Universal Principles of UX

26

Context matters more than screen size.

In 2007, the year that both the iPhone and smart TVs were introduced, Nokia’s cultural anthropologist Jan Chipchase released research revealing that three items were now considered essential across all cultures and genders: keys, money, and a mobile phone. This meant that designing mobile interfaces could no longer be an afterthought.

While we were working on the website redesign of USA Today in 2012, Apple introduced the iPad, so our design system had to work across three different screen sizes and ratios (desktop, mobile, and tablet). But screen size was only half the battle. The most important thing we had to think about was each device’s unique context of use. Because when we use certain devices ...