I'm an amateur android programmer and I really like to code. My main difficulty is to make apps nice.
I came across a simple app, but at the same time, nice: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.linksaude.bulas
I would like to know if this app has been designed with some specific plugin/add-on for Eclipse or whatever. It seems to be so consistent and beautifully designed that there must be an answer to simplify the building process of such apps.
Thanks!
I think what you're impressed with is the consistent color theme of the application. It looks like its designers carefully overrode the default design of Android widgets with their own custom scheme.
There is NOT any plugin for development tools that will help you achieve this; however, there are many external tools.
Here is a tool to generate styles for the action bar (the navigation bar at the top):
http://jgilfelt.github.io/android-actionbarstylegenerator
A tool to generate custom colored Holo widgets: (Holo is the theme in modern Android platforms):
http://android-holo-colors.com/
And my #1 favorite resource for this type of customization, this website:
http://www.stylingandroid.com/
These three are more than sufficient to customize an interface like the one you linked to above. Good luck!
Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this will do the job.
http://developer.android.com/design/index.html
Welcome to Android Design, your place for learning how to design
exceptional Android apps.
There are some DevBytes videos on YouTube of how you make your app beautiful.
The result is an application which looks very modern and beautiful, you should have a look at those videos
Related
I am somewhat new to android development and the apps I make with it are I would say ugly. I don't like the usual style provided . So I wish to know if there is anyway to style it . Maybe something that allows to style components like using CSS . Anyway applying your own style like border, colour, gradient color, RGB etc
There is very good and detailed tutorial here
and check also this site.
The general solution is to use themes and colors and adjust everything.
Material design can be useful for you.
For video about styling take a look at Youtube video style modern ui
You could check out android UI dev tutorials on youtube. There are some good resources on there. Good luck on your journey into android mobile application development.
We have an App for both iOS and Android platforms. Currently our designers have designed similar User Interface for two of them, just have minor differences. Since those two shared lots of common features like buttons, text fields, etc, having similar interface works for both platforms. However, the most obviously differences between iOS and Android (from my point of view), are UINavigationBar in iOS and ActionBar in Android.
Now our interface for Action Bar and Navigation Bar looks like this:
This is followed UINavigation Design that have Title in centre. I'm just wondering should I keep the title centre in Android's Action Bar so two platforms will have similar interface or should I follow Android's design guide (Title next to left icon) for better Android User Experience?
Per Pure Android:
Most developers want to distribute their apps on multiple platforms. As you plan your app for Android, keep in mind that different platforms play by different rules and conventions. Design decisions that make perfect sense on one platform will look and feel misplaced in the context of a different platform. While a "design once, ship anywhere" approach might save you time up-front, you run the very real risk of creating inconsistent apps that alienate users.
This advice definitely applies to the app bar, which has very clear design guidelines as part of the Material Design guide, which is the driving force behind Android design at this time and is supported across all API 7+ devices via AppCompat.
See: https://developer.android.com/design/index.html.
This is somewhat opinion-based, but it is probably best to adhere to the Android styles where applicable, rather than shoot for consistency between you iOS and Android versions. If you want your users to have a comfortable, familiar experience, then keep in mind that they are probably most familiar with other apps on that specific device type.
An argument for consistency between Android and iOS would be (a) simpler to design for, (b) might be easier to test, (c) easier to support.
This all assumes you are building native apps. If you are making an HTML or hybrid app, a more device-neutral style might be acceptable.
I've been asked to develop an App for both systems, Android and iPhone, and both must look the same. So, I would like to get a set of icons that look like the iPhone buttons.
Anybody knows a link where I can download/buy a set of .png to make the Android app look like the iPhone one? (In iPhone, im gonna use de default buttons)
Thank you.
Before giving a few links to get you started, let me also include a link from Android's design guidelines followed by a quote from the same link:
Pure Android
Don't mimic UI elements from other platforms
Platforms typically provide a carefully designed set of UI elements
that are themed in a very distinctive fashion. For example, some
platforms advocate rounded corners for their buttons, others use
gradients in their title bars. In some cases, elements may have the
same purpose, but are designed to work a bit differently.
I am not sure if aping / mimicking the iPhone is the intention or the right way heading into multi-platform development (although I am inclined to think, based on the topic heading, that you intend to keep just a common icon base across platforms). But without getting into that debate and the proverbial can of worms. Anyway, here a few links as mentioned at the top:
NOTE: I do not develop for the iOS platform and am not entirely aware of what the default icons are. If the links posted are useless, give me a heads up. ;-)
http://www.glyphish.com/
http://www.designshock.com/free-iphone-icons/
http://www.iconshock.com/iphone-icons/
http://speckyboy.com/2008/07/18/35-free-icon-sets-for-your-iphone-pimp-it-up/
http://visionwidget.com/free-iphone-themes-icons-sets.html
http://ntt.cc/2010/05/10/50-free-hand-picked-iphone-icon-sets.html
http://www.tutorialchip.com/freebies/25-impressive-fantastic-icon-sets-for-your-iphone/
http://skyje.com/iphone-themes-and-icon-sets/
http://inspiredm.com/5-essential-icon-sets-for-iphone-applications/
The first link (glyphish) usually pops up all over Google when searching for mobile icons. Oh. They also support the Retina Display. :-)
I'm wondering how I could add styles to my android applications. I have created some apps on Eclipse but all of them with fixed style. I would like to know how people manage to create those fancy and cool apps that you can download from the GooglePlay. I would like to know if there is any tool for applying style to buttons, tabs, etc like a CSS to HTML.
I hope no to bother anyone with this questions, I'm eager to know how to do it ^^
I like to use PhoneGap (http://phonegap.com/), it lets you code your entire app with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Go with Fries. It's a design framework specifically for Android, and it provides all the fancy bottons, tabs, etc: http://jaunesarmiento.me/fries/
If you want to style your native app (Android and iOS) using the CSS language, I'm aware of two options:
FreeStyle: former Pixate, Free - http://www.freestyle.org/
NativeCSS: Paid - https://nativecss.com/
I came across this app and I wonder how was it developed on android (Cause it looks so much like an iphone app), see this screenshot.
Anyone have any idea how to accomplish that type of look on Android?
That's just a matter of styling after all. In general, I would consider it to be discouraged to make your Android app look like an iPhone app. Every platform has its own UX standards, and Android's standards are different from iPhone's. That quite obviously also reflects in the user interface.
Anyhow, you may want to read this article about Android themes and styles. It should get you going with defining own widget styles and stateful drawables to implement custom buttons.
This app obviously uses customized ListViews, ButtonView on the bottom of the screen.
Theses are pretty much standard and common in android apps.
Here is how to create custom components:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/custom-components.html