7 ms·

Android Team “Laser Focused” On The User Experience For Next Release

38 points by 16g 16y ago

jlgosse 16y ago
I'm more than pleased with how Android looks and behaves on the Nexus One. Obviously it can only get better from here, but I really hope that Google tries to avoid going the exact same route of Apple with their iOS. Apple has a lot of desirable features on the iPhone, but also many quirks that I can never, ever get over. On top of this, I'm not a huge fan of how they're doing multi-tasking, and the introduction of "wallpapers" make the new iOS look ridiculous. They should have stuck with what they had before, in my opinion.
- cmelbye 16y ago
  I think there's some confusion over how Apple is implementing multitasking. Apps continue to run in the background, and when you re-open them you'll be back to where you were. The operating system will begin to terminate the apps when it is low on resources. In addition, there are certain services that work a little bit differently, like VoIP, music in the background, tasks that need extra time to run, etc. As far as I'm aware, this is very similar to the way that Android implements it. The wallpaper feature is there if you want to use it, but Apple has included some darker pattern wallpapers if you prefer a low key background behind the icons. Of course, one could always whip up a plain black background to use too.
  - masklinn 16y ago
    > Apps continue to run in the background No they don't, that's the point. The first multitasking you talk about is basically app hibernation, it gets a CPU priority of 0 (no CPU at all but stays in memory), the rest are OS services the application subscribes to, and then the OS manages the rest. Apart from Task Completion (maybe) the application never runs. With some services (location, background streaming/music, local notifications) a callback may run (on a timer or all the time), but not the whole application, far from it. > As far as I'm aware, this is very similar to the way that Android implements it. Nope, the UI part is handled the same way (by freezing it on switch) but in android there are no OS services, instead a backgrounding application works as a server daemon (faceless) and the UI is a client communicating with the daemon. Faceless daemons don't get frozen, because you can't "switch off" from them.
- surfmike 16y ago
  What sort of quirks? I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts.
pkulak 16y ago
Now we just need someone to build a phone without vomiting their own crappy interface all over it. The Nexus One is great, but can't we have a bit more choice than 1?
- thwarted 16y ago
  Wanting choice and keeping companies from customizing their product to differentiate them seem to be goals that are at odds with each other. However, I've used a number of android based phones and I still find the Nexus One's interface to be the best and cleanest.
  - pkulak 16y ago
    Yeah, I'm not mad at Google, I'm disappointed with HTC, Motorola and Samsung.
    - thwarted 16y ago
      You're disappointed because HTC, Motorola and Samsung provide choice, or because the choices they provide suck? I'd like to see some stronger innovation, but that some subset of the choices suck just provides a solid reason to pick the better option. Even a bad example is an example, in that we all learn what doesn't work, and we can cherry pick the best things from a number of different sources. The wider ecosystem in carrier-customized Android interfaces means finding out faster which featuers ones are not strong.
      - pyre 16y ago
        The best case scenario is a number of interfaces that are so good that people have a hard time choosing, and the competition between then keeps them all on their toes trying to out-do the other. This may not be the best thing for the businesses (re. profit margins), but it is the best thing for the consumer.
      - masklinn 16y ago
        > You're disappointed because HTC, Motorola and Samsung provide choice, or because the choices they provide suck? I'm guessing #2, and they don't merge their (hypothetical) improvements upstream to improve the whole platform.
amanuel 16y ago
Someone needs to tell the Android Team that User Experience isn't a feature. It is fundamental design decisions early on that determine what the user experience is. That's like arguing a poorly designed home will function better after a fresh coat of paint.
- ars 16y ago
  No, it's more like a gut and redo, while leaving the structural elements alone. And they say they are happy with the structural elements.
  - amanuel 16y ago
    I say kudos if they can pull it off. Ignoring the possible meddling of the various device manufacturers, they have their work cut out for them. I want to be optimistic here; it is just I've never seen such re-engineering done before for any OS.
    - buster 16y ago
