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But the back button is horrible now that it doubles as an up button. It confused me and that kind of behavior makes it utterly useless. It’s a waste of space.

by ugh 15y ago

olex 15y ago
Yes. Too sad seeing Google step away from many great UX concepts that Android started out with, instead of further building up on them.
fpgeek 15y ago
When done correctly, there's a separate up button and back doesn't double as up. There is confusion because when you are drilling down into an app "back" and "up" are the same place. Even worse, I suspect that confusion is why developers often get back/up handling wrong.
- ugh 15y ago
  Hm, but then even Google’s stock apps get it wrong. I was using a factory fresh Galaxy Nexus. Maybe we are talking about something different? What I mean is that sometimes, the back button does something different than taking you back to the last screen you were on.
  - fpgeek 15y ago
    Sadly, not even Google's apps do this correctly all of the time. Google Voice is a particularly dreadful offender. If you click on a Google Voice notification, "back" doesn't take you "back" and it doesn't take you "up". AFAICT, it takes you "back within the app", which is often crazy. Here's the scenario I just tried: 1. I was in Google Voice talking to person A. 2. I left Google Voice and was in another app X. 3. A text arrives from person B and I get a notification from Google Voice. 4. I click on the notification and go to my conversation with person B in Google Voice. 5. I hit "back". It didn't go back to app X (the Right Thing). It didn't go to my conversation list in Google Voice (the more common wrong thing). Instead, Google Voice, of course, goes to my conversation with person A! I can only hope that one of the reasons the Android team published their design guidelines was to publicly shame the developers of substandard Google apps for Android.

But the back button is horrible now that it doubles as an up button. It confused me and that kind of behavior makes it utterly useless. It’s a waste of space.

by ugh 15y ago

But the back button is horrible now that it doubles as an up button. It confused me and that kind of behavior makes it utterly useless. It’s a waste of space.

olex 15y ago

Yes. Too sad seeing Google step away from many great UX concepts that Android started out with, instead of further building up on them.

fpgeek 15y ago

When done correctly, there's a separate up button and back doesn't double as up. There is confusion because when you are drilling down into an app "back" and "up" are the same place. Even worse, I suspect that confusion is why developers often get back/up handling wrong.

ugh 15y ago
Hm, but then even Google’s stock apps get it wrong. I was using a factory fresh Galaxy Nexus. Maybe we are talking about something different? What I mean is that sometimes, the back button does something different than taking you back to the last screen you were on.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  Sadly, not even Google's apps do this correctly all of the time. Google Voice is a particularly dreadful offender. If you click on a Google Voice notification, "back" doesn't take you "back" and it doesn't take you "up". AFAICT, it takes you "back within the app", which is often crazy. Here's the scenario I just tried: 1. I was in Google Voice talking to person A. 2. I left Google Voice and was in another app X. 3. A text arrives from person B and I get a notification from Google Voice. 4. I click on the notification and go to my conversation with person B in Google Voice. 5. I hit "back". It didn't go back to app X (the Right Thing). It didn't go to my conversation list in Google Voice (the more common wrong thing). Instead, Google Voice, of course, goes to my conversation with person A! I can only hope that one of the reasons the Android team published their design guidelines was to publicly shame the developers of substandard Google apps for Android.