As an Android nut and graphic/industrial/UI designer I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and just had to get it off my chest. Here goes:
UI styling should be about the content, not the interface. Glossy elements just distract from their actual content. There should be a move away from what Apple does with iOS (emulating analogue elements digitally) towards what Microsoft did with WP7. WP7 showed that you can have an interface without any sort of shininess/gradient or analogue elements and still have it be completely usable and beautiful at the same time.
But what I'm really interested in is the future of Android. Gingerbread was a great step ahead in terms of UI styling. But I wonder what we will see when Sense UI, Motoblur, TouchWiz etc. are updated to 2.3? Sense is notorious for faux glossiness and TouchWiz is notorious for being plain ugly. Will WP7 and Gingerbread help these companies realize that the trend is moving away from iOS-eque styling and towards WP7-esque styling? Or will they continue to blindly copy iOS and ignore Google's attempts to beautify Android? My guess is that they will eventually catch on, but it might take a while. Perhaps if WP7 takes off and commands a decent market share these companies will take notice. We've already seen previews of Sony Ericsson's 2.3 TimeScape skin and LG's 2.3 whatever-it's-called skin and they both appear to have abandoned Gingerbread's gradient-less notifications bar and title bar and replaced them with gradients. Too bad.
Also, what will Honeycomb bring? We've now seen previews of the tablet version, and I can see many 2.3 styling cues in 3.0. One thing I noticed though is that it uses blue as the 'accent color'. Gingerbread strongly reinforced orange as Android's accent color so I wonder why they would change this. What I'm hoping is that the accent color can be changed- it's certainly plausible, as the accent color seems to play a huge part in the Honeycomb previews I've seen. Or perhaps phones will remain orange and tablets will be blue? It seems like a strange differentiation.
Hints at UI change in the phone-version of Honeycomb include new text-entry fields (looks like the Android keyboard spacebar symbol but stretched), a new look and swiping interaction for tabs within apps (seen in the leaked Music 3.0 app, the 2.1 News and Weather app and the new YouTube app), and like I mentioned, color accents everywhere. Videos of Honeycomb show pop-ups, scroll bars, loading rings/bars and menus featuring the glowing blue accent.
What I'm wondering about is this 'UI overhaul' that everyone is talking about. Is it going to be mostly visual like the stuff I mentioned above or is it going to completely change the UI paradigms of Android? I think a huge change in UI akin to the WM6.5 > WP7 transition would alienate a lot of users and break a lot of apps. Therefore I'm thinking 3.0 is going to be a few tweaks to the interaction part of the UI, but a huge change to the visuals. I predict they will update almost all of the core apps to match the graphics we are seeing in 2.3 and 3.0, to finally put to rest those complaints that Android looks 'hacked together'. The changes in 2.3 were probably a catalyst, to get developers thinking in this new design language. Google needs a name for it, just like WP7 'Metro'. After all it's up to the developers to make apps that match this style.
I'm a Nexus fan and would never buy a phone without stock Android so maybe this is just me dreaming of an end to carrier/manufacturer skins, but what do you think?
As long as it have the look and feel of ADW.Launcher. It can have what ever UI.
chrizzled said:
As an Android nut and graphic/industrial/UI designer I've been thinking a lot about this recently, and just had to get it off my chest. Here goes:
UI styling should be about the content, not the interface. Glossy elements just distract from their actual content. There should be a move away from what Apple does with iOS (emulating analogue elements digitally) towards what Microsoft did with WP7. WP7 showed that you can have an interface without any sort of shininess/gradient or analogue elements and still have it be completely usable and beautiful at the same time.
