I am curious about what you all think

[estebancam]

I think one of the greatest milestones of ICS is the overall look. I have always adored Android for its power and functionality, but I think Android has always needed something to make it look more than just a nerd's device. When I heard last year that Matias Duarte was going to Google as the User Experience Head (or whatever the title is) I was incredibly happy. I knew some great changes were coming to Android.

When I first saw the demo of ICS on a Galaxy Nexus about a month back, my current devices immediately felt.... old. The old Android design just looked immediately dated and as if it was just a bunch of different ideas thrown into one operating system. I enjoy the idea that Android now has a more unified look, where the user is able to tell he/she is using Android just by looking at icons and one menu.

My curiosity is: how important is this to all of you?

The reason I ask this is because Google may now spend more time developing user interface tools for Android than they will on raw features like they have in the past. I think many of the changes that we will see on Android from now on will be visual changes, things that make it easier and "prettier" to use Android instead of the addition of a new feature only 5% of us will use.

Do you think that this will change Android for the better or for the worst?

 

[protonchain]

My curiosity is: how important is this to all of you?

Do you think that this will change Android for the better or for the worst?

The interface is nearly everything. It's what we use to...use our phones.

I have a 2nd gen ipod touch and the OG droid. After seeing ICS, and after playing around with a friend's bionic and the new razr, they all seem dated as you said. Especially the apple iOS. I can't stand it. It looks so....immature. Now this is just my opinion, so please don't flame me for that but... the way the buttons and menu items look on iOS seems silly. It seems like "My first smartphone" rather than a hi-fi smartphone for power users.

Having not been able to play with it, I can't say for sure how ICS feels, but I can see that it will definitely change android, big time. And I think it will change it for the better.

 

[anon(512898)]

The reason I ask this is because Google may now spend more time developing user interface tools for Android than they will on raw features like they have in the past. I think many of the changes that we will see on Android from now on will be visual changes, things that make it easier and "prettier" to use Android instead of the addition of a new feature only 5% of us will use.

Definitely agree with this, at some point once an os has a lot of features already, new updates don't bring many new features because there is not much left to add, so they focus on improving the ui to make things prettier/easier.

This is a sign of maturity in an os, look at other mature oses, look at windows: 7 was basically a vista service pack with some new ui features (the new taskbar, areo snap, ect) and aside from a few new functionality improvements, windows 8 is mostly about adding metro ui on top of the normal windows ui. Look at osx: aside from switching from powerpc to x86, most of the changes have been to ui.