I like to start developing android app in Eclipse, but feeling it's not much friendly to design UI. Is there any other editor that is more efficient than Eclipse?
Eclipse - Android layout editor is the best as per my experience. If you learn the different types of layouts and their attributes perfectly then you are able to design any flexible layout (flexible in the sense it can be view from any screen resolution).
Yes, DroidDraw is useful for the beginner, but let me be frank i have started layout with this design tool but later on i just had started with the native android layout editor and now i am having enough practice, so i suggest you to learn android layouts and their attributes. First concentrate on RelativeLayout because it is mostly used layout in most of the apps.
And yes, i would also like to tell you that there are mainly 2 design patterns we follow:
TabBar design pattern (As per my experience, don't do this any how, because there may be a requirement that you have to convert any iOS app to android app, so you have to have tabbar design pattern in your android app and you will have to manage activities through ActivityGroup and its not that much easy task as DashBoard design pattern.
DashBoard Design pattern (As per my experience, you should go with this design pattern, because most of the successful android apps have been implemented this design pattern, for example, evernote, facebook, stackanywhere, google docs and many more).
=> For detailed information about DashBoard Design pattern, go through this article: Implementing Dashboard and Action Bar
=> To Learn about the types of different android layouts with output snaps, here is the best article as far as i know: Android Layouts tutorial
=> To make android app with more stylish, go through articles on this site: Styling Android
DroidDraw seems to be very useful. It has a clean and easy interface and it is a freeware. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X
Also you have check - Android GUI Tools
You can try droid draw tool to make your UI. It would be difficult to make complex UI from using this tool. You can use it for simple UI.
here is the link for tool
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I designed the graphic interface of an app and now I want to bring it to live on Android. I have never programmed an app based on my design, just learnt de basics following material design styles.
Will it be possible for me to make it look 100% like my design that I created from scratch disregarding material design, or will it have to be a Frankenstein between my design and Android's material design? Also, can I achieve my goal by using Android Studio or should I try React Native or others?
Thanks in advance!
It can look however you want it to look.
If you are struggling to get it to look how you want with Android Studio, but have knowledge of html+css, then giving React Native a go might be easier for you to fully customize it.
Just be aware that it is recommended to follow the guidelines at least a bit, especially in regards to locations of common buttons etc as users can get used to how apps 'work', and going against the flow with a completely new user-flow can sometimes make it harder to use, as it doesn't follow their expectations.
In the old days of com.nokia.meego or even now with the Sailfish.Silica module you are using the "Pages" for navigation inside the app.
What should be used instead when developing a mobile app for Android with the Qt Quick Controls?
It really depends on your needs, I'd say for basic apps a simple TabView will suffice, for more complex dialog design you will probably need a StackView.
Naturally, you can also nest one into the other.
Lastly, with QML it is easy enough to implement your custom app navigation system using dynamic object instantiation, animations and effects.
Your question can be split into two: a design question and an implementation question.
The former can be rephrased as "what structure should my mobile app targeted to Android have?" whereas the latter can be rephrased as "what does QtQuick give me to implement that structure?"
As for the first question, there is a very rich section in the "Material Design" specs which deals with app and navigation structure. You should consider those recommendations in the light of your specific use case and similar examples that you can find. Also, take a good look at QML Material, as that gives you an almost direct mapping to implement your Android-targeted (or even cross-platform) design with a set of ready-made Material components.
Once you have defined the design question, the choice of QtQuick components for implementation falls more or less naturally, and you have the options that #ddriver mentioned above, and even more.
I have many applications which has great GUI like Any.do, alarm clock from doubletwist etc. I was wondering are ll these applications developed using standard eclipse way using java and xml. I was not able to figure out how can i develop such type of GUI using eclipse xml?
All Android apps with a good UI use java & xml.
The only difference is that good apps need a LOT of work and sometimes a custom implementation of some Android Elements.
xml files catering to the different formfactors is the best way to implement a rich app (in fact I don't think there is any other valid way) :
-They allow you to separate the layouts from the code as much as possible.
-They allow you to treat specific form factors independently.
Additionally, Great apps often re-implements some of the basic UI elements. For exemple the implementation of the actionbar in Flipboard allow them to apply their flipping effect to it, something that you cannot do with the basic ActionBar.
Any.do has just been updated and I have not checked this last version yet, but the last time I tried the app, their implementation was not really good. Buttons were far too cramped in the ActionBar and their custom ActionBar was very slow (more than 1 second to acknowledge a tap).
Additional thoughts : sometimes these beautifully designed apps tend to ignore at least some of the Android conventions. It is a really bad idea : you can create a very beautiful app but if its UI elements are totally different from what users encounters in other Android apps it will just make the overall use of the app confusing. imho the best way to create a great app (both visually & functionally) is to use Holo as a design base that needs to be enriched and do not :
-make something totally opposite to the design conventions of the platform just because you think it is good.
-Use a basic android design block in a totally different way that what it is intended for, it will utterly confuse your users.
-Apply another platform conventions.
-Invent your own rules because "you are strenghtening your brand by having the same design on ios, android and your website". You are just being lazy.
a good starting point is obviously the official design site. android niceties is a good source of inspiration. Holo Everywhere & Android UI UX are very interesting sites in order to get more thoughts on how to improve existing apps.
I want to learn if there is an easier way to create a UI for Android. For example, for web design, we can convert psd to html. For Android programming, is there a solution like that or a tool that we can use easily?
Unfortunately, no. Additionally, any automated tool to convert PSD to HTML will not end well for anything but the most simple layouts. If you're talking about just using Photoshop as a layout design tool then you can use the same process with Android if you like. There's no technical limitation there.
ADT includes a visual editor, but I can't say it's very good. I'd highly recommend just learning the layout APIs and getting good at editing the XML.
Update:
It turns out that Google has recently provided a number of stencils to help with this designing process. It's still not a UI editor, but it might help with sketching things out.
Recently I've been building an app using eclipse and the android xml editor for the layout/visual design of the app. I finished most of the code for the app and now i want to design the interface so its more usable and looks much better than standard buttons. Does anyone know of any tutorials or software or really any way to do this. All i could think of was use photoshop to create icons for the button and such but maybe there is a better way to go about designing the user interface of an app than using images from photoshop?
Hope I explained that well enough, Let me know if you need clarification.
Some general Android UI design tips:
Filthy Rich Android Clients - Romain Guy
Google I/O 2010 - Android UI design patterns
Android UI Design Tips - Slideshow