Andriod UI - what are they thinking?

[UIexpert]

Hello all,

I received my first Android phone this week - Nexus S. I work in graphic design and UI, I charge clients $500 an hour for my services.

Android, as far as I'm concerned, is a UI disaster. I'm still new to it so if I make any mistake here let me know.

First off - example - gmail app. I received a new email. Cool. I read the email. Now I want to go back to gmail inbox. I need two clicks for it. For something so simple. The message even shows the tag "inbox" but I cannot click on it.

I want to kill an app, something I would need to do every 15 minutes. How many buttons do I need to click? Home -> Running App widget (if you put it there) -> click on App -> "stop". That's 4 clicks for something as simple as killing an app.

I received a text message, I receive a notification. I click on it and it takes me to it. Now I go back to home but 5 minutes later I want to reply. How many clicks do I need to use? Phone -> search contact (why a search bar is not there by default??) -> contact -> messages icon. Again 4 clicks.

I'm using an App, any App. I want to go back to the "home page" of that App. Something I would normally want to do every other minute. Can I do this in any way??? I still didn't figure it out.

A wifi hot spot is available. How many clicks do I need to get connected to it?

This is just mind boggling. So many people are using these phones, there is so much money in this industry, so much effort is put into it, it would have been so easy to fix these issues... but the bottom line is that the UI is a disaster, as if they just don't care. It seems like the UI is developed by the programmers. I would volunteer 100 hours to make Android a better experience.

Do people here agree with me on this one?

 

[IOWA]

Hello all,

I received my first Android phone this week - Nexus S. I work in graphic design and UI, I charge clients $500 an hour for my services.

You must not get many clients then.

Android, as far as I'm concerned, is a UI disaster. I'm still new to it so if I make any mistake here let me know.

First off - example - gmail app. I received a new email. Cool. I read the email. Now I want to go back to gmail inbox. I need two clicks for it. For something so simple. The message even shows the tag "inbox" but I cannot click on it.

Press the back button.

I want to kill an app, something I would need to do every 15 minutes. How many buttons do I need to click? Home -> Running App widget (if you put it there) -> click on App -> "stop". That's 4 clicks for something as simple as killing an app.

You don't need to kill apps with Android, nor should you.

I received a text message, I receive a notification. I click on it and it takes me to it. Now I go back to home but 5 minutes later I want to reply. How many clicks do I need to use? Phone -> search contact (why a search bar is not there by default??) -> contact -> messages icon. Again 4 clicks.

Click the messages button

I'm using an App, any App. I want to go back to the "home page" of that App. Something I would normally want to do every other minute. Can I do this in any way??? I still didn't figure it out.

The back button. Again.

A wifi hot spot is available. How many clicks do I need to get connected to it?

This is just mind boggling. So many people are using these phones, there is so much money in this industry, so much effort is put into it, it would have been so easy to fix these issues... but the bottom line is that the UI is a disaster, as if they just don't care. It seems like the UI is developed by the programmers. I would volunteer 100 hours to make Android a better experience.

Do people here agree with me on this one?

Guess what, I design UI's for a living as well, and I disagree with you 100%.

My responses are in bold.

 

[UIexpert]

ah OK... thanks, now I understand. Let me guess you work for google? ;-)

 

[retskrad]

That's exactly what I was thinking, Google is an enginnering driven company.

 

[UIexpert]

"Press the back button."

If I clicked on the message from "notification" (which I would do 99% of the time) the back button would take me home.

So you never need to kill apps... I see. Lucky guy!

messages button? which one is that? I still didn't find it (Nexus S doesn't come with any documentation)

 

[UIexpert]

You are right "back" will take me to inbox. How intuitive! even that I was in notifications, back will not take me back but somewhere else... good job!

"Back" will not take me to the home page of an App... it will take me back one step. If I'm 5 steps deep into the app, I will need to click it 5 times.

 

[IOWA]

"Press the back button."

