Button to the right on the return key is it a standard android button?

[Guest topcat07]

Been looking at other android phones and they seem to have the return, home, search but not the one with three lines in. Do android phone manufacturers have to follow a convention with these buttons to be 'allowed' to ship there phones with android? Nice to have the extra one I must say :D

[Guest ASBharj]

No, older phones used to have the menu key. Most newer phone have ditched the search and menu, and just put on a return, home, and multitask. There is no standard convention, as android is open source, so anybody can put it on their phone.

Edited April 5, 2013 by ASBharj

[Guest glossywhite]

No, older phones used to have the menu key. Most newer phone have ditched the search and menu, and just put on a return, home, and multitask. There is no standard convention, as android is open source, so anybody can put it on their phone.

No, I think you are wrong, with respect. There *is* a standard convention, and for the sake of usability and consistency, one is recommended (not forced) to follow their guidelines; whether or not people choose to design to a standard that makes their UI fall into place with the experience found in the OS as a whole (read: intuitive and well trodden) is a different matter entirely, as we see a lot with Android:

http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html

[Guest ASBharj]

Yes, I agree.

[Guest glossywhite]

Yes, I agree.

It's all well and good building the code, but often designers see the interface - the part that *humans* interact with, as an afterthought, whereas they have it back to front - get the interface spot on FIRST, elegant and intuitive, then you put the back end in and wire it all up, then continue refining it and taking away all the distractions and visual noise until its clean and simple enough to understand so that you can work it out when you're standing in a queue on the tube or surrounded by screaming children - it needs to be usable at a glance.