App rebranding

[Tunous]

A lot of people didn't like the name Dank for the app. Perhaps it's a good time to change the name to something which would sound more professional? I personally very like the name Seek which someone shared in dank's subreddit previously but I'm open to other ideas.

@saket are you ok with this, or maybe you have other suggestions?
Also while I have a chance do you have any idea how we could work out to make the app available on the play store? I technically could create my own signing keys and upload them under my account (package name would change with rebranding to avoid conflict) but it kind of feels weird to have my name as the developer since you've made almost all of the work with it. (I can contact you somewhere else if you prefer)

[saket]

A lot of people didn't like the name Dank for the app. Perhaps it's a good time to change the name to something which would sound more professional?

Let me think about this. Re-branding the original repository will be better so that all forks receive the updates.

Also while I have a chance do you have any idea how we could work out to make the app available on the play store?

I have started considering pulling your changes upstream. It makes me so happy to see you all making constant bug fixes and feature additions. I did not expect this all. Let me see if I can afford doing this actively. If it works out, I'll keep uploading the updates. In the meanwhile, could you please upload the releases on Github?

but it kind of feels weird to have my name as the developer since you've made almost all of the work with it.

We can have the name of all major contributors in the about screen.

[Tunous]

Let me think about this. Re-branding the original repository will be better so that all forks receive the updates.

Yes, that would be the best option.

I have started considering pulling your changes upstream. It makes me so happy to see you all making constant bug fixes and feature additions.

That sounds great! I hope that you'll decide to do it 😀

Let me see if I can afford doing this actively. If it works out, I'll keep uploading the updates. In the meanwhile, could you please upload the releases on Github?

Definitely, my aim was to make as much as possible work automatically. One of the things I did is setup CircleCI (https://circleci.com/gh/Tunous/Dank). The config file I created includes jobs for building debug version of the app and also a job for uploading them to GitHub releases on each tag push to repository. It already works correctly in my fork. The same thing can be done with release builds.
It's also possible to automatically publish them to alpha channel on Play Store with help of Gradle plugins.

With all of that it would be possible to create a release by just pushing a tag to repository and it would land in Google Play alpha channel (or other depending on config)

[dotvhs]

About the name, perhaps new name could be cosmos/astronomy oriented? I do like the name Apollo for the iOS client and Snoo is an alien so perhaps Dank should also follow that lead. Good I did not start working on new app icon then.

[saket]

Definitely, my aim was to make as much as possible work automatically. One of the things I did is setup CircleCI (https://circleci.com/gh/Tunous/Dank). The config file I created includes jobs for building debug version of the app and also a job for uploading them to GitHub releases on each tag push to repository.

This looks good. I'll import it when possible.

[saket]

Alright let's do this: saket#6

@Tunous please keep committing to your project. Once I've cherry-picked everything, we can move the contributions to the main repository and unarchive it. Can't believe I'm doing this.

[mvietri]

A lot of people didn't like the name Dank for the app. Perhaps it's a good time to change the name to something which would sound more professional? I personally very like the name Seek which someone shared in dank's subreddit previously but I'm open to other ideas.

I like Seek. I tried thinking a name with 'swype' or 'gestures' but nothing came up.

[mufeedali]

Seek sounds good. BTW, any place to download debug builds?

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

A lot of people didn't like the name Dank for the app. Perhaps it's a good time to change the name to something which would sound more professional? I personally very like the name Seek which someone shared in dank's subreddit previously but I'm open to other ideas.

I like Seek. I tried thinking a name with 'swype' or 'gestures' but nothing came up.

Around the same idea, I've tough of a rime with Reddit, Like "SlickIt" or with yours "SeekIt". Yeah, I'm not that good with English Slang
However, Outside of that, The Dank icon need also to be changed, as, Deal With It glasses are "2 Dank 4 Me" still.
So, I'll suggest instead another type of glasses, with an overhaul more classical look. I did conserve the swipe upvotes and downvotes off the app on the icon however to give it more identity.
That's just a suggestion, I'm not a professional or whatever.

