Hide or not to hide the system tray in a Windows Phone 7 application?

Question

I am debating whether to hide or not to hide the system tray in a Windows Phone 7 application. I\'ve not found any general suggestions on this issue -the official Windows Phone

Answer 1

I think its best to use the tray in applications that are tools or utilities. Typically these users would prefer more info than less when they're using applications on the phone (battery, network, time).

Also adding the tray in there tends to make the application look more native on the phone (according to me and others I've asked), which is a big plus because the user associates your app as if it was built with the phone OS.

But if the application is a game, media, etc. type of application I recommend you take it off, especially on panorama because it takes away from the intended design. Also these types of applications focus on the content and seeing multiple little icons at the top can take away from the experience.

Really to me the space it occupies isn't really THAT much, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue. But rather the purpose of the app as stated above.

I do like the suggestions that have been given as far as giving the user the choice. Check out this code:

        bool ShowTray;

        //ASK USER WHAT THEY WANT
        //ShowTray = true or false;

        SystemTray.IsVisible = ShowTray;

Answer 2

Transparency and colors are now possible with Mango by setting its BackgroundColor and Opacity :

shell:SystemTray.IsVisible="True"
shell:SystemTray.BackgroundColor="Transparent"
shell:SystemTray.Opacity="0"

I would say by default show it unless it really gets in the way in a way you can't workaround, especially if its an app and not a game.

Answer 3

I would say it depends on the application/game you are writing

If the app needs a network connection or if you will be in the application for a long period of time show it so the user can keep an eye on network and battery.

If you need the extra screen space (for a game?), and you rarely need network hide it.

Or... I guess you leave it up-to the user and give them a setting to programatically hide/show it.

Answer 4

I've been reluctantly hiding, at least on any view where I have a background image; otherwise it looks too strange to me. I've been considering a setting in my app that would allow the user to choose, and persisting that to isolated storage.

Also considering maybe having the top of the screen in phone background brush color and have it fade / blend into another color or background image. Not sure how well that would turn out but as long as it is not a cheesy looking gradient effect, perhaps.

I'm hoping eventually MS will soon add support for transparency in the system tray or otherwise help address this issue. As a user I wish that I could force the system tray to always be visible across all apps, but as a developer I realize that the visual effect often doesn't look good.

Perhaps if the community came up with a new UX metaphor where maybe double-tapping in the system tray area would toggle whether it is visible. A single tap could perhaps start to animate / pop / hint at the system tray...