On Feb 23, 7:18 am, niko20 <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes for some reason it's hard for some users - they never seem to find > the menu. I think it's an inherent problem in Android UI design; there > is too much "mystery meat". You can trigger actions with a long press, > or maybe they are on the menu, or maybe the dev put a button on the > screen instead. I find myself attempting long presses in apps all the > time to see if anything happens. It's hard because such a thing is not > readily apparent. >
I think that the top confusions for Android people are: (as Android conventions - my App has its own UI issues, of course). 1. Long click/Press and Hold. I actually read The Design of Everyday Things. A severe usability problem with a slide projector turned out to be because of press and hold functionality. I get a good number of questions if my app has X functionality. Yes, it does - you need to press and hold. 2. Options Menu. Iphone and Windows Mobile both have menus on screen. Looking at web pages, they all have their menus visible across the top or side. So based on what users are used to, it is unusual to push a button to get to a menu you cannot see and may not be there. I don't completely know why they don't pick it up after using a few apps, or if I'm the first app they've ever used. Having an offscreen menu does save space, but if you had to put something on the screen to tell people there is a menu, you don't come out ahead. 3. (possibly) Scrollable pages don't look scrollable. I mention that because I make people review a help screen when first starting the app. It shows a picture of what the menu looks like and what happens when you press and hold. But you do have to scroll down to see all of that, and some people refer to it as the newsletter signup screen, because that's all they ever see. Based on the above, I think the 'Long Click' is on its way out for my app. On a list view, a context menu is helpful, but unlikely to be used unless it has a banner saying 'Press and Hold for more Options'. On a custom, graphical view, there is no way of knowing that it is useful without giving some instructions. For the other two, I hope the users will learn. Nathan -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" 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-discuss?hl=en.
