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Reaching the Android people

edited October 2012 in Technology
With Google Glass coming soon, it really sucks that the Android UI is not to my liking. It has a billion menus and it's all sorts of confusing.

Now let's say my ideal UI is to mass liking and it would immediately become a huge success if adapted and I had every little detail about the design planned out. Next I wanna get it worked into Android, right?

Now there are two ways I can think of to achieve this. The first is to make it for Gaia, WebOS, Plasma Active, or some other similar project (and for the sake of simplicity, the Gaia people love it and change a bunch of stuff to incorporate it into their UI). Google sees this, thinks maybe they could benefit from doing the same thing, changes a bunch of shit and does it.

The other way is making a Kickstarter for a mod of Android with this new UI. It'll have to be super hacky and won't be as good as if it was made by the Android developers, but on the flip side, it can easily target non-nerds (It's pretty safe to assume no non-nerds have tried Gaia), it can prove there is demand (After all, someone paid for it) and it's already being built on top of Android (so same target, same technologies powering it). Doing it this way, I think it'll be more likely the Android developers would take note, and maybe use some of the same ideas.

I am making this thread to ask you smart people of FRCF if you believe method #2 can work.

Comments

  • edited October 2012
    Why would it have to be super hacky? It's Android. It's open-source. You can do anything that you want.

    Also, I'm very confused with this entire post.
    Post edited by Sail on
  • I want a Samsung Galaxy S-III. Good idea?
  • I want a Samsung Galaxy S-III. Good idea?
    Have you cosidered getting an Apple iPhone?
  • Why would it have to be super hacky?
    If you're a shitty programmer?
  • Sorry if I was unclear. I wanted to know if you thought it would be worth it to go through with the Kickstarter. Making mockups and demos and such if there is no chance of success is no good. And by super hacky I meant it would require a bunch of hacks to work with existing applications and what not.
  • What would the money go toward? Paying people to do it?
  • News outlets going "This thing earned all this money!", and to rent and food..
  • You want to do the Kickstarter yourself? How do you plan to prove to the Internet that you're qualified?
  • I want a Samsung Galaxy S-III. Good idea?
    Have you cosidered getting an Apple iPhone?
    I HAVE an Apple iPhone.
  • I don't think that actually impacts a kickstarter much, given some previous successful kickstarters. But by having neat demos? Showing it working on a device and having appealing mock ups should be enough for something that doesn't require a whole lot of know how.
  • It doesn't sound like you know how much you're getting into.
  • It doesn't sound like you know how much you're getting into.
  • edited October 2012
    This sounds as well thought out my idea to kickstart me getting a 3D printer by offering everyone who kickstarts a free 3d print with the level of complexity based on the amount they fund me.

    In other words, not very well thought out (or at least explained).


    Unless someone here wants to fund me. If you do, let me know...
    Post edited by Victor Frost on
  • I want a Samsung Galaxy S-III. Good idea?
    Have you cosidered getting an Apple iPhone?
    I HAVE an Apple iPhone.
    Oh then you're good to go. Unless you have an old iPhone?? In which case you should get the newest iPhone.
  • Fuck no I'm not paying for the iPhone 5. Is Android an adequate for iPhone or not?
  • Fuck no I'm not paying for the iPhone 5. Is Android an adequate replacement for iPhone or not?
  • Fuck no I'm not paying for the iPhone 5. Is Android an adequate replacement for iPhone or not?
    Yes it is, the good thing about it is that there are a TON of options. If you want a plain version without much bullshit there is that, if you want to get something more specialized there is that to. I've used Android and prefer the UI over Apple, many of us will tell you to go with the Nexus brand but depending on your needs you can find a phone that will match for you.
  • edited October 2012
    I am going to take a chance and plan on getting a Lumia 920 sometime next year. They doubled down on camera optics, mapping technology, and UI, and it looks to be a better product than the iPhone. Comes out late this month and I won't be due for an upgrade until May. If Windows 8 is not already a dead ecosystem by that point, I will make the jump.

