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Legacy Maemo 5 Documentation/Desktop Widget UI Guidelines

Purpose of this document

The Desktop Widget Guidelines‐document is intended as an aid for developers to build Desktop Widgets according to the design philosophy, interaction model, and visual look‐and‐feel of Maemo 5.

By following these guidelines, developers are assured to build Widgets that are consistent, and accessible for end‐users.

Introduction

Desktop Widgets can be defined as miniature applications – or applets – that reside on the Desktop for convenient, fast access to useful information or controls. Maemo 5 contains up to four Desktops, as illustrated in Figure 1, totaling in 3200x424 pixels of screen real‐estate for Desktop Widgets.

IMG
Figure 1. Maemo 5 includes up to four Desktops for Widgets.

NOTE: In Maemo terminology, in addition to Widgets, Maemo 5 also includes Application shortcuts, Web bookmarks, and Contacts. Technically, however, these are considered Desktop Widgets as well, and the same guidelines apply. Thus, for the sake of readability, the term “Widget” used in this document encompasses all the aforementioned applets.

Widget design

Design philosophy

While Widgets can be understood as small applications, the design philosophy for developing a Widget differs greatly from that of an application. Most notably, Widgets are not supposed to replace applications in terms of their use and feature set, rather compliment them; the following guidelines should be considered as the fundamental design goals of building an appropriate Widget:

• Widgets should provide information or controls quickly and in an obvious manner; every feature and command should be immediately understandable, and accessible with a single tap.
• Widgets should provide only the most crucial features; they should be simple and efficient, designed to accomplish only a few tasks – but accomplish those extremely well.
• Widgets should be as compact in size as possible; even though Maemo 5 offers a generous amount of screen space, users should be able to place several widgets on each screen to minimize the need for excessive screen switching.
  NOTE: Due to the high pixel density of the physical screen, tappable elements should be at least 70x70 pixels in size for convenient finger use.

Due to the aforementioned design goals, not every application can be transformed into, or any data set presented with a legitimate Widget. Before starting development, it pays off to consider whether the Widget provides any value for end‐users in comparison to existing applications or websites that can be one tap away via Application shortcuts or Web bookmarks.

Stock Widgets

Maemo 5 includes following Widgets, outlined in Table 1.

Table 1. Overview of stock Widgets included in Maemo 5.