It's not just the physical menu button - overall, there seems to be a trend in ICS/JB to move away from previously established metaphors, like buttons that look like buttons, and the long press (which supposedly takes too much time).
Instead, we're supposed to tap on various layout elements that, at a first (and second, and third) glance look like eye candy or passive information-presenting items. I get lost in the dialer app every time I need to jump from a phone # to its contact, or to edit a phone # before redialing. Was I supposed to tap here? Darn, it's dialing... abort, abort. Ok, go back, try this here instead... It's dialing again, abort, go back... Try the long press... Oh no, it's dialing again. Second, the action bar overflow on-screen button (wtf is "affordance"? I can't spell that) looks just like a piece of eye-candy. Three dots == popup menu? Third, the on-screen Back/Home/Tasks buttons on the Galaxy Nexus are easily hit by mistake when entering text (the onscreen space bar is also near the bottom). Now, I'm not an alcoholic, my hands don't shake, but I do hit the Home button regularly when entering text. The same approach works on tablets because the screen is physically larger and those buttons are positioned on the left side. On phone-type devices, where it's right next to the space bar (or the action bar overflow panel) it really gets in the way. Now, at least some of these new UI metaphors appear to be on the decline. I'm sure everyone remembers how using horizontal swiping everywhere, like in the Google+ app, was a big deal a few months ago. Well, the current version of G+ uses a drop-down list to switch streams (popular/circles/nearby) where prior versions used swiping. -- K 2012/7/26 Latimerius <l4t1m3r...@googlemail.com> > On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 9:17 AM, yvolk <yvo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Josh, your words confirm that the answer to the common question "Do I > have > > MORE options/actions HERE ?" is not a single step :-) > > I agree that ideal implementation would be to have that "Action overflow" > > button: > > always in one place + always clickable + always distinguishable if there > > are any hidden actions. > > > > Currently in Android 3-4.1 we don't have all of the above, this is why > > hardware "Menu" button that works exactly like "always clickable Action > > overflow button" is a good addition for an Android device. > > Do you agree? > > Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're wasting your time. Having a way of > bringing up additional UI that is standard across apps, off-screen so > that it never gets in the way, and always accessible is seen as bad. > Having to push the physical menu button to see if an app has options > is seen as unacceptable. What the reasons are I'm still not clear > about. The issue is brought up regularly here but they won't discuss > the reasons or the problems the current state brings about for some > classes of apps. Apparently, Google is dead set on having their way > here at any cost. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
