I've noticed that there are several applications which have been developed within the last 6 months or so which share a common design. I can think of 4 off the top of my head, Twitter, Google IO, Evernote and Facebook (new version). They all have a "home" screen with a grid of icons for various app areas. And a top bar with the app logo in the top left, then global/common functions in the top right.
I'm sure the newer apps were inspired by the earlier ones (Twitter was the first I can remember to use this style). My question is: are they all just happening to use this style or is there templates out there to make my app look similarly?
I don't think there are existing "templates" but there were guidelines noted on the dev blog earlier this year that mentioned some of the same techniques: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/05/twitter-for-android-closer-look-at.html.
Many other apps adopted some of those same approaches after the Twitter app came out, and after Google advocated "Dashboard," "Action Bar," and so on.
These slides talk a bit about why to design such interfaces. It also has some good UI tips.
Related
I've been really trying to soak up everything about Android development, including material design stuff.
My question though is about the floating action button in particular. If it's an integral part of the material design guidelines, how do they expect rookie developers (like myself) to use it easily? I've found lots of github projects with floating action buttons, but I'd really love an official one.
I've done a decent amount of development, and even done an Android app with some of my classmates. We put a floating action button in our app, but we just used one we found on github. In the real world, do people just find one they like and add it to all their apps as a gradle dependency?
Sorry for being ignorant, I have little experience in the professional world. But it just seems to me that if Google wants developers to adopt this, they would make it really really easy to add it to an app.
Thanks!
-Justin
Have a look at the new version of v7 appcompat library .
http://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/index.html
Google is trying hard to Materialise the pre-Lollipop devices(added Palette, added AppCompatDialog and a bunche of compat views), so your floating button may just be around the corner :)
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 am a UX designer and new the android app marketplace.
I am designing an app for android 4. and above and need to know if I have total free reign in terms of UI design or is it mandatory to stick to the Holo themes and the Action bar, tabs, etc.
Please Help!
Hi there and welcome to the Android world. Of course you can just make your own Design prinziples. But the user can easily use your App when you keep some Design principles in your App so the user knows how to navigate through your App. See following Link
No, it is not mandatory to follow the design guidelines. In fact, as the name itself suggests, those are guidelines. Not rules. You are free to follow them or not.
However, it is important to make the app as intuitive as possible. By following the design guidelines you will make your app as native as build-in applications. This will eliminate possible user confusions or need to teach the users how to use your app.
As an example, see a case study by Pocket: Tiny Impacts: The Case of the Accidental Archive (emphasis is mine)
Looking at people who opened an article in Pocket for the first time, and were presented with this toolbar, the Up Button change increased the likelihood they would continue using Pocket from this point onwards by 23%! That is a lot of frustration eliminated for a minor change.
But if one comes up with simpler and better clarity that does not match with the given guidelines, I believe, one should stick with those of her design principles.
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. :-)
Desktop apps have top level menus (File, Edit, Search, ..., Help).
Web apps have very similar thing, menu tabs (Logo, Questions, Tags, Users, Badges, ...).
However I cannot find equivalent of top level menu in Android framework. Assume that my app has 5 main activities. According to menu design guidelines options menu should contain actions related to current activity. So how an app should allow users to easily switch to one of five main activities.
It seems that different apps solve the problem in different ways. Some have a tab list at the top of the screen, some at the bottom. Even Google applications aren't consisted in that field. Google Listen has an options menu item called 'Listen Home', however Listen main activity has no that options menu item. Others have two icons in app luncher which start two different activities from one app.
I realize that due to small phone screens Android apps have to be designed in a slightly different way than web or desktop apps. But I have a feeling that the app top level menu topic was omitted in Android framework. And developers are on their own here. Or am I missing something?
Update: this is Google blueprint for a great app
Update2: this an example app of these patterns
Update3: GreenDroid library helps a lot implementing these patters in your apps. It seems that dashboard and action bar patterns are becoming quite popular.
You should take a look at this Google I/O session: http://www.google.com/events/io/2010/sessions/android-ui-design-patterns.html
They talk about the design patterns they used for the Twitter application and basically the type of concept you are asking about. Basically, your activity should have a top bar that gives the user specific tasks to do in the view or allows them to switch into another activity.
Google has not implemented anything like this into the actual SDK yet so you're sort of on your own in terms of implementing it but the main concept is given in the presentation. This is the direction that Google would like to see Android shift into though.
Hopefully this helps you out somewhat.
The file/edit menus of desktop apps have a very different purpose than the questions/tags etc. tabs at the top of this webpage.
The contents of the file/edit menu should be implemented as in the options menu that appears when you press the menu button. This is, as you noted, to save space on the smaller screens.
App navigation like the questions/tags etc could be implemented using a Tab Layout. You are right that apps vary in whether or not the tabs are on the top or bottom, but I don't think thats a huge deal. In my unscientific look through apps on my phone, the bottom seems to be more common. However, I think it might depend on your specific implementation which you decide.
A lot of apps don't require any sort of navigation like that, and can get away with just having a path forward or back via the back button. I think this is preferable for a lot of applications, but won't work in all cases.
I'm not sure what more you would want built into the framework.. It seems like you can accomplish any kind of navigation desired with the above options.
You can look at the source of the Google IO app
ioshed