◄ part 1 (http://www.windows8newsinfo.com/smf/index.php?topic=24804.0)
Last Updated: December 2nd, 2013
"Up" vs Back - It Works, But No One Knows Why
Much is made of Android's back button - it can be confusing, it can work inconsistently across apps, and it's never really explained to new users out of the box. It seems especially odd when paired with another backwards navigation element - the "up" navigation button.
In a perfect world, the back button takes you to the last view you saw, no matter where that is. The up button, meanwhile, should bring you up one level within the same app you're looking at. Try this: open the gallery from the camera app by swiping left. Then hit back. You're back at the camera, right? Okay, do the same thing but this time hit the gallery's up button. This should bring you to the gallery's home page. This is how it's supposed to work.
The problem with this is that it's never really explained to new users. I have a simple solution for this - a quick first run explanation after the device is set up. Just like Android tells you how to add icons to your home screen, it could give a succinct explanation of back and up when the time comes. Easy.
This would also be a good opportunity for Google to nudge developers in the right direction, as there are still plenty of instances where this paradigm isn't exactly followed in third-party apps.
Bugs, Glitches, And UI Slip-Ups
The Status Bar
The first problem with the status bar, which I can't help but see every time I glance at the battery or signal indicator. The icons and clock just don't quite align. The baselines of the bluetooth, signal icon, battery, and clock don't align with one another, and in fact the elements don't even appear to be aligned on a central guide with the status bar. Add to that the fact that the bars on the signal indicator don't visually appear to form a consistent slope, and you have the ingredients for a maddening status bar. Not that these things are like flashing red lights when backed by the translucent status bar, but a little alignment work would be great.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/8wawsl.jpg)
On the Nexus 5, where users enjoy transparent system bars (why, again, is GEL not included in the other Nexus updates?), the status bar has an extra problem - if you lock the screen with the notification tray pulled down, the bar will be partially opaque when the device is turned back on.
(http://i42.tinypic.com/mw6us8.jpg)
The Home Screen (GEL)
For all the wonderful tweaks GEL brings to the home screen, it's not without its faults. The first we'll discuss is a hidden trigger for the widget selector. If you open the app drawer and then hit home, the home screen's touch targets actually change for that fraction of a moment to those of the long-press screen, meaning triggers for wallpapers, widget selector, and Search settings are all there but invisible. This means that with a well-timed tap, you can access any of the three.
(http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nexusae0_widgets4_thumb.gif)
One of my main complaints with the launcher is that there's no way to have a blank homescreen. As someone who doesn't like to have much if anything on a home screen, I was glad to find out that there's a way to work around this, though it isn't pretty and it doesn't last. If you place an app icon on a home screen and uninstall that app, you're left with the empty home screen. It shows up on the indicator at the bottom of the screen as the plus sign, but this blank screen won't survive a reboot.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/o06yoh.jpg)
Also of note is the fact that the launcher still doesn't rotate to landscape on phones. Not that I personally find this problematic, but I can understand why some users would desire this as a feature.
One last thing about the widget picker - its icon in the long-press menu from the home screen has unevenly spaced squares. Twitch.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/2nsx2jt.jpg)
Live Wallpaper is Set...Right?
Since finding (and falling in love with) Shape Swap live wallpaper, I've spent a lot of time switching into and out of the wallpaper picker. In 4.4 though, adjusting a live wallpaper's settings and hitting "apply wallpaper" will dump you back into the wallpaper picker interface, rather than the home screen. This can be confusing, implying that maybe you haven't actually selected a wallpaper yet. Oddly, this only happens if you've fiddled with a wallpaper's settings. If you select an LWP without any options, the picker will exit predictably.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/9qfdkn.jpg)
Lock Screen Camera is Both Big and Small
The left-swipe camera widget on the lock screen can be a huge convenience, but it too has a problem - if you swipe to the left, you'll see a full-page widget, but as soon as you let go, the actual widget part shrinks up to the 1/3 page size, while the camera interface remains full sized, and eventually transitions into the camera app.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/16m3spt.jpg)
Lock Screen Security Smells of Gingerbread and Inconsistent Interface
There are a few problems with the lock screen security settings, though the actual user-facing interface has gone largely unchanged for a while now. When setting up a PIN, the text entry field still screams Gingerbread. This type of entry field appears nowhere else in stock Android that I can think of. Additionally, there's a "continue" button at the bottom with grayed out text, letting the user know what will happen next once they enter the PIN initially. This is good. The problem is that the same element is not found when entering a pattern. In fact, as soon as a user begins to draw a pattern, BOTH buttons lose their labels.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2qia3c1.jpg)
Chrome's Scrolling Overflow
This one is pretty simple - if you've got no tabs open in Chrome and hit the overflow key, it's got a scrollbar, despite the fact that there's plenty of room to expand the menu.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2lscuvm.jpg)
Google Account Settings Span Multiple Apps
This is something left over from previous updates - entering settings for your Google account from the main settings page takes you - understandably - to another settings list, but selecting "Search" from this pops you into a completely different interface (the same one you'll see in GEL if you long press and hit "Settings"). What's more strange is that whether you press the "up" button in the action bar, or the back button down in the nav bar, you'll be dumped back out at your home screen.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/2igixrr.jpg)
Infinite Sort Menus
The new downloads app is lightyears ahead of the old downloads app from 4.3 and below. Some would argue that doesn't mean much considering the downloads app of yore was so absolutely spartan, but that's neither here nor there. What we'll discuss is a fun menu bug. If you use KitKat's new swipe-to-select paradigm on the "sort" menu while downloading something, you can spawn infinite sort menus, building up an ever-darkening drop shadow behind them. What's extra fun is that these can only be removed by interaction outside the menus, so tapping or swiping outside that area.
