Performs an action when tapped by the user. These are highly flexible user interface objects that have a wide variety of styles. See the Coding guide for information on how to implement buttons that look like those described here.
Characteristics
- Buttons have two components: a visual target and a hit target. The hit target is always larger, in order to reduce targeting errors by making the button easier to tap.
- Buttons have two states: normal and pressed.
- Buttons can also be disabled, which means they can't be activated by the user, and are displayed dimmed to indicate that they're disabled.
There are several types of buttons:
- Action buttons
- Used when there are only a few actions and a list isn't needed. The main action button uses a special highlight color to indicate that it's the primary option.
- List buttons
- Used when displaying a list of actions, or to trigger the display of a value selector.
- Input field buttons
- Used to perform actions with input fields.
- Special/custom buttons
- These are used to provide specific actions including recording, dialing, and the like.
Visuals
Here are some visual examples of what buttons should look like. Don't forget that you can use the style sheet and image resources provided in the Coding guide to implement these.
Action buttons
Action buttons are used when there are only a few actions and you don't need a full list. The main action button uses a special highlight color to indicate that it's the primary action.
Primary action | Secondary action | Delete | |
---|---|---|---|
Normal | |||
Pressed | |||
Disabled |
On a dark background, disabled buttons have a special appearance, as seen below.
Primary action | Secondary action | |
---|---|---|
Disabled |
List buttons
List buttons are used to display a list of actions, to trigger the display of a value selector.
Triggering actions
Trigger an action in the current view | Trigger an action in a new view | Display a value selector | |
---|---|---|---|
Normal | |||
Pressed | |||
Disabled |
Value selectors
Once a value selector has been opened, you will need at least one button on the value selector panel to dismiss the value selector. These buttons should look like the following:
Normal | Pressed | Disabled |
---|---|---|
Input field buttons
Input field buttons are buttons associated with an input field, which when pressed perform an action related to that input field.
Normal | Pressed | Disabled |
---|---|---|
Special buttons
The special buttons are visual icon-style buttons used for special purposes, such as operating the device's camera, answering and hanging up the phone, and activating the keypad dialer. You may of course find other uses for this style of button.
Camera buttons
These buttons don't have a disabled state; you simply don't display them if the ability to take photos isn't available.
Record video | Stop recording video | Capture photo | |
---|---|---|---|
Normal | |||
Pressed |
Phone buttons
Pick up | Hang up | Hide keypad | |
---|---|---|---|
Normal | |||
Pressed | |||
Disabled |
Custom buttons
These are examples of custom buttons; in this case, for adding a contact.
Normal | |
---|---|
Pressed | |
Disabled |