search

murraycu / android-galaxyzoo

This Android app lets you classify Galaxy Zoo subjects. It is available in the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.murrayc.galaxyzoo.app . Try beta versions early here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.murrayc.galaxyzoo.app . See also the iPhone app for Galaxy Zoo: https://github.com/murraycu/ios-galaxyzoo/
GNU General Public License v3.0
11 stars 13 forks source link

Poor use of vertical screen real estate on small devices #39

Open StevanWhite opened 7 years ago

StevanWhite commented 7 years ago

Here's a 4" Huawei Y360.

The full image fails to fill the breadth of the screen by almost a cm, evidently because of excessive vertical use of the screen.

This has the corrollary problem that the object at the horizontal center of the screen is no longer the object of the evaluation.

At the very top is the Android bar... I don't know if that can or should be disabled. Then a very wide banner, mostly to say in big letters the name of the app. That could be reduced. At the bottom are textual instructions and large buttons. They are larger than is appropriate on this device.

screenshot_galaxyzoo_y360

murraycu commented 7 years ago

Maybe we can switch to a full screen mode, at least. I don't know if we would then still see the title bar (and its menu), which we need.

We could also look at reducing the percentage size of the button images on smaller devices.

I guess that the title bar sizes are standard, but maybe you could compare it to similar apps on your device.

StevanWhite commented 7 years ago

Full-screen mode plus re-designed buttons, plus re-thinking the text message would probably be enough on this device.

For the banner, you're right -- it is standard on Android (nothing to do with my device I think).

Let me point out that as it stands, the "G" in that banner is often bigger than the object the user is supposed to be intepreting.

So I suggest that you make the logo a bit smaller, and use the banner for something toward the goal of the app. For example: the instruction text sometimes takes several lines, and this is part of the real-estate problem. The instruction text has titles, such as "Shape", "Disk", that are put on a separate line. How about putting the instruction title in the banner? That would save a whole line, and make better use of screen real estate.

Hey -- are you telling me you don't have an emulator there for a 4" screen device?

If I were you, I would also strive for 3.5" screen devices. They still exist (and I and a lot of other people would buy them if they still made them.)