Get rid of "material design" before being too late

[roaduardo1]

Love the new design.

 

[ch3mn3y]

I like how Material Design looks, however it would be great if there would be possibility to change from light theme to dark one. At least in aosp roms.

Sent using R800i - AuroraPLAY/LuPuS_GB (RAM)

 

[anrdoider]

KitKat wasn't broken, agreed. But there are tons of people in the industry and tons of haters that said Android wasn't as beautiful or polished as iOS or Windows Phone.

Now they fixed that
I still hope I'm having a bad dream.

 

[mrsmumbles]

I don't like how the notification cards all bunch up like planks at the bottom of the notification "shade" when there are a lot of them. There are aspects to the design that are just problematic.

 

[Gekko]

everything comes full circle. my guess is we'll soon be back to simple and clean.

 

[Ed Briggs]

This nonsense is somehow similar with building big phones, all companies build huge phone completely ignoring "single hand" users - who still use one free hand while texting or using the phone. I think this market is at least 15-20%, a lot of people want the screen size maximum 4-4.3 inches.
Apple is the first who realized they lost this market making the small iPhone too big and now there are rumors about a 4" iPhone. Probably they will be the first reverting the "minimalist" stupid trend. Maybe after Steve Jobs ghost will hunt them and slap the back of some of them heads.

Or its like Microsoft adding back the Start button after trying to convince us how great is without it. Balmer had to leave so the back people admit there were a lot of stupid mistakes, including 2 failed generations of Windows.

In few months we will see 32bit classic icons and wonder how an abomination like "material design" was possible. The ones who wake up first will probably gain the future market.

I don't have to install an awful looking operating system and pay for themes afterwards. It may be easier or more convenient for to change the phone. How about making it nice and the ones who wants cartoon looking theme to download it from Play Store?

Do us all a favor and quit using technology. People like you complain about everything in life, instead of moving on.

 

[Ed Briggs]

Change just for change's sake is no good. KitKat wasn't broken.

I guess we should have stayed with KK forever. Like 40 years from now. People like you should be using a landline. It wasn't broken for 100 years. You are an embarrassment to the tech community to suggest we shouldn't change because it wasn't "broken". If that's the case, tech should stay where it is.

 

[zorak950]

Eesh. Why all the hostility?

 

[Gekko]

I guess we should have stayed with KK forever. Like 40 years from now. People like you should be using a landline. It wasn't broken for 100 years. You are an embarrassment to the tech community to suggest we shouldn't change because it wasn't "broken". If that's the case, tech should stay where it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6ObxIi0XrA

 

[Almeuit]

What is next, we have to install the camera driver in command line and "recompile the kernel" ?
EDIT: I know, soon we have to type "call Someone" in some dark command line to call someone.


Click for HiRes:

View attachment 154387

I doubt it will go that far .. but honestly not everyone will like every change. If they made a change for your tastes .. someone would come along and say they hate it as well. No company can please 100% of their customers.

 

[Paul627g]

You know what is great about a forum? You can openly express your thoughts and opinions ( right or wrong ) as long as its done with respect to others and not targeted at another individual. But when members reply with negative or insulting comments then I'd rather those members just move along and not even respond.

I'm not going to name anyone, I think those can take a hint.

- Paul
Moderator Team Leader @ AC.

 

[anrdoider]

You are an embarrassment to the tech community to suggest we shouldn't change because it wasn't "broken".

You always feel the urge of new icons, don't you? Too much spare time?

 

[AlfieBriggs]

You are part of a minority, many love Material Design if not just uninstall all updates to apps if your not on 5.0 and don't update. You don't have much choice, Google is heading a new direction, if you don't like it, too bad, you'll learn to like it.

Posted via my amazing Note 4 paired with my Moto360

 

[Benjamin_NYC]

I miss long press! That was so intuitive. Why get rid of that???

The UI is fine for me.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dann127]

I think it's important to remember that this is why Android is great. Even if you don't like the new material design you have the option of skipping the update or loading a rom that suits your needs. You can uninstall all updates for Google Apps that have material design or find APKs for a version you liked. Sure it's more work but if you really don't like it that much you can do something about it.

