Interface spacing on droid (calendar, main screen)

[SpecialEd]

So the droid has so much resolution, I think it may have thrown off some of the normal Android applications.

Calendar single day view has such small fonts but large hour openings. It looks like you could have three rows of text in each item. I can't find a font option. Or a "day starts" option. Or a row height option. I want to see my whole day, if possible.

Same thing on the main screen. Icons have tons of space between them, but the icon names are truncated. Why not wrap to a second line? Again, I can't find any advanced options for this. Why can't I rename icons so at least they aren't cut off? Or just rename them. Astrid is a silly name for a ToDo list.

The main screen has so much space, but the notification bar is tiny for my fat fingers. Again, no preference for adjusting the size of the notification bar.

And the main screen has unused space at the bottom corners L and R of the applications tab. Can widgets go there? Seems like a good place for a "quick" application button for your favorites. I miss having hardware buttons for direct application access like on my treo.

This could all be done in an update I assume. Maybe there is an app for that that I have not found? Thanks!

 

[dcorn]

I agree with the huge spacing between widgets and apps on the home screen. There have been times where I'd try to add another widget and it said there wasn't enough free space, when there was clearly 2-3 more spots to place something. The Droid won't let you fill up an entire home screen like the iphone or Pre, yet we only get 3 home screens to add whatever we want? The pull down menu is fine, but sometimes I'd rather just flip to another screen instead of having to pull up a menu and scroll through it.

 

[SpecialEd]

There are some apps that will give you more screens. I think Open Home gives you up to 7 home screens, but comments say there are issues with the version on Droid.

You can always group stuff in folders, but that makes stuff two clicks away (rather than a swipe and click?).

The lack of customization is worrisome. Renaming stuff, changing spacing should be easy to allow for advanced users. Even times in calendar, why force you to scroll to get to 4:30? Why not skip by 5 minute blocks? And if you move something across noon it flakes and keeps it AM, so you now have a 1 AM appointment. Don't like.

 

[SpecialEd]

As for the notifications tab, I just found that when you are in home screen you can pull up the options button (second one) and pick notifications as an option. I guess I don't have to lose weight in my fingers to tap and drag that silly little bar at the top!

I can see having a notifications bar, but why waste a whole row for that bottom pull tab for all applications? Why not make it an option in the menu and save space? Or at least make it an option to make it an option.

I was about to say there should be an option to make an icon persistant across screens for often used apps, but then I realized I can just have my calendar copied 3x... Silly me!

 

[SpecialEd]

I went ahead and reported some requests for UI improvement related to the calendar application on Droid.

I think you should be able to go to the following and "star" the topics if you are interested in having developers look at them. However, you may get android develope spam in your gmail as a result...

Issues - android - Project Hosting on Google Code

I have not had a chance to get the SDK and see if a noob can muck around with the calendar interface... I don't even know if those applications are available as source?

 

[chefboyardee]

I was about to say there should be an option to make an icon persistant across screens for often used apps, but then I realized I can just have my calendar copied 3x... Silly me!

i just downloaded dxTop on some forum recommendations, and having tried other home replacements, this one is a major win. it's only 4 screens, so not as many as open home, but so far completely bug free *and* you can have up to 5 icons where the drawer is that are shared across all screens.

dxTop: dxTop : Android Home Alternative

highly recommended!

 

[MarvinAndroid]

This is something which has bothered me since day one with my Droid. I love this phone by the way.. don't get me wrong. But since the first time I booted up my Droid I was very puzzled and annoyed to find out the home screen STILL only allows you to put 4 rows of icons on your home screen instead of 5! I don't understand this because my G1 had 4 rows but the Droid has a much longer (taller) aspect ratio... it's very narrow and tall. There is clearly enough room for 5 rows of icons on the home screen because you can see tons of space above and below each icon. Actually, you can open up the App drawer and see five rows of icons without a problem and that's even minus the room taken up by the handle tab!

I hope this is something which is fixed in 2.1 because I would like to take adavantage of the new larger screen real estate. It would also give us a bit more freedom with widgets.. because as it is you often get a "not enough room" error when the screen clearly shows you there is PLENTY of room.

So Google.. PLEASE ADD A ROW TO THE HOME SCREEN!

 

[rockrdr]

This is something which has bothered me since day one with my Droid. I love this phone by the way.. don't get me wrong. But since the first time I booted up my Droid I was very puzzled and annoyed to find out the home screen STILL only allows you to put 4 rows of icons on your home screen instead of 5! I don't understand this because my G1 had 4 rows but the Droid has a much longer (taller) aspect ratio... it's very narrow and tall. There is clearly enough room for 5 rows of icons on the home screen because you can see tons of space above and below each icon. Actually, you can open up the App drawer and see five rows of icons without a problem and that's even minus the room taken up by the handle tab!

I hope this is something which is fixed in 2.1 because I would like to take adavantage of the new larger screen real estate. It would also give us a bit more freedom with widgets.. because as it is you often get a "not enough room" error when the screen clearly shows you there is PLENTY of room.

So Google.. PLEASE ADD A ROW TO THE HOME SCREEN!

Nope 2.1 still 4 icons with TONS of space between them...it sux for wasted real estate

 

[spangler07]

The reason is so that your homescreen can also work in landscape when you pull they keyboard out. It could not at all fit five rows that way.

HOWEVER.

I'd prefer that there were five rows and just no landscape homescreen at all. I never use the homescreen in landscape, and it looks stupid that way.