    Apply definitely will always have the superior ecosystem, but I'd like to try getting the best possible product for my core features and letting the other stuff fall by the wayside.
    Post edited by Matt on
  • On the other hand, the Apple iPhone is a much better phone, with better applications. Having options is so overrated.
  • I am going to take a chance and plan on getting a Lumia 920 sometime next year. They doubled down on camera optics, mapping technology, and UI, and it looks to be a better product than the iPhone. Comes out late this month and I won't be due for an upgrade until May. If Windows 8 is not already a dead ecosystem by that point, I will make the jump.

    Apply definitely will always have the superior ecosystem, but I'd like to try getting the best possible product for my core features and letting the other stuff fall by the wayside.
    Noone can deny the Lumia has the best hardware. If only Windows 8 and phone 8 weren't teh dead.
  • edited October 2012
    I used a pre-production 920 pretty extensively after PAX. It's nice, though tremendous. Interestingly, that didn't really hamstring it from a usability perspective; unlike iOS and Android, there are few controls that are located at the very top of the screen. I'm not particularly married to MS software and services so it wasn't my cup of tea, and I'm hesitant to review it positively or negatively based on my experience with pre-production hardware and software.

    With the release of the iPhone 5 I wouldn't call it the best hardware. It's the biggest. The display is significantly better than the panel on the Galaxy S III, which is a pile of poorly-calibrated, PenTile-addled garbage. The processor is fast enough to carry WP8, though the GPU is an Adreno 225, which is a whole generation behind the parts found in the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III.

    I tell people that there are only two phones on the market today: the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy Nexus (in a few days the Nexus 4, and 4.7" monstrosity from LG). Nothing else is worth considering. With so much on the horizon this is bound to change, but these are your two options today.

    Regarding the first post: check out MiUI, and Android fork which aims to smooth over some of the UI weirdness in android. http://miuiandroid.com/
    Post edited by konistehrad on
  • edited October 2012
    Aria, I suggest you read through the Kickstarter TOS in detail (I highly doubt that you have even skimmed them). Especially the recent tightening of their rules regarding providing qualifications and assessing risks might affect you. Kickstarter is no dummy and I think they are also realizing that amateur hour needs to end fast if they want to stay alive.

    UI design is very hard to do. Implementing that design next to impossible. And I'm not even talking about a design that everyone will like, I'm just talking about a design that you'll like and getting it done exactly the way you want it.

    If you really, really want this I suggest you pick one single thing that irks you about the Android UI and try to fix it to your liking and perfect it. Make it so that it actually works, is efficient, and is beautifull. This will be difficult enough but not too difficult to do on the side of anything else you are doing to earn a living.

    However, if you want sleep more than this one single thing, you're not going to make it. If you want to read comics more than this thing then you're not going to make it. If you want to hang out with your friends more... well you get the point.

    I have had the fortune to know a couple of people that are passionate about what they do. I almost never see them. They seldom hang out with their friends because they work and work and work, and they get very, very good at what they do.

    Designing a new Android UI that gets widespread recognition and adoption is not going to start with IGN going "look how much money this kickstarter got". It has to start with you not posting to this forum for the next six months because you are too busy doing real shit!
    Post edited by Dr. Timo on
  • I kind of like the Chameleon Project. It was kickstarted, and development is going pretty quickly. Not entirely usable yet, but looks promising.
  • edited October 2012
    I want to try it, but there's no way I'm paying $10 without so much as a trial.
    Post edited by trogdor9 on
  • I had a look at a Lumia with Windows 7 (or 8?) on it, and it was super sweet. When the owner was using it, and I could see the fluidity of the UI, it was the first time I realized just how dated the iPhone iOS really looks. Sure, on my retina screen I can't see the cracks, but windows 8 is designed in a way there are no cracks.
  • If the Lumia you looked at was owned by anyone other than a Nokia employee, it was running Windows Phone 7. The 920 and 820 phones that everyone is talking about won't be released until later this month.
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