Multiple versions of Andlytics now?

[andlyticsproject]

Multiple versions of Andlytics now?

[AndyScherzinger]

Regarding the different versions. One is from Maurizio and has a pop up direction the user to this app. The other one is from fda77 and will also be taken off at some point in the future. So we will be the only release...

Regarding the icon. Where is our icon flipped? Redux is the only flipped one. Right now I do not see any reason to change the icon since former users of the old releases know this icon. For standing out... Doesn't make sense to me. Everyone can checkout this app and release it with the same icon. So that doesn't help... I am quite confident that there will be no redundant releases in the market.

For everything else I recommend to open issues for single ideas wishes etc. which makes handling this easier.

Regarding your mockup. It shows less information since the total numbers aren't displayed. Plus I am not sure it still looks good when you have more apps in the list. My impression is that it'll then be way to many icons of the same type on the screen...

Can't comment mire on this right know since I am using my cell phone right now.

More to come Sunday / Monday

[AndyScherzinger]

Regarding config, already added an issue for that. But won't implement it before I integrated ABS. Might do that this month...

[AndyScherzinger]

Will also remove the first account screen and merge it with the main view plus user switch via menue

The icon is flipped on google play, just as I said.....unless there is another "redundant" version of the app out there using the same name.

Andy... for starters, when someone offers something for free, like the icon or design advice, try being polite rather than being negative and tearing the idea down. If you like it, then great, if not, then no skin off my sac. But the main thing to keep in mind now, is that this is not your project. It is open source now and there are now multiple people contributing to it, therefore it is a group decision. You can't just quash an idea simply because you can't grasp a valid design concept or the benefit of something. So get off your high horse there. Again, since this is now an open source, group project, then every idea or concept is valid and is worth discussing as a group. If you tear down every idea or concept that someone else suggests for the app simply because you don't like it or see its value, then people aren't going to want to contribute and help anymore. So think about that. There is no stupid or invalid idea when it comes to an open source project.

As for my mockup...I said it was a quick draft. The main point I was trying to get across is that right now, the current UI simply doesn't follow current design standards....it isn't following any for that matter. Right now there is too much info on the screen. The whole point of my mockup was to illustrate a way to take the most important information and to organize it in such a way that it saves space. The current UI would be great as a per app widget or for use on tablets, but on phones (especially smaller ones), it simply takes up too much real estate. You end up scrolling a lot if you have a handful or more of apps...defeats the goal of at-a-glance. There's nothing wrong with making the phone layout optimized. You can use the same general layout and effect, just optimize it better. If a user has to expend the vast amount of energy it takes to make a single click to view more detailed info, then so be it. As long as you get the most important info shown with a concise, at a glance view, then good.

As for your point about redundant releases on the market...you contradicted yourself bud. The app is open source now. That means that it is inevitable that there can and will be other versions of the app out there. All it takes is another developer with a different vision for the app to make their own version. All it takes is for one or more developer here in this group to be unsatisfied with the direction or that their idea wasn't heard or outright dismissed....and they can go off and make their own version. The point is that if you, and anyone else for that matter, want this version to be the go to version, then you are going to have to listen to your users and implement what they want, not what YOU want. Right now, if another dev released a version that didn't have the admob crap in it (complete waste of space for most users), followed UI standards and integrated much desired info such as google checkout info for the apps, then you know as well as I do and everyone else does that that would be the go to version of the app until something better came along.

[AndyScherzinger]

I am very, very Sorry if it came out this way / negative. This wasn't my intention at all! I like your ideas very much and they are like everyone else's opinion highly appreciated. Won't happen again.

Just for clearification: I have never though about this being my project! And I don't think it is fair to imply that just because I critized you in a bad style.

All in all I really think we got off on the wrong foot here! I do value your input like everyone else's very much and I also want to implement the ideas of the user base! As for your ideas, I really like them and my fault has been not to say that and instead only mention things I miss.