Seek sounds good. BTW, any place to download debug builds? @lastweakness

You can get latest automatically built debug version from my fork here. But since this is debug version the app might work slower due to lack of optimization and a lot of additional stuff running in background which helps with development.
I'm not yet sure how to distribute proper versions though. I could probably create my own signing key and use that but it wouldn't be compatible with previous official versions.

[az4726]

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold That icon looks very good, but I would suggest making the icon adaptive so that it fits the user's preferred icon theme. So the top layer could be the reddit icon with the upvotes, and the back layer could be the purple backdrop or maybe even the shade of grey used in the app theme. Once again that looks great!

https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_adaptive Heres a link to the android developer docs for a better explanation of what I meant

[dotvhs]

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold Icon looks fine but I would remove the up/down vote and leave the head only? For me it's a bit too noisy right now. But it's a good start.

[mvietri]

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold Icon looks fine but I would remove the up/down vote and leave the head only? For me it's a bit too noisy right now. But it's a good start.

Maybe put the upvote on one side of the glasses and the downvote on the other side (on the inside).

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold That icon looks very good, but I would suggest making the icon adaptive so that it fits the user's preferred icon theme. So the top layer could be the reddit icon with the upvotes, and the back layer could be the purple backdrop or maybe even the shade of grey used in the app theme. Once again that looks great!

https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_adaptive Heres a link to the android developer docs for a better explanation of what I meant

Am i doing it right ?

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold Icon looks fine but I would remove the up/down vote and leave the head only? For me it's a bit too noisy right now. But it's a good start.

I suppose, like that ?

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold Icon looks fine but I would remove the up/down vote and leave the head only? For me it's a bit too noisy right now. But it's a good start.

Maybe put the upvote on one side of the glasses and the downvote on the other side (on the inside).

Which one were you trying to describe ? (Except, if it was a mix of both at different line starting points)

[mvietri]

@PoorPocketsMcNewHold don't laugh about my paint skills but I meant something like this:

But it's a terrible idea xD

[dotvhs]

Snoo-only icon looks best if you ask me. I will give it a go one day as well, I have few ideas.

[dotvhs]

I am not really sure about the colors just yet, so please bear with me:

https://adapticon.tooo.io/#/bg=https://i.imgur.com/CvPtE9I.png/fg=https://i.imgur.com/b3vDy19.png

EDIT: In next revision I think I will change the background to the grey (although I'm afraid it will look a bit worse) that is used in app and also move antenna up a bit so it sticks out of the sun just a little.

[dotvhs]

Small revisions:

I still need to work on the shape of that antenna, there is something off about it.

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

Small revisions:

I still need to work on the shape of that antenna, there is something off about it.

I absolutely love these. I would even recommend using the "Vice City" colored one as well as for a dev/beta branch one, and the other one for the stable branch.

[mvietri]

I really do like them and the idea of using both for different release channels.

May I ask if it's ok to use the reddit logo on a 3rd party app or did @saket get permission from reddit?

[qtto]

@Esselans Good question, and sadly, reddit generally doesn't allow snoo to be used in app logo's. See https://www.redditinc.com/assets/press-resources/reddit_brand_guidelines_20180314.pdf, page 16:

Generally not permitted or approved
Use of the Reddit brand as any part of the name of a company, product, service, app, website, domain name, or social media account.

So sadly, these logo ideas might get the app pulled from the Play Store/App Store.

[dotvhs]

@qtto Well, dang it. Let's hope that we are fine as long as we don't use original snoo, which has different colours, eyes, a smile, antenna and an outline.

[qtto]

Let's hope so indeed - if reddit thinks it's too similar they'll have you change it (this happened with Apollo). I do think this is probably fine.

I dig the icons @Esselans proposed, but I'm not sure if it should stay with the original theme? If the app is rebranded to Seek I think the icon should not be stuck in the Dank-era (i.e. the sunglasses).

[dotvhs]

Let's hope so indeed - if reddit thinks it's too similar they'll have you change it (this happened with Apollo). I do think this is probably fine.

I dig the icons @Esselans proposed, but I'm not sure if it should stay with the original theme? If the app is rebranded to Seek I think the icon should not be stuck in the Dank-era (i.e. the sunglasses).

