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Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

I shouldn't worry, you should try Android's time picker.

Consider a generation not used to the analogue wrist-watch, and give them a clock face with an outer 24-hour clock and an inner 12 hour clock, and then ask the user to select time using the tip of their finger, on a small phone screen, on the inner or outer circle to the hour and minute that they wish.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SK2ljlhHiCU/UaiEjF1lhGI/AAAAAAABJq...

Oh, and that top bit... the time that most people would read and want to change? Yeah, that's just display. Tapping that does nothing useful, just flips the mode from hours to minutes but you can't change the time that way.

So: A modal interface, on a circular control, with small areas of touch, that you cannot navigate one-handed accurately, and that uses the least popular display of time.

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Which picker/app is that? Here's the time picker in the Clock app (for setting alarms) on 4.3 (CM 10.2):

http://i.imgur.com/KhhHul5.png

It's the time picker in the Calendar app. It was introduced in May: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/29/google-calendar-for-andro...

Personally, I rather like the new time picker and have never experienced any usability problems. Also, the appearance depends on your time settings; the inner circle the parent poster mentions only appears if you use 24-hour time.

You know, it's the only time picker I see in Android. Such is my heavy use of Google Calendar.

> the inner circle the parent poster mentions only appears if you use 24-hour time.

Which is only the vast majority of the world (about half a dozen countries use 12h clocks as a standard in written form).

(as it turns out, that means the vast majority of the world won't give a fig about the AM/PM selector being broken, the touch targets are a much bigger issue)

I think Android's (4.2 and up I think) date and time pickers set the bar personally. I love how you can tap or tap and drag around the circle.

Yeah, that time picker is awesome. All the other apps need to use this one, especially Calendar.

Yup. That's all I want.

Exactly. Stop being fancy with silly analog clock metaphors - time is numbers, just give me a numerical keypad.

I disagree. The measurement of time is based on our planet's rotation and its revolution around the Sun. Which are both ideally represented as circles that wrap around. I absolutely think that the Android Calendar app does a great job of making event entry quick and precise.

That one is a customized view just for the google calendar app.

The standard time picker is this one: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/controls/picker...

I used this UI for the first time the other day and actually liked it a lot. I found it quick and easy to get the time I needed to specify.

Where are you seeing that UI? At least on Android 4.1, the normal time picker is similar to the iOS ones.

New in 4.3.

I actually love that picker a lot. It's efficient when you use it with one hand it it's not nearly as confusing as the alarm clock one which would break down completely if you would have to target a specific date.

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