Blue styling about andlytics HOT 53 CLOSED

Screenshots would be nice!

from andlytics.

Why go with blue? Why not simply use the new Android 4+ UI standards? It would keep the app looking clean and simple and would fully match the Android look and feel.

I would gladly donate my design services to create some mockups. :)

from andlytics.

I USE the new ICS standards and thus blue (!). I just don't use the UI components right now since this is also another mayor code change and this should be done in iterations to make sure nothing gets broken on the way...

I will post a first screenshot later today with the blue styling...

from andlytics.

Cool! When you said "blue" I thought you meant the complete color scheme. The new standards only have a light and dark color scheme option. Again, if you would like some help with some design mockups I'll gladly help.

from andlytics.

Thank you for your offer Kahil. We check back after the first version and I would then also appreciate your feedback on the design. The design is blue-ish, yes. ICS comes with the Holo theme which is then split into holo dark/light. You still have the option to customize things which you should do in my opinion to stand out (a bit like the twitter app which is in line with the design guidelines, or the foursquare app). My actual work which I can hopefully show some time today is inspired by the design of the standard contacts app. It is still al long way to go. For now I just change the actionbar, the bottom button bar because I want to add the "real" action bar and have to rewrite parts of the code anyways :(

from andlytics.

Great! Hopefully we can get the app moved over to the full aOS 4+ design standards. The current UI was great a long time ago, but there are some things about it that I find frustrating.

For instance, how it handles accounts and account switching. First, I don't like how it just pulls all of the google accounts on the device rather than just the ones that have Andlytics syncing turned on. Then, when you are on the main screen and you hit the back button, it takes you to the account screen, which IMHO is a poor way of switching accounts. When you hit back, one would expect the app to exit rather than going to that screen. I think that the method in which the Gmail app switches accounts would be ideal and most intuitive.

Then there is how the settings and everything are all on a single page.

But I can go on with all kinds of ideas for improving the UI aspect of app...lol

from andlytics.

Here is the first screenshot
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=jdv1340462766q.png

Icons are blurry since I need to put the new ones in at some point. Up to now the App has been optimized for hdpi screens but I have a Galaxy Nexus and thus a xhdpi screen :) So I am also working on supporting the different densities/sizes :)

from andlytics.

I agree with you Kahil on the usability issues. would you mind opening up issues for these so we can plan them for future releases? My main concern atm is to cleanup everything first and modernize some stuff like the actionbar and cleaning up the way the UI has been build since most things are hard coded which makes changing the design very time consuming... So most of the things I will be doing in the near future will be cleanup work.

from andlytics.

I have done so for a couple things. When I get some spare time, I'll throw together mockups using the aOS 4+ elements.

from andlytics.

Has anyone looked at the screenshot? Any comments on this? b/c I don't want to wait forever since merges are painful (!) thus I want to get it into the master asap :)

from andlytics.

It looks good, have you got one for the graph view? Are you using ActionBarSherlock for those still on 2.X?

Sent via Hubroid

from andlytics.

@willlunniss we aren't using the real actionbar yet, but when will will get to that point we will use actionbarsherlock yes. I can't speak for everyone else but I am comitted to be compatible with 2.x or at least 2.2.

Will see if I can post a picture of the graph view.

from andlytics.

Looks nice but the green numbers should be changed too.

from andlytics.

Ok, didn't look carefully enough.

Not sure what it will look like on a screen, but you might need to increase the contrast between the app list item border and the package name/arrows/empty stars.
One other request, can you up the targetSdk to get rid of the virtual menu key as there are no menu items so it is useless.

from andlytics.

The are but I made the screenshot before that :(

Will raise the target API :)

from andlytics.

Here is a work in progress screen shot for the charts view
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=jdv1340477554u.png

from andlytics.

committed the work in progress to the master for other people to test (like admob, since I do not use ads in any of my apps)

from andlytics.

Why is it called "blue"? Dark or grey would be the right name..
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=klz1340494630y.png
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=arx1340494626j.png
(Android 2.3.6)

from andlytics.

Well, the new design which came with ICS is called holo with the sub-designs light and dark which usually describes the "color" of the actionbar. Since our actionbar is blue atm I called it "blue"

from andlytics.

Maybe we should a an option/checkbox so everyone could choose: green or ics..

from andlytics.

With the actual code base we have blue only atm.
I guess we could do that but that means alot of refactoring of the actual UI XML files to really theme the UI and not have everything hardcoded. So for know we should stay with blue imho and than after the codebasde is a bit more stable discuss things like theme (could then offer a wide variety of color schemes :)

from andlytics.

This little-boy-blue ("bübchenblau") combined with these colorless colors is realy ugly... That are the official ICS-colors?

from andlytics.

Making this app Holo themed would be awesome, but randomly making it this teal color doesn't make it more official than green was. Kind of hurts my eyes to look at this app now.

from andlytics.

Now that I play with it more, this teal color isn't really ICS styling at all. Holo has small teal accents, but never uses it for large widgets or entire action bars. Here's a site dedicated to ICS styling...as you can see, many of the apps don't even use this color at all: http://www.holoeverywhere.com/

from andlytics.

