachability in iOS 8. See 9to5Mac for more.