I agree with you 100% Craig. I've been focusing primarily on games and have spent a lot of time going through older games; reading comments and ratings. I'm quite amazed at the number of games where "force close" is a complaint and that menus are difficult to navigate.
I spent some extra time making sure menus, dialogs, buttons, etc. behaved like an Android app in my game. One of my pet peeves is a UI that forces you to use the touchscreen only (similar to a desktop app that doesn't have keyboard shortcuts or even allow tab-navigation). I guess that would lead to my other suggestion that if you are writing a game, that's no excuse to make the UI needlessly difficult to navigate! UI work (and general polish) is rote work I admit; it takes a lot of effort and the only measurable payback is people _not_ complaining about it. But it's still worth it IMO. I think it would help other developers to point out apps with exemplary polish. A lot of the top apps in each category are really spiffy and it would benefit others to know just how high that bar is set. Ernest Woo Woo Games http://www.woogames.com On Sep 11, 10:18 pm, CraigsRace <[email protected]> wrote: > My first game, I got bombarded with e-mails from people asking me to > add features. As a result, the game became cluttered with features > and options. > > My ADC2 entry, I kept very simple and spent a lot of time creating > themed dialogs etc. IMO, the end result is much better. > > A library of views and widgets is an excellent idea! > > On Sep 12, 8:46 am, Robert Green <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > I'm in the same camp. I was just happy to get a 3D multiplayer game > > working correctly by the deadline. I spent the next week polishing it > > up and man have I found a ton of things that I wish I had gotten done > > in time for the contest. Obvious stuff like VBOs, mipmaps, better > > orientation handling, etc.. The game looks WAY better and runs 10-15 > > FPS faster on my G1 this week than it did when I submitted. Too bad I > > couldn't get it all in before the contest deadline! > > > On Sep 11, 4:36 pm, Tom Gibara <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > 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-an... > > > > > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
