Creating professional GUI for Android application - android

I want to create professional looking GUI for Android application. Something more than just raw widgets which I'm taught to use in countless tutorials in the web.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any source of information how to customize those widgets and create better looking GUI.
Examples could be: http://android.appstorm.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/calorific-sc.jpg
or http://android.appstorm.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/chomp-sc.jpg
How are such GUIs created? If you could point me out to some tutorials on it, I would be really thankful!
Greetings,
Bart

There's nothing in those examples that looks like it couldn't be made from standard components. For instance the second screen of that calorific application is just a background image for the window with a list and a button with a background image as well. The first image could easily be done with just buttons and background images for views as well.
TLDR: Split the view into rectangles, assume that these are all standard components with images as backgrounds unless they seem to have nonstandard interactions.

Those are called custom components.
You will need to do a fair amount of work to get the look you want. (compared to using system components).
http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/custom-components.html
Edit
Bone up on your Google-fu Bart!
http://www.google.com/search?q=custom+components+android+tutorial

Related

Android UI Implementation Advice Needed

I'm fairly new to Android and I'm working on an application in which one particular section involves a more advanced UI interface than what you would normally create with the stock UI components. I've read through most of the SDK tutorials and I get the basics but I can't see how to implement something like this. I'm not looking for any code, just some advice on what technologies I should be reading about to achieve this.
Here is a mockup:
So basically at the top there is a thumbnail strip that the user can flip through. Clicking on a thumbnail will perform some action. I'm pretty sure there's a stock control for this.
Underneath that I need to be able to create a composite image that can be pinch zoomed and panned and has hotspots that can be clicked (tapped) on. For example, an image of the solar system, in which the background would be static, but the planets need to be placed at runtime and need to be clickable, and the whole thing needs to be pan/zoomable. Support for very minimal animation (eg slow planet rotation) would be a plus, but not necessary. I'm at a loss on what I would achieve this with.
Finally, there are three pull-out panes that contain other content, such as images, menu items, and other media. Basically these just need to be containers in which I can place any other UI content.
I've done some basic Activities so far with simple forms, so I understand the basic workflow of Android, but I'm just not sure what to look at to achieve something like this. Is this a good candidate for a SurfaceView? Is there something else I should look at? I have been a bit afraid to get involved with OpenGL, since I don't really have a 3D background, and I still want to be able to use native components (buttons, listboxes, etc) without having to re-implement them in OpenGL.
Have a look at this for the slides:
http://developer.android.com/training/animation/screen-slide.html
as for the thumbnails you can use a linear layout, with some imageviews and buttons.

Fake iOS UI Tools

I am trying to put together a fake UI for an iOS and Android device without actually creating all that tedious UI work. Is there a way to mockup the UI from the images somehow? We have the Photoshop designs and mockups so far.
Are there any tools? I've checked Titanium and ForgedUI. While its a fairly simple concept I still think its an overkill to create all that. for instance I have to slice my PSD for the buttons. Plus the data feed has to come from a URL etc.
I just want something similar to Balsamiq Mockups linked screens one to another for an actual demo of a bunch of screens. We want to test the navigation, the fonts and the product concept while development is getting the product ready.
Thanks in advance!
The easiest way would be to use HTML. If you already have Photoshop mockups, you can simply export those to (retina quality) PNG images and add some image maps for navigation. If you add this site to your homescreen, you will have a pixel-perfect preview without Safari's navigation bar.
However, iOS apps depend heavily on animations. If you're going for a native UI anyway, you should consider creating a "real" UI prototype, using actual UIControl elements. While this is more work, it allows for much better UI evaluation.
For wireframing, a couple of options:
For high-fidelity mockups, I would do it in Interface Builder and storyboard, like JustSid recommended. Just don't do the tedious work of hooking up the UI elements.
You could look at tools like Adobe Proto. I've never tried it, but it seems like it might be an option.
For my super-quick, low-fidelity mockups (e.g. digital equivalent of the "back of the envelope" mockups), I personally use my iPad, a stylus, and a drawing package like Sketchbook Pro (use whatever drawing package you want, but I like one with layers). I also put blank device images on my iPad, too.
So, I open up my drawing package on my iPad, start a new drawing using a picture of an iPhone device as the starting point, drop on a new layer (so I can draw on a layer and either hide or discard that layer to instantly get back to the image of the blank device image), and just draw what I want my UI to look like on this new layer. This works great for brainstorming sessions. There's no automatic bridge from this conceptual, low-fidelity mockup to an actual Xcode storyboard, but I can draw a user interface mockup in seconds. I do this not only for brainstorming with designers, but also for fleshing out my own conceptual ideas, myself, too.

