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53

answers:

1

This may sound a little strange, but I'm making a game for the Android phone, but I don't own one myself. I'm in a bit of a loss in designing my UI and need some suggestions from Anroid phone owners. The general idea is to have a screen where a user can start a board from the beginning or load a previous save game. I'm trying to minimize the UI and would like to give the user to remove any unwanted level or save game from the same selection. Here is what the UI looks like.

Play Level
+============+
| level 1    |
| level 2    |
| level 3    |
+============+
Saved Game
+============+
| save 1     |
| save 2     |
| save 3     |
+============+

So in terms of a vertical linear layout, there is a textview, listview, textview, listview. The user can touch/click the desired level/save_game to play. But I want to give them the option to delete any old saved game from this same screen. On my palm pre, I would just flick them to the side. This gesture doesn't seem to be available here. So my question is, How does other Andoid apps do this?

[update] I was half way through typing this when a friend of mine called. I remembered that he has an Android phone and he answered my question. Rather than scrapping this message, I thought I would post the answer to my question on the chance it may help someone else.

[answer] Use press+hold to pop-up a dialog. So clicking an item from either list will go right into play game mode. Pressing+holding an item will open a dialog with the option to delete or cancel.

I'd be interested in hearing other suggestions if you have any.

+1  A: 

The technique you describe -- using a context menu -- is a fine but incomplete solution. It is incomplete because it is not discoverable. Some users will never try long-tapping on the saved games list and will therefore never see the option to delete the game.

Ideally, there is a more discoverable pattern as well as the context menu, such as:

  • The screen you go to by tapping on a saved game has a "delete" option menu or button
  • The screen with the levels/saved games has an option menu leading to a "manage saved games" activity, where users can perhaps check off several games and delete them via an option menu
CommonsWare
Thanks, I'll be sure to implement your suggestions to my application.
Shawn