Can the battery indicator(status area) of Android changed to something like this?

Question

The previous versions of android had the battery indicator as a dynamic illustration along with a provision to view the battery in percentage in the status area of the phone.

Also in lollipop, we have to swipe down twice to see the battery percentage.

Android (till KitKat)

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Wouldn't it be much better if they come up with a design which provides both battery icon and the percentage as a single icon,

My Design:

^{download bmml source}

there by saving the space of one icon in the already crowded status area?

Also the bottom rectangle can illustrate the health of the battery using different colors.

Also plugged status can be provided like the the lightning symbol behind the charge percentage. [I couldn't create that mock-up of that in the online editor :) ]

EDIT: For few who feel that it will take more space, I suggest we either use slim font or remove the percentage symbol like,

^{download bmml source}

Answer 1

On my personal preference it's sometimes (or most of the time) convenient to just get an idea of battery status by having a look of filled or empty status of battery indicator (Like the one with default battery indicator ).

Though, I am supportive to your idea of saving the space and moving the % inside battery icon but then we will have to take care of few points:

• Making the default battery icon little big ( big enough to hold the 1-100% at legible font )
• If we are to go with the coloured indicator like the one you have suggested (Red for Low, Green for Full etc. ) then we will have to vary the % color accordingly to make the % readable with varying battery indicator colors.

Answer 2

In order to create an icon like that that would still fit into the notification area it would mean the text of your proposed icon would have to be even smaller than it currently is, this would make it incredibly difficult for those with poorer eye sight/smaller screen devices/lower resolutions to see what the value is.

The advantage of the current display is that the text appearance shows a more detailed display of the battery level whilst the icon can give a quicker visual display. The added colour when running low on power also allows for a quick indication regardless of visual worries mentioned above.