(http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/nexusae0_downloads_thumb.gif)
Empty Drawer in Downloads
Speaking of Downloads, it seems that - for some reason - there's a slide out drawer in the app (this only seems to work on the Nexus 5). It's empty, and there's no visual indicator of it in the main view, but still it's there.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/2hp25mv.jpg)
Update: Some report that the slide-out menu won't work on their devices.
Full Screen Apps Kill Visual Feedback for Now Gesture
Normally, swiping up from the navigation bar triggers the dotted hint toward a big circular Google icon that will lead to Google Search. In full screen apps, however, swiping from any button but home doesn't provide visual feedback, but will still snap you into Search with just a brief vibration as warning.
Gmail's Crazy Gesture
We'll save most of the bugs and quirks in Google's suite of Gapps for another post, but there's one more worth pointing out right away. In Gmail, if you use the swipe-to-delete or swipe-to-archive gesture followed by a quick swipe up, Gmail will actually archive or delete the message your finger began the swipe-up gesture with, rather than the one you had intended.
(http://i41.tinypic.com/dq6cyw.jpg)
Toast: Sharp or Round?
As we discussed in our last edition of GTKA, Android now has toast notifications with circular ends. This isn't always the case, though. For some reason, when deleting an alarm or archiving a hangout, you'll get a squared-off toast just like the old days.
(http://i40.tinypic.com/1zmgxmq.jpg)
(http://i41.tinypic.com/2h701w2.jpg)
(http://i39.tinypic.com/1qo654.jpg)
Overflow Icons: Circles or Squares?
Overflow icons seem to be in a similar state of flux. While the system nav bar, along with apps like Google Search, the Play Store, and Play Music are using overflow icons comprised of three vertical circles, many stock apps (like Calendar, Calculator, etc) are still using squares.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/o080bb.jpg)
Wishlist
Besides the obvious (or not-so-obvious) visual or functional inconsistencies in stock Android, there are some things that just seem to be missing from the OS altogether. Since these can't fairly be considered imperfections in themselves, we'll put them under the category of "wishlist," or things we'd like to see in stock Android.
A Better Power Menu
This one's a small request. A feature found in many ROMs (even in Samsung's TouchWiz), the humble "restart" option is missing from stock Android's power menu.
(http://i39.tinypic.com/15i2jx1.jpg)
Expanded Volume Control For Phones
Expanded volume controls are great on tablets. Hit a volume rocker and you'll have the opportunity to press a settings icon allowing for the adjustment of media and notification volumes. On phones, it's another story. The volume rocker only handles one type of volume at a time, and in my experience, the Nexus 5's rocker gets stuck on media volume patrol all too often.
(http://i43.tinypic.com/msbp77.jpg)
More Control of the Home Screen
KitKat's launcher, it could be argued, has introduced one of the biggest shifts in home screen user experience since Ice Cream Sandwich came to phones. It's seemingly traded deep Search integration and beautiful system bars for more iOS-like screen handling, and customization that is both as empowering and as limiting as it has ever been.
Personally, the inability to have a blank home screen, along with the general lack of customizable options like home screen grid size, what gets done with newly installed apps, and folder limitations are irksome. Settings for things like these, even if they're hidden, would be greatly welcomed, and I have a feeling I'm not alone in this opinion. There's something to be said for the Android team's refinement of the home screen to make it as easy as possible for newcomers, but there's also something to be said for peppering in more of the customization options that make Android great, while not forcing users to choose between a limited stock launcher and one from a third party that can't get freaky with Search the same way GEL does.
Customization in Quick Settings
Another place where extra customization would be greatly welcomed is the Quick Settings shade. The addition of quick settings under the normal notification shade is great, but tailoring what settings appear there based on your own habits or desires would be excellent.
Combined Conversations in Hangouts
Hangouts is a sight for sore eyes, combining (most of) Google's messaging platforms into an easy-to-use app with some great functionality. Now that it's integrated SMS, though, communicating via SMS and Hangouts with one contact seems messier than it should be. A combined view, where a user can see all messages between themselves and a contact would be great. Each message would have a small, inconspicuous indicator (color, icon, or otherwise) to let the user know what kind of message it was, and a toggle that would tell Hangouts to send messages in the chosen method until it's switched again. This would cut down on list size, and offer at least some improvement to the experience of looking back through correspondences.
Final Thoughts
It's important to note that, as always, SAIP is written because we like Android and want to see its interface some day reach a state closer to perfection, free from some of the errant elements we've discussed here. By calling attention to the various errors, oversights, or questionable design decisions, we are hopefully making ourselves part of their ultimate solutions.
As mentioned earlier, there are no doubt other relevant quirks and mishaps in Android 4.4's interface that we haven't yet discussed here. Should those arise (do you know of one we missed?) we'll definitely discuss them and possibly add them to the post.
source:androidpolice