Android Design

Post by robertskmiles » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 11:31 AM UTC

gcb wrote: post #81

nl wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, no. Config settings like that are a way for lazy designers to avoid making hard decisions. Joel Spolsky wrote about this over 10 years ago: Every time you provide an option, you're asking the user to make a decision. That means they will have to think about something and decide about it. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but, in general, you should always try to minimize the number of decisions that people have t…

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…

Post by gbog » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 1:08 PM UTC

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…

Post by CrazedGeek » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 1:17 PM UTC

starwed wrote: post #124

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…

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.

Post by myko » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 3:06 PM UTC

keeperofdakeys wrote: post #71

nightpool wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has to be some kind of middle ground here, some kind of way to do it that gives you quick access for transitory things, like email and text messages, but also lets you get back up the stack. Maybe if artificialy adding things to the stack was disabled when you're coming from notifications, but not otherwise?

You would be able to tell if the user had previously used the app, gotten to a state, switched out, then went back to the app to find that state or if the application was pushed to a certain state when it was opened. Personally though, I would prefer the back button system-wide only. You can easily provide a UI element to take you to the top of the stack (especially since when an app is forced into a state, you only…

Post by myko » Fri, Jan 13, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

swanson wrote: post #55

I kind of agree with the sentiment that a few others are having. I've spent the past 4 months working on an Android project and when I opened this page I was in shock. Everything looks so awesome and shiny - but where is the actual implementation? Is this stuff just a ICS theme (I haven't used it myself as our app is in 2.2 land)? Others pointed out to check the "Developer" link - but that is just the standard Androi…