But what I'm really interested in is the future of Android. Gingerbread was a great step ahead in terms of UI styling. But I wonder what we will see when Sense UI, Motoblur, TouchWiz etc. are updated to 2.3? Sense is notorious for faux glossiness and TouchWiz is notorious for being plain ugly. Will WP7 and Gingerbread help these companies realize that the trend is moving away from iOS-eque styling and towards WP7-esque styling? Or will they continue to blindly copy iOS and ignore Google's attempts to beautify Android? My guess is that they will eventually catch on, but it might take a while. Perhaps if WP7 takes off and commands a decent market share these companies will take notice. We've already seen previews of Sony Ericsson's 2.3 TimeScape skin and LG's 2.3 whatever-it's-called skin and they both appear to have abandoned Gingerbread's gradient-less notifications bar and title bar and replaced them with gradients. Too bad.
Also, what will Honeycomb bring? We've now seen previews of the tablet version, and I can see many 2.3 styling cues in 3.0. One thing I noticed though is that it uses blue as the 'accent color'. Gingerbread strongly reinforced orange as Android's accent color so I wonder why they would change this. What I'm hoping is that the accent color can be changed- it's certainly plausible, as the accent color seems to play a huge part in the Honeycomb previews I've seen. Or perhaps phones will remain orange and tablets will be blue? It seems like a strange differentiation.
Hints at UI change in the phone-version of Honeycomb include new text-entry fields (looks like the Android keyboard spacebar symbol but stretched), a new look and swiping interaction for tabs within apps (seen in the leaked Music 3.0 app, the 2.1 News and Weather app and the new YouTube app), and like I mentioned, color accents everywhere. Videos of Honeycomb show pop-ups, scroll bars, loading rings/bars and menus featuring the glowing blue accent.
What I'm wondering about is this 'UI overhaul' that everyone is talking about. Is it going to be mostly visual like the stuff I mentioned above or is it going to completely change the UI paradigms of Android? I think a huge change in UI akin to the WM6.5 > WP7 transition would alienate a lot of users and break a lot of apps. Therefore I'm thinking 3.0 is going to be a few tweaks to the interaction part of the UI, but a huge change to the visuals. I predict they will update almost all of the core apps to match the graphics we are seeing in 2.3 and 3.0, to finally put to rest those complaints that Android looks 'hacked together'. The changes in 2.3 were probably a catalyst, to get developers thinking in this new design language. Google needs a name for it, just like WP7 'Metro'. After all it's up to the developers to make apps that match this style.
I'm a Nexus fan and would never buy a phone without stock Android so maybe this is just me dreaming of an end to carrier/manufacturer skins, but what do you think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just my two cents here but.... I don't get everyone saying android has no polish. I love my Nexus One, I love stock (vanilla) android. I think Touchwiz is an abomination and said as much when that thread came out to put touchwiz on the N1. Sense is pretty but too bloated in my opinion. Don't get me started on Motoblur... I agree earlier versions of android needed work. >2.2 {in my opinion} Personally I think android is fine. (iOS IS pretty, but so what it's also got an evil ecosystem...) The tweaks done to
2.3 are nice but unnecessary (IMHO). I love the way Android looks.... Oh, and I heartily agree with your statement that "UI styling should be about content...."
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
If android could come up with a functional UI I might jump back aboard. Til they do WP7 is the only way to go.
Love the look of stock Android on my Nexus One. Love the new Gingerbread visual tweaks and look forward to the OTA.
HATE 3rd party U.I.
z33dev33l said:
If android could come up with a functional UI I might jump back aboard. Til they do WP7 is the only way to go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android HAS a perfectly functional UI. Thank you.
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Babydoll25 said:
Android HAS a perfectly functional UI. Thank you.
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to think so too... now it just seems laggy regardless of launcher...
z33dev33l said:
I used to think so too... now it just seems laggy regardless of launcher...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What lag? {unless ur using a SGS} I have never experienced this lag u speak of sir. My N1 flies I tell you, flies!!! (I have seen in Samsung's phones however...)
(That is why I don't buy them...)
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Babydoll25 said:
What lag? {unless ur using a SGS} I have never experienced this lag u speak of sir. My N1 flies I tell you, flies!!! (I have seen in Samsung's phones however...)
(That is why I don't buy them...)
