Subsurface-mobile for Android -845

Dirk Hohndel dirk at hohndel.org
Sat Feb 13 20:24:56 PST 2016


On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 03:12:11PM +1100, Rick Walsh wrote:
> I just tested 849.  I think the use of the action button is very good.  It
> doesn't waste space, it's transparent enough not to be invasive, it's easy
> to reach, and most importantly, the icons give good clues what the button
> does (unlike the original action button, which was powerful, efficient use
> of space, but confusing to many the first time they saw it).  I also like
> that I can still/again swipe the central action button instead of using the
> arrows - as I said before, when holding my phone in my not-dainty left
> hand, reaching the very left bottom of the screen with my thumb can be
> awkward.

Thanks for the feedback. Very helpful.

> > > > Just a couple of things: The title bar is too cramped now.  Other apps
> > use
> > > > that to display info on the current context.  We could display "Dive
> > list"
> > > > or "Dive #643" or "Edit dive #242" or "About" there in the future.
> > >
> > > That's a good idea... but I think I like the idea of it simply fading
> > away
> > > even better.
> >
> > +1 for fading away.
> >
> 
> I agree with both points.  Screen real estate is scarce, so if/when the
> title bar is shown, I think it should be more informative than
> Subsurface-mobile (I know what app I'm using).
> 
> Going through the various apps on my phone, many have "title" bars showing
> what page is active on the app (e.g. "Inbox" in gmail), or toolbars, some
> including the app logo (e.g. Twitter), but very few have a title bar with
> the app name displayed.  A few have a search bar that mentions the app name
> (e.g. "Search Google Maps").

I think I'm sold on dropping the name from the title bar. But I'm not 100%
sure what I want instead. No title bar at all? A title bar that fades?
What is it showing until it disappears? Contextual info (which dive is
shown or something like that)?

> In my opinion, the ideal title bar would have the Subsurface-mobile logo at
> left (like now, but moved down a tiny bit - right now its vertical
> alignment is hard against the top of the screen), with the page name next
> to it (e.g. Dive #643 as suggested by Henrik).  And ideally it would fade
> away when you scroll down the page, and probably reappear when you scroll
> back up to the top.

Yeah, so that's kinda what I was contemplating.

> > Google's apps for Android (those which do not auto-save) do use such a
> > dialog.
> > They all use a Discard/Cancel approach (though with completely different
> > wording and even inconsistent button position between the apps, which is
> > really bad design).
> > We haven't written about it in the HIG yet (we'll still add one guideline
> > for
> > that), but here's what I'd suggest:
> > "Discard your changes?" [Discard] [Keep Editing]". This makes saving take
> > one
> > more step, but we want to train users to just hit "Save" anyway, and it
> > makes
> > the decision in the dialog easier.
> > There is already a component for a slide-in dialog available (don't know
> > its
> > name, though, tbh. If you can't find it, ask Marco).
> 
> I find confirmation dialogs clumsy and don't like them if they can be
> avoided, especially on a mobile app.  If we were talking about
> writing/editing a thesis, I'd be more inclined towards a confirmation
> dialog, but if the the user accidentally close the dive edit page without
> saving, and lost their logging notes, they should be able to cope.
> 
> I'd rather have the action button action be 'save changes and close', and
> the Android back button would be 'discard changes and close'.  If that's
> too out the for new users, there could also be a discard button next to the
> current save (and close) ordinary button at the bottom of the page.

So I tried to implement something that I find reasonable and intuitive.

- there's still the save button
- the action button is cancel and there is NO CONFIRMATION - you hit that
  button, you get what you asked for
- the back button asks the user if they really wanted to discard the
  changes, and if they don't confirm within 3 seconds it simply hides the
  confirmation dialog and pretends nothing happens

Please play with it, the description sounds a lot more awkward that it
felt to me to use...

> Similarly, I think we should use the action button on the cloud
> credentials.  The action button action would be "save", and the back button
> would be "discard" (and return to dive list).  This could replace the
> existing ordinary buttons.

That I think is a good idea. I'll need to find the time to implement this.

> Another thing - In the dive list, there's a blank row above the trip
> separator line.  I'm not sure if that's deliberate, but it looks like a
> waste of space to me.

Do you have a screen shot?

Thanks for all the feedback!

/D


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