I would really like to get past this misunderstanding and get back to pushing this app design/UX-wise and add functionality the community desires!

OSS discussion I am totally agree on your argument! My point is that I don't think that there will be redundant releases in a technical way. Of course there might or will be versions that went on from this code base an do have a different approch/goal/you name. My point is that I don't think anyone will release the exact same version.

As for your ideas, what I understood:

• Configuration in a seperat single screen
• Admob visibility by configuration
• Pushing design to 4.0+
• Design refresh for the main screen and the way the apps gives a general overview about the app's stats and their changes
• add Google checkout stats capabilities

Like I said before I hope we can get past this misunderstanding where it got kinda personal on both sides and start working on this app again. There are no hard feelings on my side! So are we good?

[AndyScherzinger]

Regarding the icon can you tell me exactly which icon is flipped, I just the the icon with an graph going up from left to right, for the app icon, the icon on the market and on all app screenshots in the market. Would you mind taking a screenshot? Probably my mistake but I do not see a flipped icon :(

If you go to google play on the web and search for andlytics, you'll see that the redux version is flipped. Same when you click on it and go to the actual page for it.

As for the icon I designed...again, you are free to use if it you'd like. I just modified it so it looks more like the original. The idea behind changing it is to signify it's reboot. Big companies do it all the time and its successful. Whenever they relaunch an old product and begin updating/improving it, they'll redo their branding. So that's all I did. I basically cleaned up the icon and inverted the color scheme. That, and others are likely to use the old icon if/when they make their own version. Just another way to set the app apart. The same link above works if you wanna check it out again. Up to y'all on that.

As for the concept/layout/general stuff. How is all that being decided on? There definitely should be some sort of way to organize and accept ideas/concepts, etc...and table others. Some ideas/features would definitely be good as part of the main app, and then if the app is made plugable, then other, smaller, specific, less used features can be made as plugins. Like the admob and other ad stuff. In regards to the ad stuff, I personally don't think the app should use or endorse any specific one since not all users will use it...just goes back to the idea of making those be optional plugins. That's just my approach...I'm using it in one of my apps. Give users the basics and then let them pick and choose what added features they want...lets them customize the app to their needs.

As for main app features that would make this a complete, solid go to app....the stuff it has now, checkout info and analytic info....of course the checkout and analytic stuff could be plugins too.

[AndyScherzinger]

Now I get it :) You are talking about the redux version, right? That one has been published by Maurizio and he will pull it off at some point.

As for the icon, I especially like the details of the icon. As you already mentioned the project should make the decisions. So would you mind opening up a dedicated issue just for the icon and put it up for a vote. I kinda had the same idea with making it blue, since the theming is blue now, which people like, see issue comments and market. My idea there was to still be close to the old one, since it has been a relaunch and I/we wanted people to recognize the (former) logo. Any comment on this? Especially on the color theme of your icon? Point is, it would be used on the market and in the app on the top left according to ICS style guidelines.

As for decisions: This really is a problem... Github with the organization's concept is great to organize code changes and distributed development. The issue tracker is also fine for bug tracking and right it is also used for feature requests and discussion, with the wishlists, like yours and also others the issue tracker is definitely the wrong tool. Noone has yet found the time to look for a better system to get user input. Might have to take a look at things like getSatisfaction where people can post feature requests and vote on them. We definitely need something like that but it hasn't been taken care of yet. So my opinion is basically: Github is not a tool for user feedback.

Any ideas or experience on good & free user feedback tools?

One "technical" thing: If we use your icon, every other release will do that too if they don't actively change the icon since it is part of the code base. Only way to fight this would be legally, having a different license on the icon files, so other developers would be allowed to use the code and all the icon work except the logo and logo icon.

www.spiderflystudios.com/files/andlytics2.png Here's a blue version. If people wanna use it, then I have no problem optimizing it to the various sizes needed.

