[fidotron]

In the sense that it's annoying a lot of Android users, it certainly is paying off.

What the current Android leadership simply don't understand is that there were a lot of Android users that bought Android devices because they didn't like iOS, not because they couldn't afford it. iOS 7 caused a critical mass of my iPhone using network to want to switch to Android, and now with Lollipop the reverse is happening, since if people wanted the iOS experience they might as well get the real thing.

Design fascism works when you're in a niche, but will never be mass market. Windows Phone is similarly lauded in design circles but mysteriously fails to sell, and this is why. The crowds praising all these "improvements" are the sort of people that actually thought Windows Mobile was not only tolerable, but a good idea.

My gut is Google think this is the only way to get iOS users to switch, and they aren't too concerned about existing users, but the side effect of this is that all of the major smartphone OSs have reached the same level of out-of-touch ness that we had prior to the original iPhone coming along.

[gtaylor]

> My gut is Google think this is the only way to get iOS users to switch

Huh? I've been an Android user since the days of the Moto Droid, and I really like the design direction they're taking. It's clean, it's not full of crappy, drastic gradients and obscene amounts of clutter. Some of the menus/lists are organized better now, which I greatly appreciate. The Music app is actually bearable now. The Gmail app is better than ever for my usage cases.

The only thing that annoys me is the new Message app removing the ability to swipe convos off when you are "done" with them. But that's a small little annoyance to get all of the other goodies.

I'm sure there are others that hate it, but it's not like everyone does. I'm more satisfied with my phone now than I've ever been.

[davidcgl]

> In the sense that it's annoying a lot of Android users, it certainly is paying off.

Do you have any data to back this up? From what I can tell, a majority of Lollipop reviews trend positive.

> there were a lot of Android users that bought Android devices because they didn't like iOS

Again, is this your presumption or do you have any source to back this up?

> iOS 7 caused a critical mass of my iPhone using network to want to switch to Android, and now with Lollipop the reverse is happening

A critical mass of my Android using network welcome and love the refreshing new look. Does that prove anything though? No, because my network doesn't include ~1 billion other Android users [1].

Design is a pretty subjective field, and what appeals to you doesn't necessarily appeal to others. You never really know what the majority camp is without an extensive study. What really gets me is when people start projecting their opinions as facts.

[1] http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/25/google-io-2014-by-the-num...

[tree_of_item]

What exactly don't you like about the new design direction? You mentioned people wanting to switch because of Lollipop/material/"design facism", but I'm not sure why.

[fidotron]

Almost everything. The colours, the flatness, the overreliance on animation to reveal cues that have been hidden by removing too many of the useful aspects of colours and depth.

Material design is a company led attempt to create a fad a la Metro. They'll keep trying for about 18 months before they create a new one where it's back to bevels again. Just don't expect any of the non-Google apps to follow it, in the same way that all previous efforts went wrong.

Incidentally the number of U-turns by Google on this stuff is incredible. We were previously told explicitly not to attempt doing physical analogues of motion etc. as those didn't map to the app navigation model . . . but now that's exactly what they want.

What really grates though is just how the developer experience for all this stuff seems to be going backwards.