If you’re an iPhone app developer, you know there are a handful of UIDeviceOrientation constants in the UIDevice class provided by Apple. The landscape options are:
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight: The device is in landscape mode, with the device held upright and the home button on the left side.
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft: The device is in landscape mode, with the device held upright and the home button on the right side.
(The side that the home button is on is opposite of the direction you had to turn the device to get to that orientation; right and left, as stated above, are correct; they’re NOT unintentionally swapped.)
You might ask yourself, “Which of these orientations is more popular with users?” Until today, I didn’t know. But thanks to in-app analytics, I can answer that question for you now, at least in the case of USC iTommyCam, one of GreenGar Studios’ free apps.
Over the lifetime of the app, to date, these are the number of occurrences:
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight: 22,934
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft: 33,238 (44.9% more common)
In terms of Unique Users:
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight: 7,519
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft: 9,011 (19.8% more users)
In Sessions:
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight: 16,868
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft: 25,325 (50.1% more sessions)
And perhaps most intriguingly, in Total Time Spent:
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight: 47 days 14 hours 24 minutes 59 seconds
UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeLeft: 64 days 22 hours 51 minutes 52 seconds
In conclusion, I think I can safely say that Landscape Left is more popular than Landscape Right. It’s worth noting that the only orientation supported by Apple’s built-in YouTube app is Landscape Left. It looks like they made the right choice. Or maybe the decision to make landscape left YouTube’s only supported orientation has influenced users, and that’s what makes them prefer it today?
If you’re supporting one, why not go a step further, and just support both?
Adversite here
Comments
I wonder what it’s like when you include iPad users?
I prefer UIDeviceOrientationLandscapeRight because my charger is on my left both lying in bed and at my desk; I def. appreciately it when an app does ‘the right thing’ and just works that way – a huge number just don’t.
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