User talk:Nalorcs

Wikipedia Android app suggestions
With the release of Android 4.0, Google has finally started giving some official guidance about how apps should look for a more unified design style. Even Google is still in the process of implementing these things in their official apps, but they're moving in this direction.

Reporting by The Verge on the new guidelines being published - http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/12/2703019/google-ice-cream-sandwich-style-guidelines

Android team officially posts about them being published - http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2012/01/introducing-android-design-site.html

The Android Design site itself - http://developer.android.com/design/index.html

The Android Design website appears to be full of "marketing words" and is intended for general audiences just as much as technical ones, but the underlying points are clear and valid. Putting common functions on-screen and hiding others behind a "more" (dot dot dot) button is clearly superior to the Android 2.3 and earlier paradigm of not knowing what the menu key function will be, if anything, before you try it.

The guidelines are general things like how buttons and navigation should be handled so that Android as a platform begins to develop a more cohesive feel between high quality, well-maintained modern apps. For example, you can look at their recent changes to the Maps, Gmail, Reader, G+, and other official apps. As the Android platform begins to phase out the Menu and Search buttons, these functions are being integrated into the UI instead.

Here are some examples that I can see of how the Wikipedia app could implement these guidelines:

- Remove the menu key function on Android 4.0+ devices which don't have a menu key by default

- Move the "Saved Pages (bookmarks, history)", "Back" and "Forward" buttons onscreen, with a "dot dot dot" menu for all the other functions.

- Use the device's "back" button to close the app (while saving its state for future use) which would return the user to the previously-open app. This would be especially useful if and when the app can natively handle Wikipedia URLs. Instead have onscreen forward/back buttons for navigating through articles. There's details about this in UI.png. In the standard new UI, the back button would simply go "back one page", but as this is a reference app, more specialized functionality might be helpful.

- Move the "Read In" button and "Nearby" button to the "dot dot dot" menu. They are functions that are not be used on a regular basis by typical users. Ideally, eliminate the "Read In" button entirely and just go with whatever language is selected in Settings. I'm not someone who needs this function, so maybe I just don't understand why it's there.

- Remove the "About" page and move its function to the "Settings" page. This is how it is handled in almost any Android app. Clearly you want to have the "About" information somewhere, but it's something that nobody will use more than once, so it doesn't need even a second-tier menu entry. "Forward" would be moved onscreen as previously mentioned, "Select text" could possibly be handled using the native text selection system (long-press on text).

- "Share Page" could be moved to the top navigation bar, where it is typically located in Android 4.0+ apps. This top navigation bar would behave as it does in the Android 4 browser, where if you scroll down it disappears. Scrolling up immediately restores it for a few seconds but it then disappears again unless you're at the top of the document or you've touched it.

- The gradient on the top navigation bar (and shiny/round effects in general) should go. Gradient/shiny effects are something very iconic of Apple and it's something Android is moving away from as the project tries to find its own design identity.

Here is a mockup I made of changes I'd suggest, please be sure to read all the notes to understand what's what:

http://i.imgur.com/dysui.png

The source PSD files and some reference images are available here: http://www.mediafire.com/?e4m4n62mnmfrtup

Please note that to open the PSD files you'll probably need to have the Roboto font installed on your system. It is available for free from the Android project's site here: http://developer.android.com/design/style/typography.html

Nalorcs 21:54, 1 February 2012 (UTC)