This is just my idea for managing things with the project. First, I'd break it up into two. The main/original app and the redux. Leave the main app alone, as is, except for any necessary code changes to make it work with whatever dev console changes there are. Then keep the redux version separated with all it's enhancements. That way the redux version can use whatever icon is chosen. Those who want to make Andlytics their own can grab the code from the original file, etc.

For organizing things... I'd say that things should be divided up...development and design. A few of the key developers will pick the most popular features to work on. Once that list is made, then the designers can being mocking up how to make it look. When choosing new features, keep it basic. Don't add things that you would use, but others may not (admob for example). Put only the most widely asked for features into the main app. Then make the API plugable so that other features can be added by users/devs as an as needed/desired basis. This keeps the main app simple and allows users to add/use only what they want or need. Users seem to appreciate that.

[AndyScherzinger]

Uh! I just got it!

The new official is the blue one by Andlytics Project!!! That the one this Github project is releasing to! And also the reason why it looks like the mockups :-)

[AndyScherzinger]

Will mock it into the actual app Screenshots next week and put it up here. Like the blue color :-)

So that's the one we should be using? Just making sure. That's the problem when an app goes open source. You end up with several versions of basically the same app until one of them takes the lead.

Well all the same... If you want to use the icon you're welcome to. Just from a design standpoint, the bright blue...be careful with it. The current icon and the promo graphic use it a lot and it is hard on the eyes. That's why in my blue version of the icon I dulled it out just a little so it isn't so harsh on the visuals. That bright blue is definitely only really good as a highlight/accent color and use. If you wanted, you could dull out the blue you are using. For the ICS design standards, it isn't really about the colors being used. You can change up the colors to make it your own, but use the same layouts.

All in all...if y'all want some free design help, just lemme know what you need. Its what I do for a living. I've even helped Google with one of their app designs.

Just did a slight update to that icon...put a slight drop shadow around the icon to make it stand out against lighter drops.

As for how to do some kind of general feature request and/or voting thing... One option is to create an official website for the app and have those features on there. I can help with that. I have the hosting space to spare and I build websites. If that's something y'all would be interested in just lemme know. I'd build the site with WordPress and of course would add one or two of ya to the admin login so you can freely update the content, etc. Just lemme know.

[AndyScherzinger]

Thank you very much for all of your offer. They sound really great and would also be the way to got from my personal point of view! I am off to bed now but will try to implement your suggestions for the color theme asap.

As for the icon, and true you color scheme is way more pleasing for the eyes, I like that. Nevertheless like you said we should let the people or at least the people on this Github project have a voting since the icon is pretty much a central artifact of the app.

Regarding your question, yes the blue is released from this project. The other two are former releases by two of the developers on this project and both already said that they will remove them.

Thanks for the color input for the grey tone. Would you mind also coming up with hex codes for the white-ish color and maybe the highlight color? I really like the blue but maybe you know a better shade or other color which is more complementing and eye pleasing to if you have the time for this.

GN8
Will check back tomorrow with more comments and probably questions and call for help for screen designs.
Time isn't of the essence here since most of us are doing some structuring work under the hood which should help us to change things quicker in the future and to make it easier for other people to understand the code an make changes to it. The second thing we are working on right now is translation to provide Andlytics to more non-English speaking users. Nevertheless there is always time to change the UI on the way.

ttyl
Andy

For the color of the white, I usually go with either #dddddd or #eeeeee depending on the other colors being used. In this case, with a darker grey of #252525, the dddddd would be a good background color, but for the white text, the eeeeee might work better. With these slightly dulled out colors, it just makes it easier on the eyes and easier to read. As for a highlight color...maybe something like #299496. Its based on the same blue color used in ICS, just dulled out some. You can play around with that color to get a good hue of the blue you are looking for. Just keep in mind that the colors will look a lil different to everyone.

[fda77]

So everyone understood now that there are no "Multiple versions" this will be closed.

For UI related changes are some issues open like #25
Please post there (what you actually did).
Btw, screenshots are easier to score like a bunch of numbers