I think people have made some good points about what could be improved. I like the update but I would not complain if given the option for a dark material design. There are definitely still some things to tweak and work on in the future for Lollipop.

Also thanks to the Mods for keeping everyone in line on a topic people have strong opinions about. You do good work and we appreciate it.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[anrdoider]

Here it is "minimalism" done right (iOS 7, because they are also working hard to screw it in iOS 8):

- They kept the gradients, both at background level and at icon level.
- High quality icons, very well individualized, you can find any of them instant without reading the text (though necessary). Not very simple, not very complex, just perfect to have a strong visual & color identity that the brain can remember easy. They could have a bit of shadows tho.
- Not all icons are reduced to "drafts". Note the similar functionality icons have common things: phone + messages - green background, itunes + app store - similar circle inside.
- Simple, not disturbing background, to maintain the user focus on icons.
- 1dot black line around icons square to maintain the icon "pushable" characteristics. Otherwise the icon wont be a button but just part of the background. Note the iTunes icon spatial feeling.

 

[Aquila]

Here it is "minimalism" done right (iOS 7, because they are also working hard to screw it in iOS 8):

- They kept the gradients, both at background level and at icon level.
- High quality icons, very well individualized, you can find any of them instant without reading the text (though necessary). Not very simple, not very complex, just perfect to have a strong visual & color identity that the brain can remember easy. They could have a bit of shadows tho.
- Not all icons are reduced to "drafts". Note the similar functionality icons have common things: phone + messages - green background, itunes + app store - similar circle inside.
- Simple, not disturbing background, to maintain the user focus on icons.
- 1dot black line around icons square to maintain the icon "pushable" characteristics. Otherwise the icon wont be a button but just part of the background. Note the iTunes icon spatial feeling.


https://d13yacurqjgara.cloudfront.net/users/40806/screenshots/1109343/redesign_ios7_big.jpg

I just test drove a 5s and felt that the icons looked flat out horrible. While I agree about several of the points above as being helpful to their scheme and part of what they're trying to accomplish, there are three things that I wish they'd do in order to "fix" this. 1. Put all this junk in an app drawer and get it out of the way. 2. Give the option to REMOVE the labels. 3. Give the option to have icons without backgrounds. That last makes it more difficult for developers to keep everything consistent, but if they don't do it - shame on them. I could almost agree that this would be a more ideal app-drawer. But as a home screen, this is very difficult to work with. I realize that many and more developers have terrible icons on Android as well, but it seems like both methods could be improved upon. This photo is garish to me; not elegant.

 

[Orion78]

Well its a good thing that I love it then. Sucks for the people that don't. Oh well. Complaining isn't going to make the android world stop for you.

 

[anrdoider]

3. Give the option to have icons without backgrounds.

I very much agree with this one. Only.
No doubt iOS is not as flexible as Android in terms of functionality. But the graphics is still much better and the overall look makes their phone sell like crazy, we cannot ignore the facts.

I used to like original Windows 7 32bit color icons, simple, well made, without any "background". But they quickly moved away to the minimalist Metro "white contours inside squares", because of the new awesomeness standards. Here's some samples of Windows UI before it was "cool" (keep in mind the pics are jpgs, they were looking even better):
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/191/2/6/Windows_7_Icons_part_3_by_SushiDesigns.jpg
http://www.istartedsomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/win7ddores_large.jpg
http://www.windows7icons.com/wp-content/themes/excess_backup_15_01_2010/excess/images/win7-icons.jpg


I think that Material Design actually defeat its own purpose. The main function of a interface is to let you access apps or features of an application. If this access is hardened, whats the point ? The design of "one color icons" just to make it consistent across all applications and to be able to change it from one point is just wrong. I never know if one of those circles is a button or a label. A nice analysis bellow about going minimalistic:

" Is Your Design Too Minimal? Your design might be too minimal if:
- You’re using minimalism for the wrong reason
- If you’re sacrificing usability in any way"
(Minimalist Web Design: How Minimal is Too Minimal?)

 

[Gekko]

The pendulum swings both ways – and many times to the extreme and back again.