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When desinging UI for mobile apps in general which resolution could be considered safe as a general rule of thumb. My interest lies specifically in web based apps. The iPhone has a pretty high resolution for a hand held, and the Nokia E Series seem to oriented differently. Is 240×320 still considered safe?
Not enough information…
You say you’re targeting a ‘Mobile App’ but the reality is that mobile could mean anything from a cell phone with 128×128 resolution to a MID with 800×600 resolution.
There is no ‘safe’ resolution for such a wide range, and if you’re truly targeting all of them you need to design a custom interface for each major resolution. Add some scaling factors in and you might be able to cut it down to 5-8 different interface designs.
Further, the UI means ‘User Interface’ and includes a lot more than just the resolution – you can’t count on a touchscreen, full keyboard, or even software keys.
You need to either better define your target, or explain your target here so we can better help you.
Keep in mind that there are millions of phone users that don’t have PDA resolutions, and you can really only count on 128×128 or better to cover the majority of technically inclined cell phone users (those that know there’s a web browser in their phone, nevermind those that use it).
But if you’re prepared to accept these losses, go ahead and hit for 320×240 and 240×320. That will give you most current PDA phones and up (older blackberries and palm devices had smaller square orientations). Plan on spending time later supporting lower resolution devices and above all…
Do not tie your app to a particular resolution.
Make sure your app is flexible enough that you can deploy new UI’s without changing internal application logic – in other words separate the presentation from the core logic. You will find this very useful later – the mobile world changes daily. Once you gauge how your app is being used you can, for instance, easily deploy an iPhone specific version that is pixel perfect (and prettier than an upscaled 320×240) in order to engage more users. Being able to do this in a few hours (because you don’t have to change the internals) is going to put you miles ahead of the competition if someone else makes a swipe at your market.
-Adam