Poor design with no menu button

[Mercury81]

It's only a personal preference for the menu button, most people could care less. I personally love the phone without one and the newer design of the phone is totally functional by design. I think a lot of
well made decisions went into this phone. as anyone who spends lot of hours on it would definitely figure out. When you compare this phone with any of the most recent it stands far above them in all areas.Thanks HTC for a truly remarkable phone with the Evo4GLTE .....:thumbup:

from Evo4GLTE on Android Central

 

[Shadnic]

I've said this in another thread so I'm just going to repeat it here since it's relevant to discussion.

I think android "had" to move away from having a menu button, because an always present physical menu button means that visual menus are not always present until called upon, and this limits usability for users who are not tech-savvy. I think of the physical menu button as being similar to a right click on a computer, and I can't tell you how many people I know never think to right click things when they need more options.

This move was to make android more usable, force apps to be redesigned more for visual cohesion and ease of use, and make the phone appear more user-friendly. Having back, home, and multitask are easily recognizable and not overwhelming. And while multitasking on "this" phone is somewhat broken, I find using multitasking to be waaaaaay more intuitive, fast, and pleasant when it's a simple press away, as opposed to a few second hold and then responding to an on-screen menu (something that I'm sure is also not commonly utilized by the non-tech savvy user). This change helps streamline things for androids future, and helps make it more open to new users and those accustomed to the intuitive nature of iOS. It just will take time to get all developers on board with new apps, but it's for the best once they do. Samsung including the legacy menu button is really not helping things though. The popularity of the GS3 could really push this whole movement back, which is really discouraging.

I think people dislike change, and with any change, there'll be a period of anger and resentment...and then it will feel normal and everyone will bond to the new way of things. Just give it a little time.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

I've said this in another thread so I'm just going to repeat it here since it's relevant to discussion.

I think android "had" to move away from having a menu button, because an always present physical menu button means that visual menus are not always present until called upon, and this limits usability for users who are not tech-savvy. I think of the physical menu button as being similar to a right click on a computer, and I can't tell you how many people I know never think to right click things when they need more options.

This move was to make android more usable, force apps to be redesigned more for visual cohesion and ease of use, and make the phone appear more user-friendly. Having back, home, and multitask are easily recognizable and not overwhelming. And while multitasking on "this" phone is somewhat broken, I find using multitasking to be waaaaaay more intuitive, fast, and pleasant when it's a simple press away, as opposed to a few second hold and then responding to an on-screen menu (something that I'm sure is also not commonly utilized by the non-tech savvy user). This change helps streamline things for androids future, and helps make it more open to new users and those accustomed to the intuitive nature of iOS. It just will take time to get all developers on board with new apps, but it's for the best once they do. Samsung including the legacy menu button is really not helping things though. The popularity of the GS3 could really push this whole movement back, which is really discouraging.

I think people dislike change, and with any change, there'll be a period of anger and resentment...and then it will feel normal and everyone will bond to the new way of things. Just give it a little time.

Good stuff.

 

[cloak.n.dagger]

I think many of the people who are effected by changes like this only use android on their phone. The thing to keep in mind here is that the tech industry is going through a mobile revolution, where people want their device to be all things (phone, tablet, pc, media player, etc...). Because it's not ideal/practical to have a single device for all uses, manufacturers make different mobile devices to suite the different needs (phones, tablets, PCs, set top boxes, TVs, etc...). In an attempt to unify the user experience across all these device types, there has to be a merge between the software and the hardware. It's not an easy thing to find the right balance between all the different devices and how people choose to use them, but the manufacturers and the software developers are pushing for a unified experience across all device types. So, when you go from a phone to a tablet, it feels and looks the same and there is little to no learning curve. I understand that change doesn't always suite everyone, but if you step back and look at the bigger picture, these kinds of changes help make using Android on multiple device types a better experience. The great thing about Android is that it's highly customizable when you root the phone. There are lots of mods that developers have created that restore the menu button functionality by re-assigning the multitasking option to the home long press (like on all the previous EVOs) and then re-assigning the menu button action to the multitasking button. This is what makes Android superior to all others.

Sent from my EVO 4G LTE smarter than your phone!

