Usability Studies on Mobile User Interface Design Patterns: A Systematic Literature Review

Mobile platforms have called for attention from HCI practitioners, and, ever since 2007, touchscreens have completely changed mobile user interface and interaction design. Some notable differences between mobile devices and desktops include the lack of tactile feedback, ubiquity, limited screen size, small virtual keys, and high demand of visual attention. These differences have caused unprecedented challenges to users. Most of the mobile user interface designs are based on desktop paradigm, but the desktop designs do not fully fit the mobile context. Although mobile devices are becoming an indispensable part of daily lives, true standards for mobile UI design patterns do not exist. This article provides a systematic literature review of the existing studies on mobile UI design patterns. The first objective is to give an overview of recent studies on the mobile designs. The second objective is to provide an analysis on what topics or areas have insufficient information and what factors are concentrated upon. This article will benefit the HCI community in seeing an overview of present works, to shape the future research directions.