      UI redesign will most certainly take place on the homescreen, the launcher, the dialer, etc. In other words: in it's own seperate applications, this wouldn't conflict somewhere because it's done quite frequently. Android is themeable quite nicely, so even changing the standard dialogs from one style to another _should_ work. My own concern here is that some developers probably have written their own UI code and some custom hacks. But we'll see about that.
      - eelco 16y ago
        UI is about how things work first, about styling second. Themes are not going to help you with the former.
        buster 16y ago
        Correct. And i don't think they want to change how things work. The mechanisms how to operate android are fine. Or do you have an example what fundamental functionality should change?
GBKS 16y ago
Sounds perfectly reasonable and I hope they can pull it off. Google hasn't shown the UI design sensitivity necessary to compete with the iPhone UI, but they are determined and iterate quickly, so they can probably get to a point where their UI will be better than what handset manufacturers can come up with. Openness is great, but being open without setting a high standard is not good in the long run.
masklinn 16y ago
That's good. Problem: what about Sense and Motoblur? Think HTC and Moto are going to drop them just because the Android UI bas improved? yeah right...
- glhaynes 16y ago
  Agreed: why would they drop them now, unless they were just startlingly worse? They aren't interested in Android's success outside of their devices, they want to differentiate themselves.
  - masklinn 16y ago
    Even if they are startlingly worse (motoblur seems pretty universally hated, and Sense seems to strongly polarize, some people find it very nice, others find it awful and full of useless gradients and badly polished looks), I doubt they're going to drop them. And this is terrible for Android as a platform, in my opinion worse than the issue of hardware fragmentation and maybe even worse than the handsets left in the dust re. OS updates, because it means UI knowledge becomes non-portable from one Android handset to the next, which is horrible.
- buster 16y ago
  Correct, they will never stop doing it. But they will eventually start seperating it more, letting the user chose to use the standard home screen and dialer for example. Not sure of the Sense UI but it shouldn't be no problem to make it just another (preinstalled) alternate home screen where the user can chose to switch to the standard home. Also work on the UI side hopefully also means faster portation of those UIs. Not sure why it takes Motorola/HTC/Sony so long to port their versions to the latest Android code, but i guess this can be improved on the Android side of things, too.
buster 16y ago
With the WebOS UI designer and most features you want in the OS, this will be an important step for Android. The OS is stable and mature with 2.2. Actually i like the UI on the Nexus One very much, but i'm sure it can be improved from good to awesome with the team focused on it. Somewhere on Google I/O was a screenshot with Gingerbread on it, but i guess this will change. edit: very early Gingerbread screens: http://www.sizzledcore.com/2010/05/22/android-3-0-screenshots-gingerbread-ui/ http://www.sizzledcore.com/2010/05/22/android-3-0-screenshot...
haily 16y ago
The Android Team needs to aim pass the IPhone UX if they plan to win. The Android platform needs to tighten their controls around the UI a little bit more. The very least they can do is make it so that when people look at a smart phone/device, they instantly recognize it as an Android powered device. I think that will help the brand a little bit.
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  As a counterpoint, how many people can look at a Symbian phone and instantly recognize it as a Symbian powered device? Yet Nokia sells vastly more Symbian powered smartphone than Apple sells iPhones: http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/5/21/smartphones-bloodbath-1q-2010-full-market-analysis.aspx http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/5/21/smartphones-b...
  - haily 16y ago
    You're right. Symbian does sell more devices when there were no real competition.
    - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
      They sell more devices than Apple does right now.
      - haily 16y ago
        You're right again. I guess the right question would be who is growing and who is shrinking.
kingkilr 16y ago
Very exciting to see the major strides they're making. Unfortunately not all the updates are getting rolled out to all users, which makes it harder to get people "selling" the phone to their friends. I've got a G1 Dev phone and I'm still stuck on 1.5-1.6 (or something similarly ancient), so I guess I'm really hoping I can somehow swing an upgrade to a Nexus for myself :/
- vetinari 16y ago
  Get Cyanogenmod 5.0.7. It is Eclair for Dream (ADP1 included) and Magic.
openfly 16y ago
I'd prefer if they were laser focused on removing dlavik and releasing a native SDK that doesn't get bottle necked by a broken ass vm. This is a mobile device people. Treat it like one.

