Mobile App Navigation Patterns for Non-Technical and Older Users

A bottom navigation bar should hold three to five destinations, each with an icon and a visible text label. The bottom bar is the most reliable of the mobile app navigation patterns for everyday users, because every section stays in view. Hamburger menus suit secondary screens, and anything beyond five sections belongs in a menu or inside a tab.

Which mobile app navigation patterns actually work?

Only a handful of mobile app navigation patterns are worth considering, and most apps should use the bottom navigation bar. The others are the hamburger menu, which hides sections in a drawer behind an icon, top tabs for switching between views of the same content, and the single scrolling feed with no menu at all. Each one decides how much of the app a person can see before they tap anything.

Google is specific about the bottom bar. Android's navigation bar guidance says it is for "three to five destinations of equal importance". With only two destinations, a bar is overkill. With more than five, the labels get cramped, people stop reading them and start guessing from the icons.

Good app navigation design is mostly about what you keep out of the bar. Settings, profile, help and legal pages almost never deserve a tab. They go behind an icon in the top corner, because people open them once a month, not every time they use the app. Search can live there too, unless searching is the main thing people come to do.

Why the hamburger menu fails people who are not comfortable with apps

A hamburger menu hides the structure of the app, and people who are not confident with phones rarely go looking for hidden things. A younger user taps the three lines out of habit. Someone who got their first smartphone at 60 may not read that icon as a button at all, and for them a section they cannot see does not exist.

This matters more in South Africa than most design guides assume. Stats SA's mid-year population estimates for 2026 report that "approximately 10,7% (6,79 million) is 60 years or older". If your members are older than the national average, the share is higher still for you, and an older member who cannot find something is more likely to stop opening the app than to tell you.

We built an app for a non-profit membership community of more than 1,800 members, a group that is not always very technical. Before the app, members talked on WhatsApp and Telegram, watched over 200 teaching videos on YouTube and read a monthly magazine as a PDF. We replaced those three platforms with three labelled tabs in a bottom navigation bar: Community Wall, Media Library and Magazine Kiosk. Each tab maps to a place members already went, so the layout asks them to learn where the old things now live, not a new structure. Moving the magazine from PDF to native rich text in the app was also designed to let text scale with the phone's own size setting, which a pinch-and-zoom PDF never could.

How to plan your bottom navigation bar before anything is designed

Start by listing what your members already do with you, not the features you want to build. Each regular activity is a candidate tab. Yearly tasks, like renewing a membership, belong behind a menu instead. If you end up with more than five, two of them are probably the same thing, or one is less regular than you think. Then test the labels on real members: read them the tab names and ask what they expect to find behind each one. Plain nouns like "Videos" or "Magazine" beat clever brand names. If you are still unsure whether your members need an app at all, settle the WhatsApp question first.

When you brief a developer, ask whether every tab will carry a text label and whether the app follows the phone's text size setting. If the answer to either is no, push back. Ask to see the main screens with text at its largest size, because some of your members will have that setting switched on. Building for iOS and Android from one codebase also helps here, since members who help each other over the phone see the same tabs in the same place. Any team scoping an MVP for your organisation should answer these questions without hesitating.

If your users are comfortable with phones, almost any sensible pattern will work. If a large share of them are older or not very technical, use a bottom bar with three or four labelled tabs and build each tab around something they already do. Put everything else behind a single icon.

Questions about mobile app navigation

What are the main mobile app navigation patterns?

The main mobile app navigation patterns are the bottom navigation bar, the hamburger menu, top tabs and the single scrolling feed. The bottom bar keeps three to five sections visible. The hamburger menu hides sections behind an icon. Top tabs switch views within one area, and a single feed suits apps that do one thing.

How many items should a bottom navigation bar have?

A bottom navigation bar should have three to five items. Android's guidance describes it as a bar for three to five destinations of equal importance. With two items, top tabs or a single screen work better. With more than five, the labels get cramped, so move the less frequent sections into a menu or a settings screen.

Is a hamburger menu or a bottom tab bar better for older users?

A bottom tab bar is better for older users. It keeps every main section visible and labelled, so nothing depends on recognising the three-line icon as a button. In an app we built for a non-profit membership community, the three platforms members already used became three labelled bottom tabs.

Should every tab in an app's navigation have a text label?

Yes. Every tab should have a short text label under its icon. Icons that seem obvious to designers, like a house or a stack of pages, are often ambiguous to everyone else. A one-word label removes the guesswork, and a short bar always has room for it.

How do you design an app for users who are not very technical?

Design for non-technical users by keeping the structure shallow and visible. Use a bottom bar with labelled tabs, plain words instead of brand names, generous spacing and text that follows the phone's size setting. Build each tab around something users already do, so the app feels like familiar things in one place rather than a new system.

How should South African organisations design apps for older members?

South African organisations should design for older members from day one. Stats SA estimates that about 6,79 million South Africans, roughly 10,7% of the population, are 60 or older. That means adjustable text size, labelled tabs, strong contrast and no important features hidden behind gestures or icons that need explaining.