On Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 5:11 PM, Brion Vibber bvibber@wikimedia.org wrote:
I was reading up on Android 3 & 4's 'action bar' (sorta replaces the older menu styles) and got inspired to make some mockups for a layout for the app that might fit in better on Android 3 (Honeycomb) tablets and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) phones.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mobile_mockups_for_Android_style
Any thoughts? I included a tablet mockup using sidebar space for keeping the search/history/saved pages lists open, and also experimented with a 'table of contents' drop-down (not fully pictured). These are just image mockups for now, nothing live or usable. :)
The split-style mockup (with bars at both top and bottom to make more items available) might also be a good base for an iOS design, where we'd need the toolbar space more actively since there's not a standard menu convention.
-- brion
I dislike the lighter color of the action toolbar though on mobile (the delineation between content and navigation is cleaner in the current Android app) and the fact that it makes the top toolbar more cluttered. Mostly all I want to do on mobile is search and read, and I think people are used to just scrolling down for more content, not using a TOC dropdown.
Personally I'd prefer the current style, except for in tablet view. I really like the tablet mockup since the lighter style and split screen is great for a device with more real estate.
We should usertest the difference between the two though, if we can. :) They're pretty subtle differences overall, so it might be good to get more opinions. Usertesting.com or usabilla.com?