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didnt notice it on my Nexus one til I got WP7, now I just gave the nexus to my brother... just seems slow and jumbled by comparison
im glad the orange accents are gone in honeycomb, the blue looks way better, also im glad the green icons didnt made the cut, i really hope this look becomes the standard for both the tablet and the smartphone versions of the os
Android is ok but can be boring....
Personally I love the idea to have more than 1 OS on your device, so you can easily change whenever you want
With Matias Duarte on board we should see some drastic changes in the UI in the upcoming versions.
Look at the Honeycomb on tablets, we're now not required to have physical buttons, virtual controls are there, the switch tasking panel now actually shows us the current snapshot of the appss in the background - awesome idea from WebOS if you ask me.
z33dev33l said:
Didnt notice it on my Nexus one til I got WP7, now I just gave the nexus to my brother... just seems slow and jumbled by comparison
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a phone addict and I try out almost every phone and OS that comes out. I still don't see what you are talking about, WP7 didn't feel any faster or more polished. It's got a new look and has some ooomph too it, but nothing that noticeable.
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Babydoll25 said:
I'm a phone addict and I try out almost every phone and OS that comes out. I still don't see what you are talking about, WP7 didn't feel any faster or more polished. It's got a new look and has some ooomph too it, but nothing that noticeable.
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As am I and I will still admit that the nexus one was the smoothest experience I recieved from an android phone. In all honesty I never thought I'd jump ship and I thought live tiles looked completely retarded. I didnt really think a GPU accelerated UI would mean anything but it did... its just smoother... virtually lag free and though I'm not trying to insult I dont see how you cant see the difference....
z33dev33l said:
As am I and I will still admit that the nexus one was the smoothest experience I recieved from an android phone. In all honesty I never thought I'd jump ship and I thought live tiles looked completely retarded. I didnt really think a GPU accelerated UI would mean anything but it did... its just smoother... virtually lag free and though I'm not trying to insult I dont see how you cant see the difference....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean don't get me wrong, live tiles rock (and roll) but maybe it's just my N1 {and Sparky's but I set his up so...}, but I didn't see an overwhelming difference even with the hardware acceleration. I guess it all boils down to (after a certain point) how you have your individual phone configured... I have not yet seen anything worthy of N1 abandonment...t least not yet.
Sent from my Llama powered N1 courtesy of the xda app! Llama Power!!
I thought my N1 was smooth until I tried a Nexus S... now I can't go back.
The Gingerbread stock launcher is silky smooth. WP7 smooth. The scrolling and 3D app drawer is much smoother than LauncherPro or ADW Launcher. Live Wallpapers do not affect performance at all. The new UI elements make android look much more refined. The screen-off animation and the scrolling overshoot glow are amazing. And that's just the UI...
Long live stock Android and Nexus devices!
UI of Android
- The current browser UI is driving me crazy! Especially the back operation could jump to another app is un-acceptable.
- We need to have a mechanism for something like a pop up app. For example, when reading, a quick pop-up to look up a word or access wikipedia. It just need to : select, open with selection. Since Android let all apps open, the user just go back to the last app to continue
- I agree that data is important. The contact is the central of a phone. It can be mail, phone, sms, im, photo, calendar, ... The owner is of-cause need to be part of the contact. And there should be able to browse, jump, classify contacts quickly. I would like to suggest allow tags. An extendable contact db will be very nice.
- Moreover, for tabalet, there should be multi-users, switching profiles, encrypt data, etc. the lock screen should allow change of user
- Please consider the actual usage of a phone or tabalet together with other devices. Android should be part of a bigger system instead of a single computer. Cross interaction with desktop, other tabalets, is a must: ssh should be a standard on every device. There should be neighbour or friends nodes (not people, but devices) that can registers long term or short. There should be a easy way to find the new ip or connection method(bt) for the device. a bluetooth message send to allow register the device and provide a instant connection is good. Porting synergy allow share keyboard, (mouse) and clipboard is good, but need to address the situation where mouse is missing. Send screen shot is useful too. exchange pic, contacts, calendar events, ....
