Further enhancing the Horizon mobile experience on the web
When it comes to mobile devices, one of the biggest challenges encountered during development and testing is making sure it’s actually useable. From legible text to functional behavior, it’s a complex web of different things that add up to complete (or break) the user experience.
We’ve been working hard to address the shortfalls of Atmos, whether it be the unusually small text size on desktop, or the unoptimized, funky modals and other fun-killing weirdness for mobile users. Over the coming weeks, we’ll be working on some new design revisions primarily focused on enhancing the mobile experience, ranging from an all-new post composer, to refined designs and layouts built exclusively for mobile displays.
Some of these design changes take inspiration directly from Horizon Max for desktop, such as an all-new changelog design that’s made to welcome users to new features and other important changes.
Other changes also include mobile-optimized flows for actions such as previewing attached images or media, such as an image that might be minimized in the carousel. With just a few taps, users can quickly make sure they’ve attached the right media, or go into a larger view which shows the content in its entirety, also enabling them to remove it or add alt-text.
With context-aware buttons at the bottom of each modal and most interfaces, it’s within easy reach at the bottom of the device, preventing users from having to fumble with their devices by having to tap something with their thumb that’s out of reach. This also applies to other modals where users may have to select an item during their current activity, such as when they are choosing where to send their post.
We’re also going to further refine the layouts and visual representation of collections, communities, and profiles on Atmos, keeping the most important information visible while being able to fit on a significantly narrower display when compared to typical desktop environments.
And with communities, we want to continue building upon our existing frameworks to strengthen their integrity and bolster navigation, with compact, yet full-featured elements that dynamically reshape like magic across desktop and mobile.
While some elements have plenty of room to display their contents on a desktop display, we wish to place them in alternative areas on mobile, such as in a dedicated info-pane which can be summoned by using the menu button. This also applies to profiles and collections as well for both desktop and mobile, helping to keep some user content in the viewport, even if you haven’t scrolled.
And finally, we would like to share another revision that will be coming to both desktop and mobile. A lightly modified splash screen will not only display the platform’s wordmark, but will also reassure to anyone that visits our sites, apps, and other services, that they are using a forward-thinking, user-centric, privacy-respecting service that’s designed and built from the ground up to advance everyone, everywhere, no matter who, where, or what you choose to be.
It’s our motto after all.
“For everyone, everywhere.”
The mobile quality update will be made available by the end of June 2022, and as always, you can find the latest announcements on all of our social channels, from Medium to Twitter, to Discord and Patreon.
