tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post1948517988712425441..comments2023-03-06T00:20:51.126-08:00Comments on Android UI Patterns: How APIs can support good design - a wish list to GoogleJuhanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07819792599905242968noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-57454791873224037452011-08-27T11:23:21.233-07:002011-08-27T11:23:21.233-07:00Hi Juhani!
You are welcome and again, thanks for ...Hi Juhani!<br /><br />You are welcome and again, thanks for your site!<br /><br />I'm glad you could understand what I was trying to say. I thought it could get too much confusing.<br /><br />Cheers!Francisco Juniorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06807288057155551345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-11343564676854400352011-08-27T09:48:06.707-07:002011-08-27T09:48:06.707-07:00Hi Francisco,
Thank you for taking time to write s...Hi Francisco,<br />Thank you for taking time to write such a well thought out comment and argumentation. Thank you also for the kind words :)<br /><br />I think you perfectly summarised the point I wanted to make but failed to fully explain in the original post. <br /><br />Cheers!Juhanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07819792599905242968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-84698538612013251402011-08-27T08:57:32.290-07:002011-08-27T08:57:32.290-07:00Hi, Juhani! I couldn't say it better than you....Hi, Juhani! I couldn't say it better than you. I agree totally with your opinion.<br /><br />About the size of the firmware and platform Mark was saying, I would argue with the new Android Market example: It was done with *existing* components.<br /><br />I don't think Google would need to only create new components. They could provide component libraries separately which would use existing base framework components. It would even be better if Google promote/create some opensource project. The project would get more developers with design orientations which would improve the quality of the components themselves and the applications which use them.<br /><br />I don't code for iPhone, but you answered one question I had for a long time: the interface of iPhone apps are consistent because there are already a lot of widgets which satisfy the design needs of developers. I don't know how many iPhone apps need custom made widgets but by having a rich component library makes them create the interface more effortlessly.<br /><br />With my little Android development experience, what I want to say is that there are a lot of ways of doing the *same* Android widgets, and this is nice, but it also has its drwabacks as you have some component library projects with compoments which do almost the same. It would be better if they were working together.<br /><br />I know this is the nature of opensource projects and not everybody will agree with everybody but I think that by having a promoted Google project for custom components would give developers the consistence and "easibility" of creating Apps for Android.<br /><br />I can give another example about the new Android Market. There was an article talking about swipe and tabs. There is also another example from tabs of google docs. If I want to use that component I can't because it is not available. :(<br /><br />Thanks to Jake Wharton ViewPagerIndicator https://github.com/JakeWharton/Android-ViewPagerIndicator which itself is based on Patrik Ã…kerfeldt https://github.com/pakerfeldt/android-viewflow ViewFlow, I could get a design similar to that in my application. But note: *it is not* the same. It would be awesome if Google could provide the component somewhere and I could use it on my apps.<br /><br />Sorry for long post, I just had those ideas floating in my mind for wuite sometime and I didn't know where I could express them until I saw your article!<br /><br />And congratulations for your awesome site! To me this site is going in the direction I'd like to see Android UI design patters to go so more developers can learn and create better Android apps.Francisco Juniorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06807288057155551345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-50885314306562409882011-08-27T08:55:17.504-07:002011-08-27T08:55:17.504-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Francisco Juniorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06807288057155551345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-36681303848685297602011-08-11T02:36:45.352-07:002011-08-11T02:36:45.352-07:00Mark, thank you for your comment. Your point is, o...Mark, thank you for your comment. Your point is, of course, very valid. On the other hand I'm not expecting Google to jump into development frenzy based on this post. What I'm hoping is that they have already done them and currently doing final QA on the components. They hired Matias Duarte to lead UX on Android and his ideas are already visible in the Honeycomb release (Action Bar is already part of the Android SDK in the release). That is why I still hope to see further UI advancements in the upcoming release.<br /><br />Thomas, thanks! Yeah, in my opinion that could be a good and safe solution for the first step. I believe it could be easier for Google to implement a separate library first. It would also bring UI consistency to older Android phones.Juhanihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07819792599905242968noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-38503798062131482772011-08-10T08:30:33.111-07:002011-08-10T08:30:33.111-07:00Great post Juhani and good point Mark. I thought t...Great post Juhani and good point Mark. I thought the same about keeping it slim and small... Maybe "second-party" libraries like the FragmentsAPI provided seperately by Google could solve that problem.TomTaschehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13202678175684942979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5065195004001204478.post-56057806988770254322011-08-10T08:22:02.982-07:002011-08-10T08:22:02.982-07:00Your sentiment is spot-on, but your expectations a...Your sentiment is spot-on, but your expectations are unrealistic.<br /><br />Primarily, the issue is time. As I write this, it is August 10, 2011. Devices with Ice Cream Sandwich may ship in October 2011. Ice Cream Sandwich code should have been finalized back in April or May. Whatever is in there is in there -- public pleas to the contrary notwithstanding.<br /><br />Whether we like it or not, device manufacturers are set up to need a fairly stable OS several months before devices ship. That's one of the reason you see patch releases for Android -- flaws were uncovered after it was too late to change what was going onto the firmware, or features dragged on too long and had to be updated over time (see the two-tier NFC support in the SDK).<br /><br />Had you framed your post as "things that would be good to have in the SDK sometime", I probably would not be posting this comment. The fact that you tied your request to Ice Cream Sandwich -- thereby setting up Android to fail -- is disappointing.<br /><br />Also, please bear in mind that the core Android team still tries to keep the firmware as small as possible (to help enable lower-cost devices for emerging markets), and so Android will never contain every conceivable widget.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com