Plan navigation tabs

Help minimize distractions for drivers by prioritizing simple and clear top-level navigation for media apps.

Most cars have already established the structure and visual display of app bars. To create tabs in a templated media app, see Using SectionedItemTemplate inside a TabTemplate.

Plan your categories

You'll need to decide which top-level content categories to represent as tabs on the app bar, and which icons and labels to supply for each tab. Avoid overly-broad categories that are difficult to browse while driving. Instead, opt for categories that showcase tailored content, such as:

  • Frequently used: for example, playlists or channels
  • Preferred: for example, favorite artists
  • Timely: for example, recent songs
  • Curated: for example, recommended for you
Navigation tabs example
In this example, the tailored content includes recently-played songs, a way to discover more music, and a list of all of the user's music.

It's important to create a simple and consistent navigation model that accommodates all possible screen sizes.

Follow these requirements and recommendations as you design the navigation tabs for your media app:

Requirement level Requirements
MUST
  • Implement no more than 4 tabs (for AAOS)
  • Provide a label and a monochrome (preferably white) vector icon for each tab (for AAOS)
SHOULD
  • Keep tab labels as short as possible, to prevent their being truncated