Google's recent component addition(Bottom Navigation) to the material design spec has got some mixed reactions.
There already are many options for navigation and the Android UI is only getting more and more cluttered with these additions.
Here are few comments from the internet:
Now you have the pleasure of 3 app menus – hamburger, kebab and tab bar – all within one screen. What a deal!
They copied the tab bar, and made it worse? Why would you encourage designers to hide labels? Why would you hide the bar when scrolling? So much confusion.
I think it's good to have flexibility in the UI solutions that are available to us. Each one of these has a specific use case they address. No one solution is perfect for everything.
What do hashnoders think about this new addition?
Useful? or a UI blunder?
I think it's a pretty nice addition. Adding to the last quote you mentioned, what I would say is:
I think it's good to have flexibility in the UI solutions that are available to us. Each one of these has a specific use case they address. No one solution is perfect for everything.
Plus, it will be pretty good for designers and users as well.
The way I understand it is:
Hamburger: Major sections in a larger app
Tab Bar: Sub-sections within a view, to split content types for instance
Kebab: Contextual actions for the current view (refresh, help, etc.)
Ida Hansen
Front-end Designer
IMO, it was one of the missing components in MD guidelines. It should have been there from day 1. I am mainly concerned about two situations: