Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with your criticism of design dogma - it drives me nuts too - people saying something bad is good because it follows the rules . But since I'm also responsible for the Android icon shape-change you talked about, let me waffle for a bit in case it helps provide a perspective on the other side of that decision: I agree with that the non-uniform icons are easier to find, and that uniform shapes make it harder (I…
Thank you for sharing, this was very insightful. Do you have another example of something like this that your team had to deal with that was not as easy, but "looked easier" for the users?
Before we had that latter data I actually argued against attempting it - I figured having a clear usability win vs iPhone would be an area we could capitalize on, and didn't believe we'd be able to execute the swipe system well in the time we had (I'd rather be behind and robust than leading edge and flaky), but doing it was definitely the right call - felt pretty sheepish about that one for a few years. The eng and ux teams that pulled it off were next level.