New Android Ice Cream Sandwich Enhances Usability with Button Free Design

Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) will boast an entirely button-free design, leading to a seamless user experience that is currently hotly anticipated by Android fans and critics alike.

The new system is doing away with a single menu button, which is being replaced by a context sensitive Action Bar that will reduce the number of screen taps required to initiate important user interactions.

This Action Bar is adaptive and will present relevant options to suit the current scenario, thus doing away with the need to scroll lengthy lists full of menu options.

The adoption of a purely onscreen button driven functionality also means that a more consistent overall experience can be offered from one Android system to the next. This will allow OEM’s the ability to standardise their systems and reduce future engineering time.

Capacitive buttons are also not as durable as a touchscreen system and are far more likely to malfunction if a phone has grounding issues. Transferring all control onscreen not only takes away this issue, but also allows manufacturers to provide bigger and better screens.

With these features at their disposal, we are sure to see some increasingly impressive devices being delivered, with great screens and ever more useful features.

• Tagged in:
• Android
• Design
• Mobile
• UI (User Interface)