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#36 Bottom navigation bar
Hi!
Ive been maintaining a fork of your app on github mostly to make it run on android 14, but I've seen you've updated it, and also I've made the menu a bottom bar to respect the newer google's guidelines.
Before opening a pull request i wanted to make sure you're interested in seeing it in your app as well, I'll attach some screenshots here let me know!
Hi Gitro,
Thank you for sharing screenshots and the concept for your menu system.
It is good to see you embraced the spirit of Free Software and have created and shared a version that supports Android 14. Now onto the menu system...
Both the menu system you designed and the one I designed have certain trade-offs.
BOTTOM BAR MENU SYSTEM:
Following are some pros and cons as I see them.
PROS:
The named buttons in the bottom menu bar are obvious to the user as menu items.
In portrait mode there is plenty of space for the bottom menu bar and also the list of games.
CONS:
In landscape mode the bottom menu bar will likely encroach into the playing card area (more than I would like).
In landscape mode the list of games will not likely fit vertically and require some alternate solution.
CARAT MENU SYSTEM:
There are also trade-offs to the alternate menu system I chose with the carat "^" near the bottom center of the screen.
PROS:
Maximizes the card playing area in both landscape and portrait modes
Menu list is scrollable so can handle more entries than fit vertically on screen.
Another minor point is that it does not add much to the APK file size.
CONS
The carat is not immediately obvious as a menu item to a user
The carat can be more difficult to long press when there is a column of cards on either side of the carat.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
What I liked about the original Ken Magic solitaire game was that it was developed for landscape mode and also had large card art. Further it used a three dot "..." options menu that took up only a small portion of the system bar (the one with Back, Home, and App overview/Recents). This meant that virtually the whole screen was available for the card playing area.
Unfortunately the three dot "..." options menu was deprecated.
It was important to me to maintain the "maximized playing area" feature and have access to the menu. This lead to my design choice to add a carat "^" near the bottom center of the screen. To help users learn about this alternate menu I placed a note at the start of a user's first game informing them that a long press on the carat "^" will bring up an alternate menu. While not perfect or immediately obvious, the carat "^" menu has shown itself to be a reasonable replacement menu.
Regards,
Curtis
Hi, thank you for your detailed response!
I understand the pros and cons, the reason i made the bottom bar i because i mainly play in portrait so all the cards fit in the screen.
I'll leave it in my fork then, if you'll ever decide to make the switch let me know, i'll be glad to help!
Thanks Gitro for your understanding and for offering to help implement your bottom menu bar system.
For now I plan to continue with the carat menu system. If I should change my mind I will be sure to consider your offer.
Cheers,
Curtis