Yeah, I forgot the name is supposed to be Seek and not Sleek. In worst case scenario I can go back to the drawing board again when we settle on the app name and icon won't fit it anymore.

[dotvhs]

I changed the antenna, I think it is a bit better but I probably was already looking on it way too much to be objective:

Adaptive preview:
https://adapticon.tooo.io/#/bg=https://i.imgur.com/oe9tHKd.png/fg=https://i.imgur.com/Oz9e66P.png
https://adapticon.tooo.io/#/bg=https://i.imgur.com/gaHRcBM.png/fg=https://i.imgur.com/fe6Ovnq.png

[Soitora]

Has there been any progress overall on the rebrand?

Really beautiful designs @dotvhs

[Tunous]

I was about to publish the app to the play store but then having to upload an icon reminded me about this discussion. Now, I guess it would be a good moment to go for the new name (or keep dank) and icon design.

@saket what do you think about this? You mentioned doing it in main repository too so I wonder how we could pull that out.

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

Well, I think we should profit this occasion of renaming Dank.
Compared to the currently popular Reddit clients, Dank has short-lived and didn’t receive as much love as I would think, to keep the need to re-use that name for its rebrand.
We can indeed relaunch the name brainstorming (But the already proposed names for it were pretty good already)

[saket]

Um, go ahead with changing the name for your fork. I think I'm okay with forks maintaining their own names and logos. Just keep a credit link somewhere in the about section and I'll be more than happy :)

[Tunous]

Dawn for Reddit

I like that name too. Could use that. Alternatively the opposite: Dusk for Reddit

[qtto]

I also really like Dawn! Dusk as well, but dawn of course signifies a "new day", or rather, something like new content in our case. Fits well!

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

I personally prefer largely the Dawn for reddit aswell. Especially since it reflect more the current icon aswell.

[Soitora]

I can actually get behind the name Dusk for Reddit, "similiar" to dank and more closely fits with the logo as well as the activity (who else reads Reddit until late night?)

In that case, the Dev icon/loader in this should be used for Release instead as it fits better with the name.

Release (Should be Dev)	Dev (Should be Release)

If Dawn sounds better than keep it as is. (Both are good, really).

Maybe even when we've decided on the logo (color scheme) then we can use some of those colors in the app itself.

[Tunous]

Let's go for Dawn for Reddit

[Soitora]

Sounds good, Dawn for Reddit with the Dawn-logo, and Dusk-logo for Dev release

[Tunous]

@dotvhs Any progress on the designs, did you manage to find time to export them for app and store?

[Minnona]

Also we'll need 24dp full white version for notifications, preferably in xml :)

Maybe use the sun thingy? Something like this one:

[PoorPocketsMcNewHold]

I found it great, but i'm scared that it might not be recognizable. I would have suggested the frame of the glasses alone, which are directly recognizable.

[Minnona]

I found it great, but i'm scared that it might not be recognizable.

Yeah, I had the same thoughts. Maybe it will work better with less stripes?

I would have suggested the frame of the glasses alone, which are directly recognizable.

Might look like a handset :p

[dotvhs]

@dotvhs Any progress on the designs, did you manage to find time to export them for app and store?

Sorry for lack of answer, real life sometimes hits hard. Expect those icons this weekend. I will also prepare notification icons too in few versions and I'll let you guys pick :)

[Tunous]

@dotvhs Hello, do you have any new information about these designs for us?

[shore-leave]

Because it has been a while since @dotvhs (hope you're ok, also hope it's ok to modify your work like this) checked in I tried to continue the work they had done on the icons.

Changes I made:

• Antenna has a new angle
• Sunglasses are slightly steeper
• Flipped the sunglasses gradient direction for Dusk (not sure if it's better, would like feedback)
• Added a small slope to the sunglasses gradient steps
• Added a slight gradient to the gradient steps for the Dusk icon (see palette)
• Added a small slope to the background cutouts
• Switched the background to a non-stepped gradient
• Added slight drop-shadow to the head
• Added chromatic drop shadow to sunglasses and antenna ball

All in all, would like feedback. Can provide source (.afdesign or rendered .svg)

	Dusk	Dawn
App Icon
Notification Icon
Color Palette

[Tunous]

@shore-leave Great work!