- Make index a ready service, update of index can be done when charging. It can be a mode call sleep, which will do house keeping like : update indexing, clean up space, calculate statistics, exchange data with cloud. The phone would work but will be slow. User can understand that the phone go sleep a while to keep healthy. The index is very valuable : provide fast browsing for things, faster search, and support a multi-dimension browsing experiende.
- clipboard : with multi-history
- Please check lePhone : use of gesture instead of soft key.
- Fast switch between opened apps
- notice : allow user to block call, sms, ... to interrupt. There can be a priority and the user can set the current lock level, priority lower the lock level would not sound, visual or virbaton
- I am not very sure about this : there should be scene : like meeting, driving, atHome, atOffice, etc. which can be auto-detect by various sensers. But too smart a phone can also be troublesome.
allow two phones to compare the app list, find common contacts, temporary play a game with connection (like NDS download play), peer chat (group of devices), share camera, audio, borrow book
current desktop background is not good. Make it easier for user to dress up their phone.
This is for those that have experience with CyanogenMod ROMs...
What can we expect from CM7? As in, plus and minus?
How is the web browsing? Better?
How is the overclocking?
Will we have to give up anything? Will we GET anything new?
Matt
Given my experience with evo4g and hero, u can expect a butter smooth experience without the need to OC, however u can if u wish. No useless junk, and a plethora of system and UI tweaks and options to truly make your phone do what you want it to do. Also expect regular updates and constant streamlining. I'm chomping at the bit for cm7.
The first thing that's going to hit you is "Wow, this looks blocky". The UI really is bland and it will be a shock coming from the Sensation.
The pros make it well worth it though.
-Overclocking is built into the settings
-Multiple types of lockscreens (Gesture based, rotary, drag, menu button)
-Widgets in the status bar
-Enhanced Bluetooth stack (So mice and keyboards work)
-Themes
-Lightweight (Under 100mb)
-Faster / Better battery
-Daily updates and Google's updates are merged before or the day of release
The thing that has me hooked though is that it feels like my phone. Everything feels editable. I can spend half an hour and no one else will end up with a phone that looks like mine. (yet it also feels professional; there's thought put into everything)
Eventually I'd like to mess with the code and not just the settings (And CM is open source!) but it's really intimidating opening a huge project and not knowing where to start.
Just got mine today, and love the hardware, but man, Touchwiz is a design trainwreck. Are there any decent ways to remove some of the Touchwiz nastiness (Big power choosers in the notification bars, striped patterns everywhere) to go back towards a more stock look? I've already installed NovaLauncher, which helps, but the notifications popup is just tragic and loud.
I know that if we get CM9/CM10, I'll be back to delicious AOSP stock, but I'm wondering if there's any solution which will help me restore some design sanity sooner. Replacing image files, etc?
I can't say I disagree here .. I'm not a big fan of the appearance of touchwiz -- especially the notification pop-up. Ugh. I also hate the white menus, too. That said, there are features of touchwiz that I do like (app drawer organization options are nice), but overall, I could do without it. I like your choice of words: a design trainwreck. IMHO, it most certainly is.
I kinda wish Samsung would give you the option of a more stock-android experience, but I understand why they don't. Touchwiz is their android "brand". My first android experience was a Samsung, and I have bad memories of slowness & lag that I'd much rather forget, but luckily the Note's hardware seems to be able to smash everything up without any super serious performance hits (for me, thus far -- time will tell that tale, though ).
If anyone actually strips touchwiz out and makes a rom that doesn't actually lose functionality or introduce major bugs (so many roms have given me headaches with the market, various non-functioning hardware components etc), I might consider it, but probably closer to the end of my warranty.
What about using nova launcher, can I make it the default instead of every time choosing between them? I find it more faster
Or Apex Launcher... That is pretty customisable too...
XPosed & Modules: "Feature Enhancements" good enough to return to stock rom...?
