Mashable posted a great summary of mobile companies that are killing it right now – and suggests that if you want to obtain similar success, that you should copy what they’re doing. Well, maybe not copy entirely, but you get the idea. One example they gave was that of Path’s sliding navigation. Take a look:

One of the most common modern mobile and tablet UI conventions is the slide-out navigation panel. Rather than having floating menus or relying solely on upper or lower tabs, users can slide to the left or right of the screen to bring up an extended vertical menu of options or notifications.

The method was first introduced by Facebook in its iPad app, but since then, dozens (if not hundreds) of apps for iOS and Android have started to employ the feature. Ken Yarmosh details some common use cases of this design pattern on his blog.

For us, the prime example of the best way to use this sort of UI pattern is Path for iPhone [iTunes link] and Android [Google Play link].

What we love about Path’s approach is that the slide-outs work on both the left and right side of the app. Sliding in from the left brings up typical menus and user-level notifications. Sliding out from the right brings up friends details and search.

Path — like most apps that employ the slide-out feature — also aligns the slide animation to top buttons — which is great for users that don’t know how to use the feature, or for accessibility purposes.

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