Best practice: Designing application screens
• Use a limited number of nested layouts. The more nested layouts that you use to build your screen, the longer it takes
for the BlackBerry device to render the screen.
• Prompt users with a dialog box to save any unsaved data before closing a screen.
• Avoid hardcoding color values. The color values that you choose might not work with the theme that users have
selected.
Guidelines for layout
• Use a vertical layout for your application screens.
• Consider arranging the UI components on application screens using the BlackBerry API layout managers.
• On BlackBerry devices with a touch screen, verify that the screens appear correctly in both portrait and landscape
view.
• Display the most important information at the top of the screen. For example, for contact information, display the name
first, followed by the email address and phone numbers. Display a field such as the Notes field last.
• Limit the number of components that appear on the screen at one time.
• Use line separators on a screen to separate components or to indicate a group of components.
• Consider localization requirements as early in the design process as possible. Localization can affect the layout of
screens.
Related information
Display specifications and interaction methods for BlackBerry devices, 15
Dialog boxes
Use dialog boxes to perform the following actions:
• Prompt users for information that is required to complete a user-initiated task.
• Inform users of urgent information or the status of important actions.
• Warn users of unexpected or potentially destructive conditions or situations.
Dialog boxes are modal; they interrupt the normal operation of the BlackBerry device. A dialog box includes a message,
buttons that allow users to perform an action, and an indicator that indicates the type of dialog box. The size of the dialog
box depends on the size of the BlackBerry device screen. The theme that users select on their BlackBerry device
determines the visual style of the dialog box.
UI Guidelines Containers and components
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