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Android Design

developer.android.com

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Re: Android Design

#131

Post by starwed »

CrazedGeek wrote: post #125
starwed wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since no one else has mentioned it, ICS has improved how you navigate among apps. The three omnipresent buttons are now back, home, and recent apps. Recent apps pulls up a visual stack of everything you've used recently, so the ICS expectation would be that users would hit that key if they want to navigate among apps.

How do phones with hardware buttons access the recent apps list? Same as in 2.3 (long-press home)?

I only have a galaxy nexus, so no idea! :) Repurposing the search key would probably make the most sense to me, but I can see that would be confusing.

Has ICS rolled out to any older phones yet?

Re: Android Design

#133

Post by sp332 »

resnamen wrote: post #94
emehrkay wrote: post #15

I like the date picker http://developer.android.com/design/building-blocks/pickers....

I despise it. One of my Gmail labels is set to sync content for 365 days. I nearly got RSI spinning that damn thing with my thumb until it hit 365.

Um, you can just tap the number and it will bring up a 10-key keypad. You can just type "365".

Re: Android Design

#134

Post by sp332 »

rwc wrote: post #64

I know some will criticize this is ticky-tacky, but it's one small thing that, when added with a lot of other little details, make Android feel like it's still designed by engineers. They've "touched nearly every pixel" and "App icons are works of art in their own right" but the contact name on their contacts icon is "Lorem Ipsum". Not exactly a warm, human feel. http://developer.android.com/design/static/content/des…

Lorem Ipsum is supposed to show you the "experience" of the design, and leave out any emotional or cognitive associations you might have with specific text. It's used as a content-free placeholder in design. It really has nothing to do with "engineers".

Re: Android Design

#135

Post by zalew »

benjoffe wrote: post #128
zalew wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll sound like wierdo, but I always set uneven minutes to alarms, so there's less chance they overlap each others' snooze alerts. (yep, I have a problem with getting up and have to set up 3 alarms next to each other)

Now that I think about it this must be why iOS uses 9 minutes for the snooze interval, to avoid similar overlap (always wondered).

that's clever. now tbh I don't even know how long is snooze on my phone, I just assumed it must be even.

Re: Android Design

#136

Post by drivebyacct2 »

veeti wrote: post #92
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The announcement for and docs of the Action Bar specifically point to libraries that can be imported pre-3.0 to provide the Action Bar.

You mean the ActionBarCompat example which is so minimal that only the simplest apps can use it? It's lacking almost every feature of the action bar.

No, that's not what I meant.

Re: Android Design

#137

Post by drcube »

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #9

This is a long overdue but very well put-together UI and Usability Guide for Android Developers. My only qualm from reading it thus far is the very last section under Navigation [1] regarding System-to-app navigation: "For the Back key, you should make navigation more predictably [sic] by inserting into the task's back stack the complete upward navigation path to the app's topmost screen." No. This piece of advice is…

I like Android, but the back button is totally useless to me. It only works in the simplest of cases, namely when opening an app and not navigating beyond that, I know I can press the back button to get to the home screen.

Otherwise, my workflow basically goes: press home button, use the task manager to kill everything, then visit an app and navigate top-down to where I want to go. Rinse and repeat for the next app. Like others have been saying, the back button is inherently either arbitrary or confusing, and I don't know how to fix it.

It should be replaced as a permanent UI feature with a task switcher button. I don't know how a modern operating system can get by without some sort of taskbar equivalent. I need to know what apps are open, and be able to navigate to them and close them as needed. Why has this not been implemented? I'd suggest putting this into the slide down top bar if there weren't full screen apps that totally break this function. Therefore, I suggest replacing the back button with a task switcher. I won't be holding my breath.

Re: Android Design

#138

Post by gcb »

nl wrote: post #95
gcb wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i love those reasoning of 'real' designers to enforce what THEY think is best. like the 'designers' of gnome3 (using the term loosely here) who thinks focus-follow-mouse and click-does-not-raise-window are things that only the devil would use and so no one should be allowed 'for usability sake' and 'think of the children' think about it. a black wallpaper is the best readability option. period. so let's remove the us…

Did you read the link? He specifically addresses a subset of your issues: This doesn't mean eliminate all choice. There are enough choices that users will have to make anyway: the way their document will look, the way their web site will behave, or anything else that is integral to the work that the user is doing. In these areas, go crazy: it's great to give people choices: by all means, the more the merrier. And the…

Yes, and i was pointing out how bad it is.

So you can only go crazy on futile options and not useful ones? Give me a break.

Re: Android Design

#139

Post by astrodust »

ranebo wrote: post #113
astrodust wrote: post #96

"Android Design" .../index.html It's the little things that matter. This is shameful for a company so big.

I'm confused, why does this matter?

From a technical perspective, littering your URLs with implementation debris is not a good idea. What if you want to revamp the site, put it in a shiny CMS, and now it's in PHP or JSP or does it even matter? You have all these references to `index.html` you have to maintain or you'll be wrecking your linkage.

Bury those. If you're doing a plain HTML site, use MultiViews to hide the extensions. They're not important to the content.

When I see `index.html` in a URL, it's never a good sign. It's done by a sloppy "web designer" that knows how to use DreamWeaver and FTP things to the server. They make a tremendous mess for the next team that has to come along and somehow upgrade the site without breaking everything.

It's not 1998 any more. You can afford to script your pages, have clean URLs, and still get great performance.

Re: Android Design

#140

Post by jsnell »

thetrendycyborg wrote: post #101
jc4p wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you scroll them they actually remove the arrows and make a lot more sense. Before you drag: http://i.imgur.com/4MUXO.png After you press to drag: http://i.imgur.com/BqXMY.png To be fair, it's a huge improvement over: http://i.imgur.com/2exF7.png

you know you can just press the number and use the keyboard, right?

Well, after pressing backspace twice to erase the already entered numbers... It's just amazingly bad :-)
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