Post #362,689
9/18/12 8:52:56 PM
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Android Back Button Mayhem.
An interesting list and demonstration of UI inconsistencies and aggravations in Android Jelly Bean - http://www.androidpo...te-about-android/
This mess of iconography is particularly noticeable in the home screen dock, where things like the above picture are possible. Some icons just donÂt Âlook right next to each other. These are all stock icons that come with the phone. Heck, the two on the right are from the same app. Yes, Google Maps somehow managed to include both the tallest icon and the second-shortest icon in my survey. Amazing.
You people make Android design guidelines, follow them! Surprisingly, the Android Design Guidelines donÂt specify an icon height. They give launcher icon dimensions of 96x96, but then say ÂYou can also include a few pixels of padding in launcher icons to maintain a consistent visual weight with adjacent icons. Translation: ÂEh, whatever, just eyeball it.Â
NO! Bad Google.
Some of it is nit-picking, but some of it seems to be pretty elementary stuff that should have been tied down long ago.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who is finding it harder and harder to decide which phone "ecosystem" is the better choice right now...)
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Post #362,691
9/18/12 10:15:50 PM
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I'm thinking Google need to start again.
It is increasingly apparant that the whole open-source idea of Android was never a good idea and neither was the attempt to free-for-all the marketplace. They should have vetted hardware makers much more carefully, for one thing, as many abandon old devices which is a bad customer experience.
Wade.
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Post #362,702
9/19/12 5:56:26 AM
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No way
No matter how odd an individual implementation is, they won.
No reason to change.
When apple owned the smartphone market and android was announced, did you think it had a chance?
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Post #362,705
9/19/12 7:37:26 AM
9/19/12 7:38:43 AM
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It's interesting
Google doesn't break out Android in its financial results, whereas they do break out search and so on but then, they only breakout Google/Motorola.
The word "Android" doesn't even feature in Google's 2012Q2 results:
http://investor.goog...ogle_earnings.pdf
Whereas the word "iPhone" has the number "$22,690" (that's millions of dollars, for the quarter; fucking hell) next to it in Apple's results:
http://images.apple....q3fy12datasum.pdf
Edited by pwhysall
Sept. 19, 2012, 07:38:43 AM EDT
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Post #362,721
9/19/12 3:34:39 PM
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I said android, not google
It splits the market with IOS
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Post #362,728
9/19/12 4:51:40 PM
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IIRC, I think I did.
And I saw a clear example that Android still has a lot of ground to cover:
https://github.com/a...rty-devs-and-apps
This is the list of 3rd-party apps for social networking API App.Net. The number of iOS apps outnumber the Android apps by more than 10 to 1.
Wade.
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Post #362,697
9/18/12 11:52:05 PM
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Well, they're working on it
But yes, this is what you get when you let developers design UIs.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #362,706
9/19/12 10:11:36 AM
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But still...
I'm not finding anything really wrong with the Jelly Bean build I have. Its fast, it works its very fluid its automagic on many things. Some of the things he points out as problems... aren't exactly the same in my build of Jelly Bean, specifically the Calculator isn't like he shows. Things like the ICONS, yeah aren't grand, but its not really noticeable to the user... it looks just fine IMO. It bugs interface designers.
Sure, there are apps that just don't look right or are screwed up, but those aren't typically Google or Android Core Apps or even apps that are popular.
I'm sure the best thing they could do at this point is to vet apps in the market and make the developers do a better "first shot" rather than shoot and go, shoot and go, shoot and go...
For example:
I use an app, I like it a lot called "aNag"... dude, some of the *Multiple Multipe* recent fixes are just plain dumb mistakes. Like leaving out options needed to be able to check an instance... if they were configured before that new version... it worked, but if you had to make a new one... no can do, nor could you disable the existing one.
Slow down, check you schtuff... test, test, reset (aka clear or Factory reset), test. I know malraux, the sheer number of devices, but dang the errors I've seen in this one app, lead me to believe much of the angst people are experiencing is due to lack of QA and testing and then a good vetting and well, real world programming experience.
Whatever.
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Post #362,710
9/19/12 11:56:05 AM
9/19/12 12:10:19 PM
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No, icons are important
Let me use an example. We have a friend who is a fantastic editor. She can take a piece of text that you'd swear was perfect and find a dozen things to change for the better. She's also extremely good at pointing out text sizes, kerning, spacing, any number of visual things that don't affect the message, but do degrade the presentation.
When she's done with this type of editing, even people who don't notice the individual changes can tell that her version is significantly easier to read and understand.
This is what we call "fit and finish" in the world of development. You may not notice the individual items, but overall the effect on usability is significant. Usability testing with average users bears this out. I've seen it in the real world.
Now take the icons. Notice the text, and how it wobbles across the screen because the heights are different. This type of inconsistency categorically causes issues with visual tracking and targeting. One of my classes in college over 20 years ago pointed this out, using as a case study the UI on the Space Shuttle. When it was redesigned to have even rows and columns, error rates went down drastically.
You're not a good sample case either. You're an extremely technical systems administrator who uses Linux on the desktop. Your world is not the world of the average user. :-)
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Edited by malraux
Sept. 19, 2012, 12:10:19 PM EDT
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Post #362,712
9/19/12 12:00:14 PM
9/19/12 12:11:26 PM
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(Obsolete.)
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Post #362,713
9/19/12 12:10:38 PM
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No, looks like my software did.
Bleah. Thanks.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #362,714
9/19/12 12:11:41 PM
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No problem. :-)
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Post #362,739
9/19/12 9:38:49 PM
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Ok...
So, I'm not a good example.
What about my Wife, Daughters and Son-in-Law?
I honestly don't help them at all... they all helped themselves. Things are working for them gangbusters and they figured things out without me even having to help them.
I still have to help them out with the iTunes and iPods they own.
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Post #362,740
9/19/12 11:29:07 PM
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Re: Ok...
Anecdotal evidence is one step away from useless. Testing and analysis needs to be done in a controlled situation with specific test cases, cameras, and UI experts who know how to watch people use things.
If you do a controlled test with and without the problems that were identified in the article, I can guarantee you the issues and inefficiency will become obvious.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #362,743
9/20/12 4:27:33 AM
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Yeah yeah...
I know... I'm not important.
I sometimes just don't get it how people make things this hard.
If people *thought* through things... much of this stuff just wouldn't matter.
Of course, this is me talking.
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