Marco Nelissen wrote: > On the other hand, you might be better off using your own copy of the > system icons. For example, if you were to use system icons plus some > additional ones in the same style that you made yourself, your > application's menus will look weird if the system icons are > redesigned.
Android has been beaten up in the past for apps not having a consistent look and feel, particularly when compared with iPhone. It is likely to get beaten up for it in the future. While having apps with disparate UIs is part-and-parcel of having an open platform, it might be nice if there was at least some measure of guidance for how application developers *can* strive for a consistent look and feel if they so choose. In other words, let developers have the freedom to follow a lead as much as they have the freedom to chart their own course. Either a sporadically-consistent look and feel is a goal of the core Android team, or it isn't. Speaking as a developer, it would be nice to know which philosophy the core Android team is adopting. If the core Android team would like a consistent look and feel from apps (e.g., Ms. Hackborn's repeated insistence that "close" menu items are evil), then you're going to have to throw us a bone now and again with advice on how to maintain a consistent look and feel with the stock Android apps. I would think rules for how to have consistent menu icons might be part of that. If, on the other hand, the core Android team is not terribly interested in UI look fidelity, or feels it's not an issue because of re-branding that device manufacturers might do, that's perfectly fine. However, if the UI critics continue harping on the issue, please don't blame the developer community for not following non-existent style guidance. The worst answer is no answer at all, where we are left with conflicting guidance: the core Android team sometimes berating us for not slavishly following the stock apps design (e.g., not having "close" menu items) and sometimes saying that our efforts to follow the stock apps design may be fruitless (e.g., you might change the icon style out from under us). --------------------- Also, with specific respect to the icons, bear in mind that we're working under a 70MB hard cap, and so every KB we can slice off our apps makes it that much more likely somebody will keep our apps around, rather than discarding them to free up space. Hence, the interest in avoiding redundant icons. -- Mark Murphy (a Commons Guy) http://commonsware.com _The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development_ Version 2.0 Available! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