If I clicked on the message from "notification" (which I would do 99% of the time) the back button would take me home.

So you never need to kill apps... I see. Lucky guy!

messages button? which one is that? I still didn't find it (Nexus S doesn't come with any documentation)

Android is specifically coded for it not to have to kill apps, and does an excellent job at managing memory, so there is no need to kill apps.

(Outside of poorly coded apps, of course, which should be deleted not killed.)

Add the button to your home screen. Open the launcher, long press, and drop it on your home screen or dock.

 

[UIexpert]

Add the button to your home screen. Open the launcher, long press, and drop it on your home screen or dock.

Thanks for that.

With such short battery life, I'm not going to keep any app open when I'm not using it. It's like saying that in Windows you don't need the X button at the top right corner.

And what about consistency? Some Apps close as soon as you leave them or go "back" to home. Other Apps stay open and you never know about it... its a mess. Lack of consistency is the biggest issue giving you a general feeling that you don't have control of what is really going on.

 

[lunatic59]

Thanks for that.

With such short battery life, I'm not going to keep any app open when I'm not using it. It's like saying that in Windows you don't need the X button at the top right corner.

And what about consistency? Some Apps close as soon as you leave them or go "back" to home. Other Apps stay open and you never know about it... its a mess. Lack of consistency is the biggest issue giving you a general feeling that you don't have control of what is really going on.

Well there's your problem. Android ain't windows. Expecting all operating systems to work identically is an incorrect assumption.

Apps do not stay "open". They are saved in a waiting state ready to run again when called. Perhaps reading up about how Android really works might be in order.

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them

After that $500/hr boast, I have to think you are a ... well, let's just say that it gets damp and chilly under those bridges.

 

[IOWA]

Thanks for that.

With such short battery life, I'm not going to keep any app open when I'm not using it. It's like saying that in Windows you don't need the X button at the top right corner.

And what about consistency? Some Apps close as soon as you leave them or go "back" to home. Other Apps stay open and you never know about it... its a mess. Lack of consistency is the biggest issue giving you a general feeling that you don't have control of what is really going on.

Having apps open doesn't kill your battery.

It's obvious your spending more time blasting android than actually using one

 

[Martimus]

With such short battery life, I'm not going to keep any app open when I'm not using it. It's like saying that in Windows you don't need the X button at the top right corner.

Short battery life? Some phones have short battery life but not all. My Droid X gets almost two days before the battery requires recharging. As such I think your statement is rather subjective...

 

[Caloy]

I do agree that some of the UI of Sense needs to be changed. I would want the mail app to open on the select account screen instead of going to one account directly. I have 6 email accounts on my phone and requiring 2 steps to change from one account to another is a little tiring. It would be great to just click back and you're back on the select account screen.

IOWA's right, you don't need to shut down an app to conserve battery life. Just close it, and it should sleep, without adding to battery life consumption.

I'm also curious what UI's have you designed so far.

 

[lordofthereef]

I do agree that some of the UI of Sense needs to be changed. I would want the mail app to open on the select account screen instead of going to one account directly. I have 6 email accounts on my phone and requiring 2 steps to change from one account to another is a little tiring. It would be great to just click back and you're back on the select account screen.

IOWA's right, you don't need to shut down an app to conserve battery life. Just close it, and it should sleep, without adding to battery life consumption.

I'm also curious what UI's have you designed so far.

I think we are getting this in 2.3, which is (hopefully) just around the corner.

 

[UIexpert]

I design websites.

I don't know what you are talking about. I left Skype running for 30 minutes and the battery app tells me that it took 9% of the battery usage... I just left it open so people can chat with me, I didn't even make a call with it because its buggy and doesn't work. If 9% of battery usage means that it is "sleeping" than good for you. Trying to convince me that there shouldn't be an easy way to close apps is ridiculous.

 

[lordofthereef]

Skype isn't exactly the best example for this. It is going to be constantly sendin and receiving data is it is constantly connected. The data for skype isn't simply pushed over. FWIW I don't get anywhere near a 9%/hour battery drain running Skype on an EVO.

