Forum Discussion

lucasgonze's avatar
lucasgonze
Visitor
16 years ago

usability of up key as back button?

I'm working on interaction design for my Roku app and wondering about whether I need to add an explicit "back" button to each screen. The issue is that the implicit "back" -- the Up key -- might not be intuitive.

Does anybody have an opinion on it? What's your own experience with using the Up key for going to the previous screen?
Roku Developer Program

4 Replies

  • DeftOne's avatar
    DeftOne
    Visitor
    16 years ago
    I think every Roku DVP channel I have ever used or tested has used the up arrow as the means to go "back" a screen. Not being a developer myself, I just assumed it was the default behavior. I'd say you are safe without an explicit "back" button.
  • bcl's avatar
    bcl
    Channel Surfer
    16 years ago
    My advice is to follow what all the other apps are doing. Up really isn't back though. I think of it as a stack, and up moves back up the stack. left and right move forward and back (think of when you are browsing the netflix queue).
  • RokuKevin's avatar
    RokuKevin
    Visitor
    16 years ago
    Please do not create a separate "Back" button.... The up arrow is reserved for this purpose. The "Design Guidelines" document goes over many of these user experience guidelines for channel development.

    --Kevin
  • lucasgonze's avatar
    lucasgonze
    Visitor
    16 years ago
    I took the advice to explore what other apps are doing. My subjective experience was that using the up key has good enough usability.

    When I'm doing user testing later on I'll check that.