(if this thread is missplaced please apologize and move it - I think this could take some space and I didnt want to clutter the xposed thread with it)
Henooy guys,
I'm using a Galaxy Note N7000 and since the day I had my first custom rom on my phone (think it was aokp-based) I never wanted to go back to stock.
But now with XPosed Framework and all those modules aiming at replacing all the cool custom-aosp rom tweaks, has game changed?
On Samsung devices for example, you miss out quite a lot of nice features (while gaining others even cooler obv) by using aosp-based roms like no working TV-Out, no multiwindow, no one-hand mode, etc.
So I was wondering if I could get the same experience / features as with one of the "all in one roms" (I'm using rootbox 4.2 atm which has like 100s of customization options) with a stock samsung rom by tweaking things with xposed modules?
Here are a few points that interest me especially:
How about performance hits with heavy xposed customization vs "built-in" customizations of aosp based roms?
How good are the UI customizations like setting color and transparency of status bar and icons etc?
How about Halo / Apps in Floating windows? (yea there is the module, but how good or bad is it compared to "real" halo? or does it work just like it?)
Is there a module to use CM themes? (or is there some other easy way nowadays to "copy" a cm theme to the system framework? I have BlackedOut theme with everything black n white including certain apps, and would really hate to miss out on that)
---
Well it mainly boils down to: How well do the xposed modules implement all those tweaks that the custom roms offer out of the box? And how does performance compare?
I did so much tweaking to my system, and I flashed soooo often already lol, so I'd rather hear some opinions before changing everything again. =)
I'm sure I'm not the first one asking himself this question...?
zroice said:
(if this thread is missplaced please apologize and move it - I think this could take some space and I didnt want to clutter the xposed thread with it)
Henooy guys,
I'm using a Galaxy Note N7000 and since the day I had my first custom rom on my phone (think it was aokp-based) I never wanted to go back to stock.
But now with XPosed Framework and all those modules aiming at replacing all the cool custom-aosp rom tweaks, has game changed?
On Samsung devices for example, you miss out quite a lot of nice features (while gaining others even cooler obv) by using aosp-based roms like no working TV-Out, no multiwindow, no one-hand mode, etc.
So I was wondering if I could get the same experience / features as with one of the "all in one roms" (I'm using rootbox 4.2 atm which has like 100s of customization options) with a stock samsung rom by tweaking things with xposed modules?
Here are a few points that interest me especially:
How about performance hits with heavy xposed customization vs "built-in" customizations of aosp based roms?
How good are the UI customizations like setting color and transparency of status bar and icons etc?
How about Halo / Apps in Floating windows? (yea there is the module, but how good or bad is it compared to "real" halo? or does it work just like it?)
Is there a module to use CM themes? (or is there some other easy way nowadays to "copy" a cm theme to the system framework? I have BlackedOut theme with everything black n white including certain apps, and would really hate to miss out on that)
---
Well it mainly boils down to: How well do the xposed modules implement all those tweaks that the custom roms offer out of the box? And how does performance compare?
I did so much tweaking to my system, and I flashed soooo often already lol, so I'd rather hear some opinions before changing everything again. =)
I'm sure I'm not the first one asking himself this question...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No youre not
Well, i can tell you this, i also have a N7000 and have already flashed: SweetRom, VengeanceNote, Stunner2 (great!!) and paranoid3....
The problem is i really like the stock features...but hate the "greenish" colour and the damn statusbar......so... i did two things...
1- Installed the AMAZING aroma themes collection by kmokhtar79 (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2480358&highlight=aroma)
2- Installed xposed framework and started twiking little things...like disabling clear defaults dialog ...or the battery low alert, the increasing ringtone, the storage warning....and the samsung keyboard delay...
So far...its awesome...and because it work on the things that "are already there" instead of bringing NEW stuff....well there should be no battery drain whatsoever...
Or at least in the case of THOSE modules.... thing my differ from module to module...but if i understood correctly...xposed framework works on what already IS in there...so...should be the same...
Anyway...with those 2 things my stock(-ish?) note is awesome.