In either case, you made your point. You think the UI sucks. What is your goal here?

 

[Bnice]

You can also long press on the home button that take you back to your eight recent apps.

 

[UIexpert]

If more people would complain about the UI then maybe Google would improve it. But I guess you all just want to say how great it is and that nothing needs to be changed.

We could compile a list of suggestions for improvements, I'm sure we could find someone to send it to.

And my skype usage is 9%. If you want I can take a picture of the screen and show you. Maps is 7%.

 

[lunatic59]

If more people would complain about the UI then maybe Google would improve it. But I guess you all just want to say how great it is and that nothing needs to be changed.

We could compile a list of suggestions for improvements, I'm sure we could find someone to send it to.

Everyone here has a pet peeve with Android's UI, either by default or modification. Submitting the suggestion to Google directly rather than ranting about it in a forum is probably more productive.

Google Product Ideas

BTW, I do think Android is great ... just not perfect.

 

[lordofthereef]

If more people would complain about the UI then maybe Google would improve it. But I guess you all just want to say how great it is and that nothing needs to be changed.

We could compile a list of suggestions for improvements, I'm sure we could find someone to send it to.

And my skype usage is 9%. If you want I can take a picture of the screen and show you. Maps is 7%.

I didn't say I don't believe you, but what it sounds like you are reporting is a percentage of the total battery drain. Let's say your phone drainged 10% TOTAL in an hour. 9% of that 10% (.9% total battery life) would have been from skype. Otherwise, between maps and kype you would be getting 16% total battery life loss over the hour. This isn't actually the case is it?

 

[UIexpert]

I didn't say I don't believe you, but what it sounds like you are reporting is a percentage of the total battery drain. Let's say your phone drainged 10% TOTAL in an hour. 9% of that 10% (.9% total battery life) would have been from skype. Otherwise, between maps and kype you would be getting 16% total battery life loss over the hour. This isn't actually the case is it?

I don't think so... these numbers are there for the last 3 days. I love my phone and there is nothing I hate more in the world than Apple and SJ, it's just a little surprising how unintuitive it is.

Where is something like "profiles" (from an old Nokia). I want to put my phone into "meeting" mode, how can I do that? Do I need to download an App for it? Can I add a pin protection to the phone?

 

[UIexpert]

Is it because I am using "stock" Andriod? Are branded phones very different?

 

[lordofthereef]

I don't think so... these numbers are there for the last 3 days. I love my phone and there is nothing I hate more in the world than Apple and SJ, it's just a little surprising how unintuitive it is.

Where is something like "profiles" (from an old Nokia). I want to put my phone into "meeting" mode, how can I do that? Do I need to download an App for it? Can I add a pin protection to the phone?

Not trying to argue, but I just don't see skype+maps backgrounded together taking your batter down a collective 16% in a single hour alone. Your battery would be dead in 5 hours time this way. Again, I believe you, but your results are not typical. When we say bad battery life, we mean 8-10 hours of heavy use, not 5 hours of backgrounding skype and maps. As for the UI, you bought a phone with bone stock android. You might get a better experience (at least visually) with some of the other packages. Luckily we have things like beautiful widgets and others that can get you that look and feel you want.

There may be a pin protection on the phone, but all I know of for STOCK android is, well, the name eludes me right now but you basically draw a pattern, sort of like connect the dots.

My EVO came with a bunch of profiles, but I wouldn't be surprised if stock android didn't. This is an HTC thing, not a Google thing. Again, I am sure there are apps to download for that. Frankly I wouldn't ever use something like that so I never really looked into it.

 

[EarlyMon]

Welcome to the forums!

While cantankerous at times, our users are really helpful, and I think you'll come to like them quite a bit.

As you use Android apps, you'll find that the well-behaved ones do follow a sorta standard set of operations for navigation. Once you get used to it, you'll see there is some method to the madness, but like you, I agree that some of it is contradictory and arcane.