38 points by 16g 16y ago

I'm more than pleased with how Android looks and behaves on the Nexus One. Obviously it can only get better from here, but I really hope that Google tries to avoid going the exact same route of Apple with their iOS. Apple has a lot of desirable features on the iPhone, but also many quirks that I can never, ever get over. On top of this, I'm not a huge fan of how they're doing multi-tasking, and the introduction of "wallpapers" make the new iOS look ridiculous. They should have stuck with what they had before, in my opinion.

cmelbye 16y ago
I think there's some confusion over how Apple is implementing multitasking. Apps continue to run in the background, and when you re-open them you'll be back to where you were. The operating system will begin to terminate the apps when it is low on resources. In addition, there are certain services that work a little bit differently, like VoIP, music in the background, tasks that need extra time to run, etc. As far as I'm aware, this is very similar to the way that Android implements it. The wallpaper feature is there if you want to use it, but Apple has included some darker pattern wallpapers if you prefer a low key background behind the icons. Of course, one could always whip up a plain black background to use too.
- masklinn 16y ago
  > Apps continue to run in the background No they don't, that's the point. The first multitasking you talk about is basically app hibernation, it gets a CPU priority of 0 (no CPU at all but stays in memory), the rest are OS services the application subscribes to, and then the OS manages the rest. Apart from Task Completion (maybe) the application never runs. With some services (location, background streaming/music, local notifications) a callback may run (on a timer or all the time), but not the whole application, far from it. > As far as I'm aware, this is very similar to the way that Android implements it. Nope, the UI part is handled the same way (by freezing it on switch) but in android there are no OS services, instead a backgrounding application works as a server daemon (faceless) and the UI is a client communicating with the daemon. Faceless daemons don't get frozen, because you can't "switch off" from them.
surfmike 16y ago
What sort of quirks? I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts.

pkulak 16y ago

Now we just need someone to build a phone without vomiting their own crappy interface all over it. The Nexus One is great, but can't we have a bit more choice than 1?

thwarted 16y ago
Wanting choice and keeping companies from customizing their product to differentiate them seem to be goals that are at odds with each other. However, I've used a number of android based phones and I still find the Nexus One's interface to be the best and cleanest.
- pkulak 16y ago
  Yeah, I'm not mad at Google, I'm disappointed with HTC, Motorola and Samsung.
  - thwarted 16y ago
    You're disappointed because HTC, Motorola and Samsung provide choice, or because the choices they provide suck? I'd like to see some stronger innovation, but that some subset of the choices suck just provides a solid reason to pick the better option. Even a bad example is an example, in that we all learn what doesn't work, and we can cherry pick the best things from a number of different sources. The wider ecosystem in carrier-customized Android interfaces means finding out faster which featuers ones are not strong.
    - pyre 16y ago
      The best case scenario is a number of interfaces that are so good that people have a hard time choosing, and the competition between then keeps them all on their toes trying to out-do the other. This may not be the best thing for the businesses (re. profit margins), but it is the best thing for the consumer.
    - masklinn 16y ago
      > You're disappointed because HTC, Motorola and Samsung provide choice, or because the choices they provide suck? I'm guessing #2, and they don't merge their (hypothetical) improvements upstream to improve the whole platform.

amanuel 16y ago

Someone needs to tell the Android Team that User Experience isn't a feature. It is fundamental design decisions early on that determine what the user experience is. That's like arguing a poorly designed home will function better after a fresh coat of paint.

ars 16y ago
No, it's more like a gut and redo, while leaving the structural elements alone. And they say they are happy with the structural elements.
- amanuel 16y ago
  I say kudos if they can pull it off. Ignoring the possible meddling of the various device manufacturers, they have their work cut out for them. I want to be optimistic here; it is just I've never seen such re-engineering done before for any OS.
  - buster 16y ago
    UI redesign will most certainly take place on the homescreen, the launcher, the dialer, etc. In other words: in it's own seperate applications, this wouldn't conflict somewhere because it's done quite frequently. Android is themeable quite nicely, so even changing the standard dialogs from one style to another _should_ work. My own concern here is that some developers probably have written their own UI code and some custom hacks. But we'll see about that.
    - eelco 16y ago
      UI is about how things work first, about styling second. Themes are not going to help you with the former.
      - buster 16y ago
        Correct. And i don't think they want to change how things work. The mechanisms how to operate android are fine. Or do you have an example what fundamental functionality should change?

