Hello everyone!
I’m sorry that it’s been so long since my last post. If you’re still interested in reading about my thoughts, be sure follow me here: sahilchaturvedi.wordpress.com
The reason why I’m switching over to this blog is that “Android Design Rants” was too restrictive, allowing me to post only about “Android”.
Anyways, see you there!
UPDATE (May 3, 2014): Find me here and on Twitter @SahilC0.
As you can probably tell, I’ve always been really picky about the smallest UI elements. And I probably always will be.
But, to be honest, I’ve lost interest in ranting about the minute details; especially with a rapidly changing company like Google/Android. Most of the “big issues” I had in my previous posts have been completely changed, and old user interfaces have been made more polished.
You’re saying – “What’s he whining about? Of course the UI will get better – it’s been months since he made that post!”. And I think that is what bothers me. I know that Google engineers and designers have these issues in mind, and they’re doing their best to address complaints.
I just don’t feel the need to rant about every detail these days. There are bigger design issues to think about. This hit me especially hard after seeing Matias Duarte’s (Director of Android Design #HOLOYOLO) interview with the Verge. Among other things, he talks about how designing specifically for mobile is “dead”; how we need to design for the user and not for the device.
That’s what I mean when I say there are bigger things to think about. As expected, Google released many updates to their apps recently. There are rumors that the dialer is getting a colorful upgrade. Hangouts also received an update that merged the SMS and Hangouts threads (praise tha lawd!). Google even released the Camera app to the Play Store, and gave it an overhaul.
But the fact is, that isn’t the conversation I want to have with you. I want to talk about mobile design, and software design as a whole, and not just limit our discussion to Android. Maybe even the Design of Everyday Things.
I’d be interested in a YouTube vlog, or maybe a podcast. To be honest, I’m not sure what the next step is. But I don’t like how narrow minded my posts are on this blog. Like I said, I have no idea what’s next, but you can follow me on twitter @SahilC0 and on Google+ (yeah, that’s a thing) for my future projects. I’d really love to continue talking to you, just maybe not on this blog specifically.
See ya around!
Hey guys, I’m back. It’s been almost two months, but my exams are over.
Let’s get right into this –
So PushBullet is an app I found out about recently, and I don’t know what I’d do without it. Basically, I can “push” a note, link, or a file from one device to another. This is really helpful when I see an interesting link on my phone, but I want to read it on a bigger screen. I just push it to my laptop or tablet.
Well anyways, one small thing that’s been annoying me about pushbullet – the color.
I really wish they’d match their shade of green!
The pushbullet logo
The pushbullet app – notice the green color.
What do you think? Does it bother you as much as it bothers me? Am I just crazy?
So this rant pertains only to a couple things about the Camera experience on stock Android.
We all know that the stock Camera app is a pain. These are a couple more details worth noting:
First up, the lockscreen. In <4.3, you could access the camera by swiping to the left on your lockscreen. The indication to swipe, however, was fairly weak, so I assume they decided to add an icon to make it more obvious, like iOS.
Android 4.2 Lockscreen widgets & camera
iOS Lockscreen – Sorry for the old iOS image. *shudders*
The problem here is, on iOS, you’d hold the camera icon and swipe up with it, revealing the Camera viewfinder. On Android, the icon is placed lower than where the viewfinder’s image shows up, so it feels very odd and non-intuitive.
Android 4.4 Lockscreen. The white dot is my finger.
It’s a little hard for me to explain – you’ll have to try this out for yourself. Your finger is sliding under the image of the viewfinder. It’s just wrong.
Next, in the Photos app (comes annoyingly bundled with Google Plus), I don’t understand why the icons need to disappear and reappear for each damn image!
Instead, the icons can be kept constant, as the image changes.
As before, you’ll have to experience it yourself to get it.
Anyways, that’s enough for today. What do you think? How do you like the Stock Android Camera experience?
Sorry for the really small post. Been really busy with exams!
Anyways, this has been annoying me for a long time. The mic icon in the Play Store’s search bar is the old ICS icon! *shudders*
Play Store
The new(er) mic icon.
The old, ICS mic icon.
I should have added this with my earlier post about the clock app, but there’s another thing that annoys me.
The scrolling feedback – the white thing you see when you there are no more screens left to swipe to in an app – gets cut off by the action bar.
One way to get around this would be to make the action bar translucent, the way it is in Keep. That way, the feedback would show through the action bar, and you wouldn’t feel like it’s a bug.
What do you think?
Brace yourself, this is going to be a long, long post.
There’s a Whatsapp toast message that’s been getting on my nerves, lately.
edit
PLEASE, Whatsapp – Capitalize the E in Edit!
P.S. – Was this long enough for ya?
Is it just me (and I’m genuinely wondering), or is the Google Plus icon now SMALLER than the other Google icons?
Please, I beg you, prove me wrong.
EDIT [Jan 5th, 2013]: Yep, it’s confirmed. All three Google icons are of different sizes. Thanks, +Victor Stuber for pixel comparing!
I just got an update for my file manager of choice – Sliding Explorer.
I got really excited, and decided I had to make a post about this.
Transparent System bars is the future of Holo design. The Navigation bar isn’t a waste of space anymore, and the status bar merges with the app, which makes it look like it’s built into the OS!
I don’t know about you, but I really want to see more apps take advantage of this.
PushBullet
This is the Clock app from 4.3 Jelly Bean and below:
JB Clock
The “Lap” button (the disk-like one on the bottom left of the stopwatch) changed, with Kit Kat 4.4.
This is what it looks like, now:
KK Clock
I’m okay with this; my only issue is that the icon hasn’t been updated in the notification shade!
Stopwatch running in notification shade
Details, details.
Android Design Rants 