
Designing for Android - shawndumas
http://dailyexhaust.com/2014/01/designing-for-android.html
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soundandfeury
All right, I'll take the bait:

You take a few links, make a few jokes, and somehow draw the conclusion that
the Android OS sucks ("It's just not fun to use" doesn't really persuade me
much). The only objective point you really make is about Android screen size
fragmentation. Maybe it's just me, but I'm a little sick of that argument. Yes
the OS is fragmented from an upgrade perspective (and this sucks), but what
does that have to do with screen size? Almost every decent web-based app is
designed for multiple screen sizes, and I rarely see an issue with that. Maybe
you could've discussed the challenges in designing an application that is
beautiful across all these screen sizes.

I guess my point is: I was hoping for an article that detailed some nuances
about how to _successfully_ design an Android app or why you think that's
impossible. But all I found was a an article hating on the Operating System
with a few links to other blogs that agree with you.

To answer the only question you posed: "Where's the showcase for the actual
operating system?"

It's at the bottom of the page you linked:
[http://www.android.com/versions/kit-
kat-4-4/](http://www.android.com/versions/kit-kat-4-4/)

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news_to_me
I find posts like these hard to parse.

First of all, this article seems to be entirely opinion (which is fine, ofc),
and could use some more supporting facts. The linked examples are great, but
_how_ does the iconography lack sophistication? I'm not trained as a designer.

Second, I wonder how much of this designer's opinion (and my own) of Andriod
vs iOS are influenced by the seemingly default notion that "iOS is prettier
and better designed than Android." I can see that this is clearly true with
earlier Android versions, and it seems true now, although it's a closer race.
But what are the objective criteria that make iOS's design truly better?

~~~
foolrush
“But what are the objective criteria that make iOS's design truly better?”

There is no such creature as objectivity in design. It is all privileged
vantage.

When I was a young wee art schooler, we had a professor who made this
abundantly clear by reframing the question of “What is good art?”

The reframing of art as language.

When we ask the question “What is good art?” or “What is good design?” we bury
the privilege. Were we to ask “What is good language?” we can begin to see how
displaced the very question is. Even then, it is likely our answers would be
much more cautious, nuanced, and contextual.

Most of Norman's and Buxton's writing on the subject tends to highlight the
contextuality of design[1]. This echoes the much more complex notions
surrounding its cultural role, much like language.

And very much unlike the mucousy puddle in the original article...

[1] [http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2013/03/tactile-
vis...](http://www.visualisingdata.com/index.php/2013/03/tactile-
visualisations-inuit-wood-maps/)
[http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html](http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html)

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sprobertson
Title is misleading. Here I was, a naive mobile developer, hoping for some
advice on designing for Android - all I got was collection of no-more-than-
skin-deep complaints.

I just made the switch from iOS to Android, and while I agree that it's hard
to find as many examples of good design, I think that is mostly a saturation
problem caused by a positive feedback loop - a greater proportion of good
designers flock to iOS because iOS has a better reputation of good design.

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unknownian
I'm not a typographer, but I am pretty sure Helvetica looks _nothing_ like
Roboto at the size that appears on the phone. I've used both iOS and Android;
I'm not just assuming they're different. Arial and Helvetica don't even look
similar at around 12pt. At 48pt, sure, but who is using 48pt on a phone?

The claim that Roboto and Helvetica look similar gets me rather annoyed.

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Zigurd
Designing for Android for people who won't let go of how they design (and
develop and test) for iOS.

Oh, and nothing about scaling the UI with Fragment, either. Feh.

~~~
cypher543
Indeed. I really don't find the wide array of screen sizes to be that big of a
problem. Of course, it is a little scary if you're used to designing apps with
fixed-size bitmaps. But with Android's XML drawables, fragments, and nine-
patch images, it's remarkably easy to design an app that works on virtually
all screens.

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hanspeide
Have this guy ever designed for the web? A lot of people seem to be able to
make a decent living doing that, and they have to support a lot more screen
sizes and resolutions than his nifty illustration shows.

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kyriakos
like the web.. android apps are meant to be responsive. its the job of the
designer to take into consideration that the same app (or website) will be
viewed on different screen sizes and orientations and remain usable. its not
trivial but that's why designers are getting paid for.

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indy
Perhaps the author could have looked here
[http://androidniceties.tumblr.com](http://androidniceties.tumblr.com) for
some inspiration