GBKS 16y ago

Sounds perfectly reasonable and I hope they can pull it off. Google hasn't shown the UI design sensitivity necessary to compete with the iPhone UI, but they are determined and iterate quickly, so they can probably get to a point where their UI will be better than what handset manufacturers can come up with. Openness is great, but being open without setting a high standard is not good in the long run.

masklinn 16y ago

That's good. Problem: what about Sense and Motoblur? Think HTC and Moto are going to drop them just because the Android UI bas improved? yeah right...

glhaynes 16y ago
Agreed: why would they drop them now, unless they were just startlingly worse? They aren't interested in Android's success outside of their devices, they want to differentiate themselves.
- masklinn 16y ago
  Even if they are startlingly worse (motoblur seems pretty universally hated, and Sense seems to strongly polarize, some people find it very nice, others find it awful and full of useless gradients and badly polished looks), I doubt they're going to drop them. And this is terrible for Android as a platform, in my opinion worse than the issue of hardware fragmentation and maybe even worse than the handsets left in the dust re. OS updates, because it means UI knowledge becomes non-portable from one Android handset to the next, which is horrible.
buster 16y ago
Correct, they will never stop doing it. But they will eventually start seperating it more, letting the user chose to use the standard home screen and dialer for example. Not sure of the Sense UI but it shouldn't be no problem to make it just another (preinstalled) alternate home screen where the user can chose to switch to the standard home. Also work on the UI side hopefully also means faster portation of those UIs. Not sure why it takes Motorola/HTC/Sony so long to port their versions to the latest Android code, but i guess this can be improved on the Android side of things, too.

buster 16y ago

With the WebOS UI designer and most features you want in the OS, this will be an important step for Android. The OS is stable and mature with 2.2. Actually i like the UI on the Nexus One very much, but i'm sure it can be improved from good to awesome with the team focused on it. Somewhere on Google I/O was a screenshot with Gingerbread on it, but i guess this will change. edit: very early Gingerbread screens: http://www.sizzledcore.com/2010/05/22/android-3-0-screenshots-gingerbread-ui/ http://www.sizzledcore.com/2010/05/22/android-3-0-screenshot...

haily 16y ago

The Android Team needs to aim pass the IPhone UX if they plan to win. The Android platform needs to tighten their controls around the UI a little bit more. The very least they can do is make it so that when people look at a smart phone/device, they instantly recognize it as an Android powered device. I think that will help the brand a little bit.

theBobMcCormick 16y ago
As a counterpoint, how many people can look at a Symbian phone and instantly recognize it as a Symbian powered device? Yet Nokia sells vastly more Symbian powered smartphone than Apple sells iPhones: http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/5/21/smartphones-bloodbath-1q-2010-full-market-analysis.aspx http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2010/5/21/smartphones-b...
- haily 16y ago
  You're right. Symbian does sell more devices when there were no real competition.
  - theBobMcCormick 16y ago
    They sell more devices than Apple does right now.
    - haily 16y ago
      You're right again. I guess the right question would be who is growing and who is shrinking.

kingkilr 16y ago

Very exciting to see the major strides they're making. Unfortunately not all the updates are getting rolled out to all users, which makes it harder to get people "selling" the phone to their friends. I've got a G1 Dev phone and I'm still stuck on 1.5-1.6 (or something similarly ancient), so I guess I'm really hoping I can somehow swing an upgrade to a Nexus for myself :/

vetinari 16y ago
Get Cyanogenmod 5.0.7. It is Eclair for Dream (ADP1 included) and Magic.

openfly 16y ago

I'd prefer if they were laser focused on removing dlavik and releasing a native SDK that doesn't get bottle necked by a broken ass vm. This is a mobile device people. Treat it like one.