I have to agree... From the standpoint as someone who is a mobile app designer (http://www.behance.net/spiderfly_studios), such a bold color isn't the best choice. Try going with just a dark grey, like #333333, and using that color blue as the accent color. Granted I'm not a programmer, but it shouldn't be difficult to change the color scheme. I promise that users will like it with the dark background/color scheme. Not only is it a LOT easier on the eyes, but its also easier on the phone...takes less battery to display dark colors than it does for bright ones like white or teal.

Now this is just a suggestion, but hopefully things on this project will have a two pronged approach. Say a team focusing on the programming and function and a team working on the design/UI. Eventually the two teams will meet up, but I'm pretty sure there are enough issues on both sides to stay busy for a little bit. Just set an endpoint to reach on the programming side...then at that point freeze development (outside of emergency bug fixes of course) and then work on applying the agreed upon design fixes, adds and changes......but that's just my take on it. :/

from andlytics.

We can change it to the dark holo version. Just for clarification, it seams to me none of you actually has ICS stock since it is the exact blue, color of Googles very own contact app on ICS...

from andlytics.

The other question that still stands... Blue or back to green...

from andlytics.

seams to me none of you actually has ICS stock

sure, but i uninstalled it again ,-)

from andlytics.

Why oh why would you do that! ;-)

from andlytics.

Not available by manufacturer, not official by CM, has still bugs...

from andlytics.

I see. BTW merged grey actionbar to the master :)

from andlytics.

merged further changes to master:
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=arx1340548668t.png
http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=bfi1340548688m.png

from andlytics.

With grey caption/actionbar it's much better!

from andlytics.

Thanks for the feedback, glad you like it :-)

Does everything look fine on your device? Since I only checked xhdpi on ICS...

from andlytics.

Does look better. There is a green bar at the bottom of the admob tab on hdpi, haven't checked to see why as only just noticed.

Sent via Hubroid

from andlytics.

Did you experience this in the latest master? I am asking because I had that to but fixed it. Might have forgotten to commit it. Can you check that against the latest code from the master? Appreciate it!

from andlytics.

The new version does look a lot better. I really like the gray and small accent colors. I'm still not a fan of the teal numbers though. No ICS apps use this color for text, so it isn't really more ICS-inspired, and kind of detracts from the purpose of the colors (green = good, red = bad).

For the record, I do have stock ICS on my Galaxy Nexus. I know that they use this exact color for accents...my issue was specifically how it was used in this app.

from andlytics.

Good to know the devices of everybody. Regarding blue text. I'll think about it. Don't really like it either but still want to prevent a rainbow color scheme.

from andlytics.

@AndyScherzinger that was my fault, hadn't updated properly (svn rather than git fan), it is indeed fixed in the master. I do also think green/red is a nice clear indicator as to whether it is good or bad. Is it at least still red if negitive?

from andlytics.

I agree. The red is still in place, yes.

I am also rather used to svn than git as an scm. Will think about how to get the green color back for that

from andlytics.

If a app (not andlytic itself) has a transparent transparent icon this is not so good visible on the upper left corner. Maybe the background of the icon could be changed.
Btw, for me svn is more comfortable too...

from andlytics.

Problem with the background you never know which color would be best : dark or light. So we can't really cope with that.. Plus the space on the top left should still match the overall actionbar color.

from andlytics.

Probably just show the app name somewhere else?

from andlytics.

Google play shows a grey pattern around the high res web icon, that has always looked fine. If the developer has a dark icon they should have added a border as most app draws are black.

As for app name, once the actionbar is inplace, the subtitle would be a perfect place for it.

from andlytics.

I agree with @willlunniss developer icons should be our concern.

app name in the subtitle is also imho the best solution. When get get to the point of implementing the actionbarsherlock the icon shouldn't be a problem anymore since we would display the andlytics icon anyways, see design guidelines (even though it would be possible to show any kind of icon.

from andlytics.

Just to put up a new screenshot every once in a while. Here's how the notifications look like on ICS now :)

http://www.bilder-hosting.info/viewer.php?id=viu1340638445b.png

from andlytics.

Just a lil design tip... On the action bar, for the text and icons, you are using an off white color, which is real good...easier on the eyes. But for the color of the action bar, I would take it a little darker, maybe something like #252525. The reason is contrast. Those mid range greys and off white colors can be difficult for some people. They tend to have a blending effect rather than giving that contrast you want. :)

from andlytics.

I'm not shure if this is new since some redesign, but the "average rating" chart should range from 0 to 5 and not dynamically, eg 4,5-5,0

from andlytics.

I didn't change anything. Guess it has always been like that. But it should be dynamically or we should throw away the chart since that is exactly what it is doing, should the average value over time...

from andlytics.

Yes, avererage. But a 0-1 rating looks like 4-5 rating

from andlytics.

good point. So we should probably change the chart that way it will have a fixed y-axis with 0-5.

Will close this issue now and open another one for the average chart issue.

from andlytics.

Heya Andy... Just wondering if you tested out that icon yet in the app? If you need any other graphics, just let me know and I'll help however I can. Just message me with your wishlist and I will set aside some time to help. :)

from andlytics.

Hey Kahil, and thanks for the offer. Unfortunately I am pretty busy with my day job right now and won't be able to spend much before the end of July. :-(

Hope to find the time then to try the icon and spend some time on UI issues.

I will get back to you when I find the time to work on the app again. Right now I am mostly commenting...

Thanks a again for your offer. It is highly appreciated.

from andlytics.