There are few things that we need to implement this correctly.

First of all for the Play Store icon we'll need 512x512 png image. There is a link with exact details about what is needed: https://developer.android.com/google-play/resources/icon-design-specifications#attributes (I can see that there are also templates at the bottom of he page but have no idea if these are of any use)

Next for the adaptive icon we'll need two layers. If possible the best option would be to get both of them exported to xml format understood by Android. If not then two png images in 512x512 should be good too. https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/ui_guidelines/icon_design_adaptive here is some more information about this.

For splash screen I’m not sure, perhaps the same images as for adaptive icon will work.

As for the notification icon, svg will be good :)

[shore-leave]

#212:

• App icons replaced
• Notification icons replaced
• Splash icons replaced
• Asset source file included
• Asset docs
• Debug app name changed from "Dawn (d)" to "Dusk"

Up next:

• Change app theme
• Make new subreddit(?)
• Finish "Attributions and licenses" section (important)
• Update screenshots and other public branding (such as Play Store listing)

[shore-leave]

Putting this out here as a possible direction to take the app UI. Feedback would be appreciated. The color scheme will be replacing the current one to match the rest of the new app branding.

[saket]

That top bar looks very nice to me!

[Tunous]

@shore-leave That's an interesting concept, especially with the color scheme and the top bar. Few thoughts from me:

1. What is the meaning of icon on the right of "popular"?
2. The toolbar is missing refresh button, going for pull to refresh is not really an option as that gesture is reserved for closing.
3. I see that you turned the appearance of submissions upside down with subreddit info/points at the top and title at the bottom. I really like how the score appears next to title in current version and wouldn't want to have this changed. But perhaps we just need to see a design with all current features included to compare this correctly. (images, author/comments info, status text)

[Minnona]

That FAB button is quite big for users who don't post much.

[shore-leave]

@saket Thanks. Still more work to be done. At least there might be something there

@Tunous

1. The icon to the right of popular is the (un)subscibe button. When it's checked it means that this subreddit is in your list of subscriptions, and when there's a plus it means that you can click it to subscribe. If that isn't obvious enough there's room for exploration for a more discoverable version
2. I forgot to put that in. The top bar feels heavy to the sides, so I was considering moving those top right actions to an overflow menu. That might also help with the transition when opening the account dialog. Right now the expanding sheet we use would need to work around the items below it on the bar. I noticed that the only 3-dot overflow menus in the app are opened by swipe gestures. Is that a requirement?
3. That is fine. I have no preference to how the score shows, except that I would like it to not push the submission titles different amounts. Maybe a set reserved minimum space for it to cover 3 digits being displayed, which it can expand past for the rare posts with over 100k?

My focus overall is to get the color scheme changed, and explore a small part of improving UX. If the colors look good I can start implementing that

Edit: I'm also noticing now on my phone that the main color looks a little muted. I'm not surprised because my monitor is very bright and saturated. Just let me know if you see anything that looks off

[shore-leave]

@elenmerbau Noted! I think the standard is for those to shrink down to a regular FAB on scroll down

Speaking about scrolling down: I didn't mention this earlier, but the top row of the top bar would scroll out of view when you scroll down. The bottom actions that relate to the subreddit you are in would stay on screen

[saket]

The notification icon is barely visible

[shore-leave]

Thanks for pointing that out @saket. I was worried it would look that way. What screen resolution is the device you are using? From looking at it I would guess that I need to scale up the white parts by 2x.

I always have trouble guessing how it will look at small sizes, so it would be nice to get a way to test them in the app. Maybe someone can implement that. I could also build a template in Affinity Designer to help test how they look at different resolutions.

[mufeedali]

@shore-leave Isn't it okay for both Dusk and Dawn to use the same notification icon? Dawn's notification icon is great from a design perspective, but not visible enough on smaller displays. Maybe just use Dusk's icon instead?