[MaxR_A]

Has anyone else noticed (from the various screenshot leaks) how there are so many different menu/settings styles on BB10? Some menus/settings are white background themed with black font and blue toggle buttons, some are black background themed with white font, some of the icons for sms, bbm, etc are black and white, some are colour... Why is it so inconsistent? Could it be that the screenshots are from an earlier build and not final? Love to hear your opinions or inside knowledge!

[jeroen_13]

The dev has to decide the layout he wants to use.
It could be black/white. Every item can be styled in a different way.

[bertcella]

Could it be that the screenshots are from an earlier build and not final?

you answered your own question.

[berryaddictnoza]

The different screens and menus all have different functions, yeah it will drive some people nuts, but I'm all for the functionality behind it.

[amjass12]

there is one inconsistency that I have noticed, and this may be cos its not final build... the new text message icon is a rounded bubble... in recent videos that show the os version with that sms icon, when they go into the hub and press send new message, a list of options come up.. fb twitter sms email etc... the next to sms, the icon is a square message icon and looks like the old icon style... woukd be nice if they did a lil refresh!

[peter9477]

Done right, these "menus" (not all are called menus in BB10) should not be confusing to most people.

The one you see on the left holds Tabs much like in your browser. If they're abused for other purposes, it could seem confusing that they come in from the left while others come in from the right.

The one on the bottom is the Action Bar and would generally have a few direct-action buttons, usually associated with some core functionality for the current page. They're meant to be very accessible and easy to reach. They could be abused in various ways as well (as could anything).

The bottom right corner may have a 3-dot icon which when tapped pops up the Action menu, which basically has overflow from the Action Bar, i.e. lesser used things that don't fit in or deserve the prominence of the main Action Bar. To be used similarly, mainly with buttons that initiate an action (e.g. Share on BBM).

There's also the familiar (to PlayBook users) top-swipe menu, which is meant for app-wide settings and similar things which aren't usually associated just with the current page. There's even pre-assigned spots for Help (top left) and Settings (top right). It will always be a good idea to check in a given app whether it has such a menu, since there's currently no obvious way to discover this aside from checking to see if it's there.

Lastly, the one thing that does seem likely to be a bit confusing, the context menu. This one is meant to be associated with specific content items on-screen, in the page, like items in a list. When you "long-press" on the item, the context menu peeks out part-way, with just the icons showing. There are several ways to interact with it at this point, some meant for quick access, others for when you're less familiar with what's in the menu (e.g. you can make it slide out further to read the text labels). This is usually where you would find things like Copy/Cut/Paste and Delete, and other operations which affect the thing you touched.

All these could be abused by bad devs (though some types of "abuse" are creative and desirable) but as I said, done right, users will quickly grow used to these paradigms and feel quite comfortable even if all of them are used in an app (which they will be in many non-trivial apps).

Those interested can read more in the UI Guidelines perhaps starting with https://developer.blackberry.com/dev...structure.html

[Thunderbuck]

I actually see a lot of consistency and good design in the BB10 UI.

Swipe up to exit, swipe down from the top for settings. For an application menu you peek from the left, context menu is a tap on the lower right.

Those are the guidelines in a nutshell... To me it's much more consistent than, say, Android.

[MaxR_A]

The confusion was not regarding how the menus are used (I have a PlayBook and am quite familiar with the various gestures), but I was wondering more about why the colour/layout scheme from one menu to the next seems to be inconsistent based on the screen shots that have been circulating around recently.

[abass]

You are looking at older versions of the OS then.. I am typing this on my Dev Alpha B right now, and trust me.. ALL of the menus are consistent.. Black background with white text and images. Nothing inconsistent at all.

Here, just took these from my alpha:

EDIT: Sorry for such large pictures.. BB10 has damn high resolution :/





EDIT: Sorry for such large pictures.. BB10 has damn high resolution :/

[peter9477]

The confusion was not regarding how the menus are used (I have a PlayBook and am quite familiar with the various gestures), but I was wondering more about why the colour/layout scheme from one menu to the next seems to be inconsistent based on the screen shots that have been circulating around recently.

I read your OP too quickly and missed the point, sorry about that. I think flip4bytes and bertcella hit the mark, the latest builds seem consistent.

Well, hopefully my post will be a nice reference for someone who didn't know all that...

[abass]

EDIT: Threw some screenshots of what the most current menus look like in the OS, scroll up to my post.