[Rewrite] Top bar should be more minimal

[inson1]

Top bars right now seems too much cluttered
For example in sms messenger, flashlight, voice recorder, clock there are 3 icons, when one should be enought
In others there could maybe be more minimalistic top bar too

[naveensingh]

@inson1 can you attach some screenshots?

[brucetheelephant]

I agree. Here is a comparison between Simple Contacts and Right Contacts.

There are 4 icons in Simple Contacts and only 2 in the Right Contacts. The 2 additional apps in Simple Contacts you barely use.

[GuitarBilly]

I had similar suggestion, based on current inconsistency between apps. It seems the discussion was deleted so i cannot refer to it?!

@naveensingh :
[FossifyOrg/Clock] Fossify UI consistency ( Settings, About, More apps from us ) (Discussion # 44)

[naveensingh]

[FossifyOrg/Clock] Fossify UI consistency ( Settings, About, More apps from us ) (Discussion # 44)

@GuitarBilly I am investigating the missing discussion.

[naveensingh]

It turns out some discussions were deleted by accident. I asked Github Support to restore them but they are unable to do so.

[Saarsk]

I don't see this as an improvement. :) Apps aren't decoration, they are tools. And removing those buttons just makes it more tedius and slow to use that finctionality when you need to.

What tends to happen in practice is that people just don't use the functionality. The golden rule of software UX is that features have to feel fast and effortless to use for people to use them. If there's too much friction in the UI, even if it saves time, people won't do it. If it's tedius and you have to memorize or think, despite being much faster, people won't use it.

So, hopefully this becomes an option instead. That way everyone are happy. :) There is never a one size fits all.

[brucetheelephant]

What tends to happen in practice is that people just don't use the functionality.

So you are against removing buttons which people don't use. Hmm .. OK.

[naveensingh]

I'm favor of moving buttons like Settings, About etc. back into the option menu even when there is empty space but some actions like filter and sort buttons should stay where they are.

So, hopefully this becomes an option instead. That way everyone are happy. :) There is never a one size fits all.

I agree that there is no one size that fits everyone but we can't make everything customizable and the buttons shown as actions are more of a design choice. If we start making little things like this optional, we will end up with a lot of settings and toggles and that won't be 'simple'.

[Saarsk]

What tends to happen in practice is that people just don't use the functionality.

So you are against removing buttons which people don't use. Hmm .. OK.

Are you being serious? :/ Either you didn't read the comment or you didn't understand it. I'm not even sure how you came to this interpretation or whether you just wanted to be snarky.

:) Anyway, I'll try again:

The point I was making: The more tedium that is required from the user in order to benefit from a feature, the less likely is the user to use said functionality. It doesn't matter how useful it is. If it's tedious, requires too many taps or is otherwise convoluted or requires exertion and/or memorization - users will go to great lengths to avoid doing it. And in turn they will do things inefficiently and miss out on better workflows, just to avoid what feels tedious or requires exertion.

This is quite universal psychology and you'll find examples of this anywhere at any given day without even trying.

So the question "is x feature being used by people" leading to "if yes, keep it. If no, remove it" is usually not a good question and can be quite misguiding. If the feature has merit and users don't use the feature despite the fact, then one should re-assess the workflow and UI rather than questioning feature itself. The most common reason for people not adopting workflows or functionality is because it's not intuitively accessible. Laziness tends to prevail. People always want the shortest and easiest way at any given moment and they don't want to learn or having to remember - even if it means that they in the long-term end up spending 10x the time for a worse outcome.

Hopefully this clears up the confusion. ;)

The change being discussed here is not the best example of what I'm talking about, but the point still stands and it provides some fundation for my reasoning.

[Saarsk]

I'm favor of moving buttons like Settings, About etc. back into the option menu even when there is empty space but some actions like filter and sort buttons should stay where they are.

I think that's reasonable. While it can be useful to access quickly, Settings and About is a lot more likely to be accesses rarely.

So, hopefully this becomes an option instead. That way everyone are happy. :) There is never a one size fits all.

I agree that there is no one size that fits everyone but we can't make everything customizable and the buttons shown as actions are more of a design choice. If we start making little things like this optional, we will end up with a lot of settings and toggles and that won't be 'simple'.

I don't necessarily disagree (however, whenever toolbars are to be customizable I think a better way to present the customization to a user is via a drag and drop mechanism rather than isolated checkboxed options that quickly becomes overwhelming as you have to read through it all to get an overview of the settings in its entirety).

You are right that there are simply limits to the level of customization that can be stuffed into an app.

Though, in cases where additional options are deemed excessive, I think it's a good rule of thumb to favor an UI design choice which enables diversity of workflows and functionality - rather than limiting use-cases for the benefit of aesthetics and minimalism, as per the preferation of a certion type of user with a certain type of workflow. Again, I think it's important not to forget that the primary purpose of software is to be useful and functional. So it's important to consider different people and different use-cases, which ultimately caters for a wider group of people. :)

I do think the icons could be more intuitive, though. Currently, I think it's likely that many users will have to tap on them to know exactly what they do. It's obvious that it has to do with sorting or filtering - but they look very similar and could be more distinctive. :)