"It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” -Steve Jobs 

Jobs undeniably played a key role in shaping how the modern world uses technology in our daily lives. Today’s tech ecosystem largely subscribes to building new products and mobile applications with a design-centric philosophy akin to Job’s “design is how it works” quote, because the look and feel of any mobile app helps inform whether the usability will be a positive experience for the end user. 

Years ago, the gold standard for mobile app design was a vertical menu orientation otherwise known as a “hamburger” style menu. Things took a historical turn in 2014 for the hamburger menu era when Apple trashed the concept during its annual WorldWide Developers Conference (WWDC) urging developers to use the Tab Bar instead in all of their projects. 

Following suit shortly after in 2015, Google introduced their concept of “Bottom navigation”, an analogue of Apple’s Tab Bar, on its platforms. These tech giants saw an opportunity to change the way in which we think about how user interface (UI) can play a pivotal part in influencing a seamless user experience (UX). The hamburger style was seen as less intuitive to the naked eye, hiding key components of the application and spatially distant from the thumb, all increasing one’s cognitive load with using a mobile app. 

Things were just getting started for the new kid on the block, bottom nav 

As time went on, the mobile phone screen grew bigger and consumers became accustomed to bottom navigation on their mobile apps across many different app categories. One study on Redbooth (formally known as Teambox), a project management mobile application, showed a 70% increase in user sessions with their app, and a 65% increase in daily active users when switching their app design to bottom navigation menu. This study highlighted that the incumbent hamburger menu UI was too “hidden” where its apps icons, core functionality and app waterways for navigation were not obvious to the eye. 

Tapcart + Bottom Navigation

At Tapcart we know that navigation is central to the experience new mobile app users have with your brand. DTC brands depend on airtight navigation to help users complete important actions that result in mobile sales: accessing the shopping cart, browsing for the things they love with convenience, streamlining the checkout process, or interacting with different branded experiences within the app.  

Tapcart’s App Studio allows you to easily implement bottom navigation to your mobile app strategy so your customers won’t have any issue with engaging with the important parts of your brand. This approach optimizes your app’s usability because a bottom menu gives the quickest reach from a user’s thumb when holding their phone and there’s no navigational guessing game as the icons/tabs are intuitively displayed. This UI/UX consistency with many other mobile apps means your app with Tapcart will be familiar to use for the end-user and navigating your mobile app will be a seamless experience. 

Tapcart offers both the hamburger-style side menu and a horizontal bottom navigation option so the choice is yours for how you want to configure your UI. Tapcart gives you the flexibility of choice and you can always toggle between both navigational design options depending on the UI/UX needs at the time. 

Discover the positive implications and outcomes of adopting a bottom navigation for your mobile app today. Get Started with bottom navigation and give your users the experience they deserve.