Tuesday, May 18, 2010

First GUI sketches

Awaiting your opinions :) Sorry for bad quality, will upload scans ASAP




12 comments:

  1. Looks good to me, only thing I would say is I don't Android has an audio record.

    There are alternative app's on the market, that you could use to give the user the option of downloading to then use with this application.

    In terms of enabling / disabling verbose logging, I'm not sure how necessary that is?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Matt,
    As for recording audio, Android by default has 'Voice Recorder' app.

    'Verbose logging' - since there where quite many problems with U1 when 10.04 hit the market, and my application will be brand new, the user may opt-in to intensely log info/warning/error messages and send them as feedback, if needed. That may be removed in RC or such ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome project. This just makes me want to get an Android phone even more :)

    What I'm wondering about, though - will this app also be syncing files by downloading them to the phone like the desktop U1 client does? Because if so, the initial sync could be quite stressing to the 3G network. Also, people who are paying for U1 and have multiple GB's of data will have a hard time syncing that much data to the phone (unless they have 50GB+ of internal storage space or a 64GB flash card of course).

    Finally, I see you provide easy uploading of images, audio and video. But what about other types of files?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi iGadget,

    Thanks :) ! You can find more brainstorm-like info related to your findings here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/specs/UbuntuOneForAndroid whereas my regular proposal (so, the basic features that will be implemented first, can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GSoC/2010/MichalKarnicki ). Based on the specs provided (see BoF agenda section) the app will first work in semi sync mode - sync only selected (favourite) files (preferably syncing on WIFI, which often is free opposed to 3G).

    As for your second question, these media types are most popular, so should be easily accessible. One possibility to give more power to the user would be to add 'Other' to the list (Picture, Video, Audio) so that advanced users could browse the whole device to upload any file :) But that is one of the options that might get implemented after all the basic features will.

    Thanks for your interest!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This looks excellent. Nice work. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thank you ^ ^ ! Balsamiq mockups on the way.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I think you are confusing a third party application with a default application :-P

    'Voice Recorder' is free on the Android Market, but isn't installed by default.

    I get what the verbose logging is for now - its for sending data rather than logging. I was confusing Logcat logging (The log stored on every android phone while it's used)

    The only thing I'm not crazy about is the favorite button. To me a fav / start doesn't symbolise a sync'ed file (although I tend to like my UI's quite unique so take everything I say with a big pinch of salt :-P)

    Looking forward to this getting underway

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi again Matt!

    I'm pretty sure I didn't install voice recorder, still think it's a default app :) Made a little google search and found:
    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2564871/default-record-voice-in-android

    .. so I should be on the safe side :) (I'm using Android 1.5, perhaps it's not there by default in a newer version of Android?)

    You got the logging pretty right - I see it that way: if a user encounters a problem, she/he enables logging, tries to replicate the problem, then uses 'Send feedback' and there checks 'Include debug log' checkbox. I think that way it is both beneficial for me as a developer, and clear for the user, that he's sending me some debug data (not his/her private data).

    As for the stars suggestion, I think that they give the application android-consistent looks. And using 'favourite' terminology is both easy to understand and known to users, that's what I believe.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks good to me, there's just one thing i'm wondering about.
    Under settings there's #Account: Current Plan# and then next there is #Manage: Upgrade Subscription"
    Isn't this kind of the same thing twice, and thus just cluttering the interface?

    I'd suggest removing the Current plan button and change the button under Manage to something like:
    +--------------------+
    | CHANGE SUBSCIPTION |
    | Current plan: Free |
    +--------------------+

    Or am i missing something?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Bavo,

    I see your point. The 'Account' settings section was intended to be more of an information, rather than a do-something space. I was aiming at similar looks to 'Ubuntu One Preferences' (Account tab) you will find in the meMenu (click on your name in the top-right corner and then Ubuntu One). That way, we would get an U1-consistent look, don't you think :)?

    But your suggestion is sound, thanks! I will take that into consideration.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I see,
    (i don't really because i'm on a computer using this thingy called windows :0, but anyway I get the point)

    consistency is good, clutter is bad.
    Question is witch is more important?

    Why can't this things just be easy, huh :)

    Anyway whatever you decide, I know you'll have thought it trough.

    ReplyDelete
  12. @Bavo

    Thanks for your valuable comments. I will ask my mentor for his opinion on that matter.

    ReplyDelete