Designing mobile apps? Start by unlearning desktop thinking

"Unlearn English to learn French."
My French teacher in college used to say, and it was so true. Most of the class was thinking in English and translating it to French, often with hilarious results.

Folks transitioning from conventional desktop/web to mobile development suffer from this challenge too (as I have discovered lately).

Mobile development needs a completely different way of thinking. What works on the desktop/web mostly does not work on mobile devices. In some ways, mobile apps epitomize the notion of progressive disclosure, show enough to maintain users interest / relevance, and let them tap to the next view / detail. The limited real estate on the mobile device almost demands that type of design thinking.

To put it simply, if we were to take the MS Office user interface design that has menu bars with lots of options and functions and turn it upside down, we will be close to a mobile interface / interaction design model. So, offering very just what is absolutely needed in terms of options and functions at each level , and have the user tap (click) to different levels to progressively reveal these functions and options is probably closer to the mobile device user experience.

One of those interesting areas where form does drive the function, I guess.