Android: Emerging UI Pattern - Side Navigation

This pattern comes from the official Android Design recommendations for Android 4.0: <a href="http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/multi-pane-layouts.html" rel="nofollow">http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/multi-pane-layo...</a><p>It's clearly a way to adapt the tablet multi-pane paradigm to fit on small screens. Based on my Android experience, this unified approach requires a lot less work than maintaining completely separate layouts (and Activity design) for tablet and phone.

Doesn't seem to me like it's specific to Android. Facebook implemented the same thing in Android, iOS and mobile website almost simultaneously, and many iOS apps followed suit as well, eg. Sparrow, Path, Steam.<p>Also, a small gripe: with the Facebook iOS app, dragging the top-left menu button with your finger actually caused the side menu to follow exactly where you finger was, following the principle of Direct Manipulation (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_manipulation_interface" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_manipulation_interface</a>). The Facebook app on Android and mobile web fail to do this, as with the many other apps mimiccing this UI.

How revolutionary - a menu system with less horizontal pixels because you have another unusable screen being partially presented at the same time. Yawn.

It's funny, I didn't know that the Google+ app did this until I read the article. I always assumed that it was a back button.

Take a look at the now defunct webOS. Many of the newer UI enhancements are taken directly from it. I really wish HP went somewhere with it, but alas, it's just an extra boot option on my fire sale touchpad....

Dolphin Browser also uses this to slide in the bookmarks from the left side and it makes for very rapid browsing - you don't even have to type in parts of Urls anymore.

Wasn't the Twitter for iPad app the first to come up with this pattern, in september 2010?

Good article but still I believe that this is far from innovative. What's wrong with dashboards? I mean why not take all the space when you've got something to present to the user?<p>The useless right part of the screen is a complete waste of space and looks totally weird.<p>I really don't like where the general UI concepts are going. Apple UX is now very discussable, Windows' tiles are a good idea but replacing the start menu with them is kind of a misstep... Argh I could go on for days...<p>Apple, what's happening with the futuristic look and feel? Why including leather in your calendar?!

I’m actually really liking the new ICS-style action bar dropdown, like used in the Gmail and calendar apps. Seems to do roughly the same in a more consistent manner.

I like it. The hard menu button is unintuitive. Pressing it is always a last ditch effort to find something.

What's wrong with tab bars? I mean, most iOS apps use it and if you need more navigation items, you devote one tab for "More". the Android version of Instagram does this the right way.

Interesting how Windows Phone 7 and Metro are not mentioned anywhere, given their pioneering of this.

Congratulations. You've re-invented the menu.

Well written article.

<a href="https://github.com/Inferis/ViewDeck" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Inferis/ViewDeck</a><p>OpenSource Path 2.0 style menus for iOS