 

[crxssi]

If you have not seen the AC article, it looks like HTC has finally heard the complaints and done something about the missing menu button!! (Which not only means an option for a menu BUTTON, but also getting rid of that horrible black MENU BAR on non-ICS compliant apps).

On the recent One X update they have added an option to use the "recently used" button as a menu button with long-press on it acting as the "recently used" function. This is GREAT NEWS. Now we just have to wait for this update to come to the Evo LTE!!

 

[olsonn]

That is great news. Now HTC, Sprint, whoever - get this fix on the EVO!

If you have not seen the AC article, it looks like HTC has finally heard the complaints and done something about the missing menu button!! (Which not only means an option for a menu BUTTON, but also getting rid of that horrible black MENU BAR on non-ICS compliant apps).

On the recent One X update they have added an option to use the "recently used" button as a menu button with long-press on it acting as the "recently used" function. This is GREAT NEWS. Now we just have to wait for this update to come to the Evo LTE!!

 

[s14tat]

I've said this in another thread so I'm just going to repeat it here since it's relevant to discussion.

I think android "had" to move away from having a menu button, because an always present physical menu button means that visual menus are not always present until called upon, and this limits usability for users who are not tech-savvy. I think of the physical menu button as being similar to a right click on a computer, and I can't tell you how many people I know never think to right click things when they need more options.

This move was to make android more usable, force apps to be redesigned more for visual cohesion and ease of use, and make the phone appear more user-friendly. Having back, home, and multitask are easily recognizable and not overwhelming. And while multitasking on "this" phone is somewhat broken, I find using multitasking to be waaaaaay more intuitive, fast, and pleasant when it's a simple press away, as opposed to a few second hold and then responding to an on-screen menu (something that I'm sure is also not commonly utilized by the non-tech savvy user). This change helps streamline things for androids future, and helps make it more open to new users and those accustomed to the intuitive nature of iOS. It just will take time to get all developers on board with new apps, but it's for the best once they do. Samsung including the legacy menu button is really not helping things though. The popularity of the GS3 could really push this whole movement back, which is really discouraging.

I think people dislike change, and with any change, there'll be a period of anger and resentment...and then it will feel normal and everyone will bond to the new way of things. Just give it a little time.

So what you are trying to tell me is that more people would figure out that the 3 dots on the screen means menus than an actual hard menu button that is actually stenciled into the lower area of the phone right next to the other capacitive buttons? That's preposterous!!

*** smacks self in the head

I hate the 3 dot setup on my nexus 7, and its absolutely sucks to have to lose .3 inches out of screen real estate on the Galaxy Nexus esp when browsing the web due to the stupid software buttons. It makes having a 4.65 inch screen absolutely pointless when the actual useable screen screen gets reduced to around 4.3, it does not even make the phone any smaller!! Case in point the GS3 has a 4.8 inch screen where you can use all of it as an actual screen but it is nearly identical in size as the Nexus. The 3 button is a huge step backwards.

 

[PreMo15]

So what you are trying to tell me is that more people would figure out that the 3 dots on the screen means menus than an actual hard menu button that is actually stenciled into the lower area of the phone right next to the other capacitive buttons? That's preposterous!!

*** smacks self in the head

I hate the 3 dot setup on my nexus 7, and its absolutely sucks to have to lose .3 inches out of screen real estate on the Galaxy Nexus esp when browsing the web due to the stupid software buttons. It makes having a 4.65 inch screen absolutely pointless when the actual useable screen screen gets reduced to around 4.3, it does not even make the phone any smaller!! Case in point the GS3 has a 4.8 inch screen where you can use all of it as an actual screen but it is nearly identical in size as the Nexus. The 3 button is a huge step backwards.

I'm with you...not a fan of the software menu button either. I've been missing my hardware menu button since I got this phone but luckily some custom ROMs have started to include a mod that remaps the multitasking button to perform the menu function, and even going so far as to remove the software menu button altogether from most apps. That would have been enough reason alone for me to root if I hadn't already...I hated having to contort my hand to hit that little button in the top right corner, and using two hands is just out of the question

Sent from my EVO using Android Central Forums