Programming a Likeable Android GUI?

I see a lot of these apps like Pulse that have really nice UIs on the android: http://cdn3.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Pulse-android-625x515.jpg
I want to make a UI similar to this: http://wpuploads.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/3030-642x481.png where the text is editable/selectable/copyable. Basically an actual textfield, which I believe Android's canvas doesn't supply. How would I create UIs like this on Android. Android's normal xml layout in my opinion usually ends up making some pretty ugly stuff, and OpenGL might be a bit too high end for this kind of job. Any suggestions.
I tried looking around the forums and couldn't find anything really similar to this question? And I am not looking for a GUI builder, but more of something to actually develop the UI. Thanks!
As Mark says, they use normal XML layout. Personally, I've never looked at it, therefore I can't be sure, but I don't see anything "special" that couldn't be done with it either.
About the second app, I think it's even simpler than Pulse, probably. However, it's heavily customized (state drawables, probably), and you'd need StateListDrawable, a couple of 9patch graphics and the custom font you want to use.
If you're not familiar with customizing the appearance of controls, I suggest you start looking at those links above, and Google, of course.
One final note: designing a good UI is hard, let alone a custom UI where you start more or less from scratch, like those above. The Android UI provides a default look and feel that you can use... ICS being much better out of the box, but that's it (and at least it provides default tools to change that). If you can't do, or don't have the experience and/or skill, I suggest sticking to the defaults or outsourcing that job.
Good luck!
I tried looking around the forums and couldn't find anything really similar to this question?
That's because you already rejected the answer. Pulse is written using "Android's normal xml layout", as are most apps on Android outside of games.

GridView vs. Other layouts for memory game | Android

I'm trying to create a memory game. I've looked at the Android tutorials for GridView and, while it works, it is somewhat difficult to understand and customize. I would like to ask for advice and opinions on what layouts I should use for the memory game I'm working on. It'll be a simple "grid" of pictures and people will be trying to find the matching pairs.
Please provide what you think would be a good layout to use and the advantages/disadvantages of that layout. Layouts such as Gridview, LinearLayout, TableLayout, etc.
Are there any layouts that are simple and easy to customize for my memory game? I'm asking as someone who is new to programming. I have watched an introductory programming video lecture series from Stanford using Java, so I understand the basics of Java but I am not advanced.
More information, just in case you want to know:
I initially tried to create the GridView in java and not XML. But for some reason, the GridView wouldn't display on the emulator. It was just a blank screen. I believe it was because I did not have the layout set to MATCH_PARENT. But I don't know how to do that from java. I tried googling it, but I couldn't find an answer. I eventually settled on doing it through XML. If anyone knows how to do it through java, that would be very much appreciated.
I also had difficulty understanding the ImageAdapter class in the GridView tutorial: (http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-gridview.html). Specifically, I do not understand how or when the getView() function is called. It isn't explained in the tutorial.
I was able to get it to work but because I don't understand it very well, I am not sure how much I will be able to customize it for my memory game.
I'm sorry for the long post. My question is mainly about which layout I should use for my memory game. If you can answer the question about creating a GridView in java that displays on the emulator, that would be great.
Thank you for your time.
I wrote a fairly straight-forward tutorial for extending BaseAdapter - which is exactly what you'll want to do.
Define your layout in XML. Use a GridView. Then just write a custom adapter to control what gets displayed in the grid.
http://androidcookbook.com/Recipe.seam?recipeId=588
It's written with a ListView in mind but the same methods will be implemented for a GridView. If that is too advanced you'll need to start with a smaller app and build your understanding from a lower level.

non-xml Android views

Trying to program a connect4 style game in Android and running into issues with the views. I have worked with Java AWT and am trying to get the same functionality out of Android. A simple drawing system by which I can update the game board and have the screen remain until a button press causes a change to the game board.
I have tried looking at a few tutorials but most tend to go the XML route which I am less familiar with, and also it seems it would be harder to update each of the game board locations using XML.
Any easy to understand tutorials or specific instructions would be really helpful.
Really just looking for a way to specify locations within a view by pixel location since that makes the most sense in my mind. if there are far easier ways those would be appreciated.
All you need is drawing directly on a given canvas. The official site got the resource you need.

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