The Move Away from Table-based Interfaces
After being temporarily distracted by Flappy Bird, I finally spent some time with Facebook’s latest, Paper. I have to admit it didn’t blow my mind like I’d hoped but that probably has something to do with the amount of pre-release hype. That being said it shows a great amount of craftsmanship and new, or at least better, thinking.
I’ve heard a lot about what Paper means for the future of Facebook consumption and Newsfeed but I see it as greater example of a larger trend of moving away from table-based interfaces. Apps like Flipboard, Paper, Storehouse and countless others show a continued trend toward card and gesture based interfaces.
Since the inception of the iPhone, the table view has largely been the backbone of interface design for the platform. This grip was lessened with the introduction of the iPad, mostly because of the greater screen real estate. However, truly innovative iPad apps have rarely translated well to the iPhone despite the introduction of the incredibly powerful, yet mostly under utilized collection view. Table views don’t often look great on larger displays like the iPad. Now we’re now on the brink of iPhones with larger glass which may potentially allow for even greater table-less innovation in addition to “less cramped” gestures.
Facebook Paper blurs the lines between the traditional master table view and detail views. The introduction in iOS 7 of an official method for custom view controller transitions will only breed more creative ways of displaying and transitioning between information. I believe the old master detail paradigm will continue to evolve as more and more teams experiment. Are tables gone for good? Certainly not, they make great sense most of the time, but I challenge you to innovate next time you’re designing or coding another app full of tables.