I think lack of polish is a significant shortcoming in a large number of the applications that are now available in the Android Market. There are lots of great apps, and great apps that have very little polish (and perhaps don't need it), but in general I think it's a quality that's in deficit. Interestingly I think your blog post nails one the key reasons but which your suggestions above won't remedy:
Polish is better than feature. I found myself continually being tempted to > "add one more feature" to my entry, rather than spending what limited time > that I did have working on smoothing out the UI bumps, testing, creating > docs, designing appealing logos, making videos, testing, and oh yes, > testing. I think authors really need to care about the user and their sum experience of the application. And since resources are always finite, time spent adding new features very soon subtracts significant time away from everything that actually makes the features valuable to the user (performance, reliability, comprehendiblity etc.) The things you list may or may not help, but in the end, they will simply free up more developer time that will again go into more features and not 'the other stuff' unless there's a change of priorities. Tom. 2009/9/11 dadical <[email protected]> > > As I've wound down from the ADC2 adrenaline rush over the past few > days, I've been thinking about a few things that I (re)-learned during > the development of my entry. I blogged about it here: > > > http://keyeslabs.com/joomla/index.php/blogs/i-think-im-becoming-an-android/53-polish-your-apps-people > > The bottom line is that I think a lot of the software being written > for Android right now lacks the basic polish that most users expect in > software. ADC2 just seemed to exacerbate the problem with its tight > deadlines. Beyond that, Google needs to start facilitating the > creation of applications that meet users expectations. > > I'll start the ball rolling by mentioning a few things that I think > are missing: > > 1. Marketplace for Android softwrae components. I hate having to > develop UI views and widgets from scratch that I know other developers > need too. I want a place to distribute/sell the cool views and > widgets that I make, directly to developers. > 2. APIs. Give me APIs, services, and views to polish my apps. > - marketplace API > - YouTube view that allows me to embed instuctional videos WITHIN > my application > - defect tracking services (Google code for commercial apps, with > APIs please) > - etc. > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