All of the desktop-first messaging systems tend to have rather chatty protocols, and tend to be input/output intensive, mostly for connection management - and will tend to drain the battery. This is true of Skype, AIM, Gtalk and several others

I keep the Applications widget as a shortcut on my desktop, to avoid having to go Menu->Settings->Applications to get to it - makes it easier to zero in and kill my chat clients to preserve my battery (when I forget to exit them, when such an option exists). (This may be equivalent to your Running App widget, apologies if so.)

This is, in my opinion, a UI shortfall of Android - for some apps, return-keying to the desktop is an app exit, while for others, it's an exit from the GUI while the app services run in the background.

Normally, as IOWA said, they sleep and you don't care - but some, such as the clients I've mentioned, aren't so great at this.

For Wifi, I'd again recommend using a desktop widget to shortcut your way to that.

For email, I'd like to recommend that you try out the K-9 Mail client, free in the Market. It will let you consolidate your email accounts, although, last I heard it's still lacking a unified inbox. Many prefer it to the Gmail client.

You might also like QuickDesk (free in the Market) - I prefer it. I don't know if you're familiar with the OS X Dashboard - but it's like that. I have mine configured to appear with a long-press of my search key. With that, regardless of whether I'm in an app or at the desktop, a long-press of search pulls up a translucent screen with all of my most-used app shortcuts and widgets.

I think that QuickDesk really force-multiplies my efficiency using Android and just makes it so I don't have to navigate all over the place to get to essential apps and services. I keep my Applications, Services, Wifi, Battery Monitor and Accounts Sync widgets there, as well as shortcuts to my phone, Handcent SMS (highly recommended), Gesture Search (highly recommended), Mail, Calendar, web browser, SD card file browser and Market shortcuts - all just a long-press away and on a single screen, and when I exit those things, I'm right back wherever I was without interruption in the app I was in. Oh - and it also has a QuickPanel - a drag-up that lets me get to my second-most used things, like my camera, the weather, my Congress app (keep track of those scoundrels!), and my News (RSS) reader.

Android is a platform, so vendor phones with different interfaces do offer different user experiences. Most especially, they tend to offer significant improvement over the vanilla apps with ones highly tuned and extended by each vendor to differentiate their product.

The Market is your friend, and you'll find that you'll likely replace some of your stock apps with superior counterparts.


This includes the entire front end that you're interfacing with. Many people find that replacing this component - called the launcher - with LauncherPro or ADW, inexpensive but effective apps in Market, can really add some utility and elegance to your overall experience. It's popular to couple one of those with things like Beautiful Widgets (small fee, in the Market) for a more polished look and feel than what you might be experiencing now. (Note: launcher behavior does not override app behavior and there're good and bad apps.)

That launcher part, however, is strictly a matter of preference - some diehards will never go with anything but vanilla Android, nothing wrong with that, the world's a big place.

Hope this helps, some.

 

[EarlyMon]

I don't know what you are talking about. I left Skype running for 30 minutes and the battery app tells me that it took 9% of the battery usage... I just left it open so people can chat with me, I didn't even make a call with it because its buggy and doesn't work. If 9% of battery usage means that it is "sleeping" than good for you. Trying to convince me that there shouldn't be an easy way to close apps is ridiculous.

Just my opinion - when you find an app is buggy, consider not using it until they improve it - IF that's an option for you.

Life's too short for buggy apps.

And if you want to see what part of phone's being used for what - and what tasks or services are really doing what - I'd recommend SystemPanel Lite, free in the Market, premium version available if you want more.

 

[t0Msha]

If more people would complain about the UI then maybe Google would improve it. But I guess you all just want to say how great it is and that nothing needs to be changed.

Did it occur to you that we're maybe happy enough with it? I understand, you have your opinion and nobody here is trying to take that away from you but why do you have the need to force others into agreeing with you?