Mobile Design Pattern: Springboard / Dashboard

Design Patterns / Navigation
Wednesday, 11th Apr, 2012

Springboard / Dashboard is one of the common mobile app design patterns that used to provide the overview of your app content to your user. Usually, you can see this navigaton patterns right after a splash screen of app. It consists of several categories, and the categories are represented by an icon and a title that allow you to find content easily and quick access to the interested content.

Pros of Using Springboard / Dashboard

You are advised to apply Springboard / Dashboard design pattern to your mobile app, when your app is content-focused and consists of ample of categories.
Providing overview of your app content.
Quick access to every category.
Allow your user to organize the order of the categories easily.

Cons of Using Springboard / Dashboard

Limited categories displayed. You may only can shows up to 9 categories once.
You may need to provide an indcator to tell your user to either slide left or up to view more hidden categories.
Your user may not know where to start, if your app is info-guide based content.