In regard to the Google+ for Android "redesign".. Roman Nurik confirmed, this morning, that the navigation drawer pattern isn't going anywhere anytime soon. [1]
Also, if any devs are thinking of including a bottom tab bar for their Android apps, please don't. [2]
The navigation drawer is ergonomically equivalent to the deprecated "dashboard," except for touching to the right of the drawer to dismiss it. It looks a bit better, but it works just as poorly, being a place where you can do nothing but go to some other place.
As for the warning against using a "bottom tab bar" that's an iPhone idiom that should not be carried to Android. BUT Android has a split Action Bar option that is an Android-kosher way of displaying commands along the bottom of handset-sized layouts, and automatically putting them in the top action bar on large tablet-sized layouts.
The screen shot next to the "bottom tab bar" discussion is a bit confusing. It does not actually show tabs in an action bar, as the caption indicates it should.
Who cares what performs better in user tests, right? User behavior is clearly imaginary, you should just do what Google tells you to in their design documentation, because it's 'consistent', regardless of whether it makes it harder to use your software or hurts your revenues so you can't pay salaries. Consistency is most important!
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In regard to the Google+ for Android "redesign".. Roman Nurik confirmed, this morning, that the navigation drawer pattern isn't going anywhere anytime soon. [1]
Also, if any devs are thinking of including a bottom tab bar for their Android apps, please don't. [2]
[1] https://i.imgur.com/gF7TpEU.jpg
[2] https://developer.android.com/design/patterns/pure-android.h...
The navigation drawer is ergonomically equivalent to the deprecated "dashboard," except for touching to the right of the drawer to dismiss it. It looks a bit better, but it works just as poorly, being a place where you can do nothing but go to some other place.
As for the warning against using a "bottom tab bar" that's an iPhone idiom that should not be carried to Android. BUT Android has a split Action Bar option that is an Android-kosher way of displaying commands along the bottom of handset-sized layouts, and automatically putting them in the top action bar on large tablet-sized layouts.
The screen shot next to the "bottom tab bar" discussion is a bit confusing. It does not actually show tabs in an action bar, as the caption indicates it should.
Who cares what performs better in user tests, right? User behavior is clearly imaginary, you should just do what Google tells you to in their design documentation, because it's 'consistent', regardless of whether it makes it harder to use your software or hurts your revenues so you can't pay salaries. Consistency is most important!