Navigation bar
Summarize
Summary of Navigation bar
The navigation bar in ServiceNow mobile apps provides users with quick access to launcher screens, regular screens, settings, notifications, and saved records. Positioned at the bottom of the app, it enhances app navigation by organizing tabs that lead to key functional areas.
Show less
Key Features
- Components: The navigation bar includes multiple tabs such as Screen, Launcher, Saved, Notification, and Settings tabs.
- Preconfigured Tabs: Each mobile app includes default Settings and Notification tabs to ensure users have access to essential app features.
- Tab Types:
- Screen Tabs: Direct access to calendars, lists, maps, or mobile web screens.
- Launcher Screen Tabs: Access to dashboards with shortcuts represented by icons, cards, media sections, or score counts.
- Tab Quantity and Overflow: Up to five tabs are displayed directly; if more than five tabs exist, a "More" tab appears to list additional tabs.
- Saved Tab: Displays user-saved records for quick retrieval.
- User-Specific Tabs: User criteria permissions allow displaying tabs relevant only to specific users' roles.
Best Practices and Guidelines
- Limit Tabs to Five: To maintain visibility and usability, keep the navigation bar to five or fewer tabs, avoiding reliance on overflow.
- Retain Default Tabs: It is recommended to keep Settings and Notifications tabs for important app functionality, though their order can be adjusted.
- Tab Naming: Use descriptive, context-rich, and capitalized names (e.g., "Open Tasks") to improve clarity and usability. Avoid generic titles like "Home."
- Name Length: Keep tab names concise to prevent truncation, especially when supporting multiple languages.
- Icon Selection: Choose distinct, theme-consistent icons that clearly represent tab functions, avoiding icon reuse across tabs.
- Tab Ordering: Arrange tabs based on importance and consider language direction (left-to-right or right-to-left) to optimize user experience.
Practical Outcomes for ServiceNow Customers
By configuring the navigation bar according to these guidelines, ServiceNow customers can provide mobile users with intuitive and efficient access to key app features. Proper tab management and naming improve navigation clarity, while user-specific tab visibility enhances relevance and reduces clutter. Maintaining default Settings and Notifications tabs ensures users retain access to critical app functions. Overall, this leads to an optimized mobile experience that aligns with organizational roles and user needs.
User the navigation bar in your mobile apps to access launcher screens, screens, settings, and notifications.
The navigation bar consists of these components:
|
|
 |
The navigation bar appears at the bottom of each mobile app. You can create navigation bar tabs in the navigation bar. Users can access launcher screens and regular screens within the navigation bar. Note: The navigation bar in each mobile app is preconfigured with Notifications and Settings navigation bar tabs. For more information about the content of these tabs,
see Mobile app structure. There is also a saved tab, which displays a page showing the user's saved records. |
 |
When you add more than five tabs to the navigation bar, a More ( |
Screen tabs and launcher screen tabs
Use a screen tab to enable access directly to a calendar, custom map, list, map, or mobile web screen. |
|
Use a launcher screen tab to enable users to access elements in a screen launcher. Launcher screens are dashboards. They provide shortcuts to other screens and information. Shortcuts can be added with icons, cards, media sections, or score counts. |
General guidelines for the navigation bar
Consider these general guidelines when configuring your navigation bar.- Number of tabs
-
- The navigation bar displays up to five tabs. When there are more than five tabs an overflow tab, known as the more tab, (
) is added. - Try to limit your navigation bar to five tabs, so that all the tabs are visible at all times.
- The navigation bar displays up to five tabs. When there are more than five tabs an overflow tab, known as the more tab, (
- Tab types
-
- By default, the navigation bar contains Settings and Notification tabs. Removing these tabs is possible, but might prevent your users from accessing important information and features of the app.
- Rather than removing the Setting and Notification tabs, consider changing the order in which they appear in the navigation bar.
- The Settings, Notifications, and Saved tabs navigate to specific pages, so only one of each tab is required. You can use multiple screen and launcher screen tabs, however it's suggested that you use no more than five tabs.
- Display specific tabs to specified users
-
- Apply user criteria permissions, so users only view tabs relevant to their work. For more information, see User criteria permissions in mobile apps.
- You should have the Settings and Navigation tabs available to users.
- Tab names
-
- Give your navigation tabs a descriptive name that provides context. Avoid generic names like Home or Apps.
- Use capital letters for your titles to make them stand out. For example, Open Tasks.
- Length of tab names
-
- Limit the length of your titles so they aren't cut off when displayed in the navigation bar.
- If you support multiple languages, consider the length of titles in each of the languages you support.
- When testing your application, look out for titles that don't fully display in the navigation bar.
- Icon composition
-
- The navigation bar icon color is determined by your application’s theme.
- Select icons that are visually consistent and best represent the functions or information presented in that part of your application.
- Avoid using the same icon for more than one navigation tab, so users can quickly find what they need.
- Ordering
- The order of the tabs should be listed in the level of importance. This order varies for left-to-right languages and right-to-left languages.