Archive for May, 2012

Google Plus & The Dashboard

Posted
May 29, 2012
Categories
interaction-design
social-networking
ux

The latest build of Google Plus for Android was rolled out a few days ago. While there are many UI updates, one of the changes is significant. The dashboard design pattern, it seems, has been deprecated.

When you login into the current build of Google plus you land on the “What’s Hot” view. This view is housed within the stream section of the app. To switch to another section of the app, say, circles, you must tap on the up button of the action bar, which reveals a menu. The menu enters the screen from left hand side and presents a navigation list.

Take a look:

This fly out navigation menu is a pattern that is used quite often for iOS social apps. For example, Path, Pinterest and Twitter’s iPad app all leverage this pattern. Facebook also uses this pattern for their mobile website and, iOS & Android apps. The fact that Google+ is now using this pattern means the fly out navigation menu will be viewed, initially, as a social app interaction pattern on mobile.

It would be great to see this pattern incorporated into UI guidelines. Doing so would help develop a consistent experience approach across apps, which would be good for users. As for current social apps for Android, we’ll see how soon this pattern will be incorporated. Given Android’s rendering philosophy, the development effort required to build this custom component may delay roll out of the fly out menu, but we’ll see.

We’ll also see what the fate of the dashboard will be. Take a look at the Dashboard that is no longer being used:

Google Plus Dashboard

From a hierarchy perspective, I’m a fan of the dashboard. The functional decomposition the dashboard pattern encourages designers to use is a neat way to silo and optimize tasks. The dashboard replicates the launcher environment, which establishes a level of consistency with the mobile operating system. This view gives one a high level snapshot of the main features/sections of an app.  It works well, but maybe not in all cases.

In a social networking context, optimizing tasks may not be the top priority. If you’re trying to push timely content, for example, the dashboard it is an extra and excessive. So, it makes sense to drop the dashboard pattern from social apps. I hope it remains a viable option for utility apps though.

Firefox (Beta) for Android

Posted
May 15, 2012
Categories
ux

Firefox for Android Beta Headline

In the ever expanding mobile web world, Mozilla has released a Beta version of Firefox’s native Android app. Sidestepping all of the improvements that are technical, there are a few UI changes that are worth pointing out.

Desktop browsers typically present tabs in a literal way below or above the address bar. Beyond your the visual affordance, this approach is effective partly due to there being enough room on the screen. On mobile, though, display size is rather limited, and the literal approach is a poor choice for mobile.This is why mobile Safari for the iPhone and the default Android browser (as of 2.3.4) provide a way to open new pages and forego tabs altogether.

I like how tabs are handled on Firefox for mobile. The number of open tabs is represented numerically to the right of the location bar.

Tapping on the number of open tabs opens a tab drawer, which, in addition to listing the number of open tabs, resembles the recents panel in ICS. This tab drawer also behaves, and this I’m sure is by design, much like the notifications drawer used in Android. So, this approach is consistent with general platform patterns.


Sure, the hit areas within the tab drawer are a little wonky, but the app is in beta. I don’t mind much.

Folding News Papers

Posted
May 14, 2012
Categories
information-appliance
information-society
ux

Lately, my Sunday’s have been spent reading the NYTimes, and, I happy to report, I have refined my News Paper management abilities. What is News paper management? It may sound somewhat operational in nature, but let me assure you, in this article, it refers to the art of folding a news paper neatly and elegantly.

When you see someone folding a news paper on the subway, you’re watching someone customize a display. How interesting would it be to see the NYTimes or another news outlet build a device that uses a flexible display? The following video gives you an sense of how a flexible display would work. Perhaps this is the direction future ebook readers will take. Perhaps.

Little Androids

Posted
May 7, 2012
Categories
ux

The latest round of Android phones are making their way to the market, and they are faster, bigger, and boast more features than the current generation. While the customary “which phone is the best” news stories are circulating the web it feels like something’s off.

Android phones are talked about much like laptops and that’s a problem. We ask how large the display is, how fast the processor is, talk about ram, battery life, etc… While this may sound normal to a computer geek, which, I, admittedly, am, the broader public is not interested.

The resurgence of this techno-speak has to do with the competitive mobile market. From a software perspective, there’s little differentiation between Android phones. Device manufacturers, such as Samsung, HTC or Motorola, may develop custom user interfaces, but at the end of the day, they essentially sell the same Android product. With the exception of HTC, the custom UI’s don’t really amount to a selling point, and if they did, its not clear if the manufacturers would effectively sell them.

So, manufacturers, in hopes of out doing each other, talk about hardware. Implicit in all of this is a hardware arms race between device manufacturers. To remain relevant, they have to build bigger and better phones than their competitors or they’ll be left behind. The best example of this is the ever-increasing screen sizes of Android phones. In 2008, average screen sizes were 3.2.” This year the newer phones will have screens sizes that range from 4.7” to 5.” While this competition may seem like a good thing for customers, it actually alienates some customers.

Let’s say I want to buy a new Ice Cream Sandwich phone that has all of the latest and greatest features, however, I want it to fit in my pocket. In other words, what do I do if I want a new 3.5” Android phone? The answer is settle for ginormous Droid or pick-up an iPhone. A quick search on-line reveals that Android manufacturers stopped making 3.5” phones in 2010.

I’m not sure how Android device manufacturers are segmenting their customers, but they’re missing a segment. I won’t deny that large screens are popular, but my gut tells me there’s interest in smaller Android phones and there is no corresponding Android product. These customers are not even on the radar. The 35+ million iPhones sold last quarter should convince Android manufacturers that a 3.5” display is not as terrible as some technocrats would have one believe. So, how about we get 3.5” or 3.7” Android devices in the future?