Thoughts on calling the first tab in an app

April 5, 2022, 3:26 pm
Thoughts on calling the first tab in an app
Thoughts on calling the first tab in an app Home with a house icon? Boring, or an expected pattern for a catch all tab?

Spotify ????? Twitter Instagram Whats the second app in the screenshot??

A home icon not particularly informative. Always better to find something more specific and meaningful.

We also had several times the discussion about our Start Tab. categories, Discover and now to Inspiration. We also considered a house and home at one point. Idea was discarded. However, many users usually do not leave this Start Tab Boring! There`s always a better, more fitting alternative

In Spanish the Home concept in UI is translated as Inicio or start, so the little house icon makes even less sense.

It depends. What would be the alternative? On twitter Feed would make mode sense instead of home (but they have no label). Also as its a more abstract icon, it works. If you have a more descriptive, more useful title and/or icon go for it.

Note that you are using (at least one) nouns on the other three tabs. As a non-native speaker and UX writer for our software, I see the cook and not to cook.

at least on Twitter is a birds house. But yes, having a sort of house as the home button is expected and intuitive

True, and it does make sense there! Also the design of that app is, let`s say, not the best example of Apple`s industry-leading UX design craft.

Dashboard feels natural also

I think it all depends on the app and intention of the tab, so its not set in stone. While designers may say its boring a consumer will find it as a clear starting point. Great question!

Boring? Yes. Expected pattern? Also yes. Notably, Apple doesn`t design any of their apps with a home tab (as far as I`m aware, anyway).

home is something that seems to have emerged because URLs are hierarchical to guide navigation. I would argue that if you have a then you display information not always in the best suited manner.

Its probably both of those things, boring and an expected pattern hung over from the web. I like your Cook exploration

Hm, maybe theyve removed it again. It could very well have been Im told in a session as well. In either case, their argument was its too generic. Tabs should tell what a user will find there very clearly. Home tells nothing in most cases.

I try to find always a synonim focused on what is the purpose of the app. For example `Accounts` for a bank app or `Now` for a task manager. I find the lack of a `home` jarring. I think there are edge cases where an overview page does not make sense, especially when you`re always starting with a user action (search, maps) and never have a meaningful home state to return to but those are exceptions imho

Apple literally says you should never do this, in their HIG :-)

Yes! I rarely use it on my phone but it felt very familiar :) Thanks!

For a collection of various information that can`t be categorized, calling it home feels vague but practical. While if it hosts a very narrow & specific set of information or utility, it`s wise to be called after that. Also, I the 2nd (from top) tab bar icon, what is it?

I dont think any of Apples iOS apps use word Home for the first tab? Take from that what you will Feels like an expected pattern. Like some others, I feel a slight unease when its not theream I missing some entry point? Home implies some kind of overview or aggregation. In the example with the cook icon, Id expect that there are no cross links to the shop.

I crave a Home tab. Without thinking, I know that ot is the tab that services the primary function of the app.

With the Nordnet app we started out with a Home tab but eventually made it into the Holdings tab as that was more descriptive. At the same time we made a user setting for the start tab (many users wanted to start with Watchlists etc). Home would have made even less sense then.

Feels like a remnant of Web Design. Because web design has such a long tradition of calling the first page home page, most services just use that as their first tab on the phone too? A lazy practice nonetheless, theres almost always a better, more descriptive title possible

Oh, this looks good as an alternative! Sometimes you just have to break the mould

Tell me about it. The lack of respect for craft and HIG in many big-name apps is obvious though.

Very context dependent. Spotify Home is totally deserved, its a mix of all the things. Instagram, Twitter could call their home tab Feed, but not sure if it would be any nicer visually.

I think this is much nicer! I wouldnt worry too much that you can cook in other tabs, too. See the Music app: The first tab is Listen Nowof course you can listen to music in the other tabs, too.

One recent example (F1 fantasy) where I noticed it didnt have Home I caught myself feeling disoriented. Its such a small detail but it leaves me wondering if theres something Im missing. I think examples where it works is Snapchat. So Im not sure what to think I feel like its a lazy cop out. Tabs should be called based on whats inside of them and be indicative of the apps purpose.

"Home" kind of replaced most "Feed" tab bar items. I tend to believe it`s already a well-established pattern for consumer apps. Could have happened because it`s more natural to spend that much time in Home, rather than be lost in the Feed.

If you cant think of something more relevant its fine, but its definitely not interesting

If you have to name the icon your design is not as clear as you think it is. Icons are icons for a reason.

Not a fan at all. Isnt there something less web-ish and more descriptive?

I think it`s the latter. And that the icon and naming has become synonym/convention to the first tab, like the floppy disk has become for saving things.

 
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