Smashing Android UI

484 Pages·2012·7.37 MB·English

by  Juhani Lehtimaki

Smashing Android UI
Table of Contents
Part I: Introduction to Android Design
Chapter 1: Introduction to Usability and User Interface Design
Considering Technology versus design
Understanding the Mental Model
Forming a mental model
Platform consistency and user expectations
Designing for users
User Goals
Don’t talk about features
Determining user goals
From goals to features
No App will do everything; pick your battles
You are the expert; users are not designers
Know your users; design for real people
Using Personas
Getting into your user’s head
Summary
Chapter 2: Don’t Start Coding Just Yet
Prototyping
Wireframes
High-fidelity prototypes
Proof of Concept
Tools for Design
OmniGraffle and stencils
WireframeSketcher and templates
Balsamiq
Android Eclipse plug-in GUI builder
Pencil
Additional Utilities
User Testing
SelectING your participants carefully
Planning for A user test
Stay neutral; don’t guide the users
Don’t over-correct; are the findings real?
Five users are enough
Mobile user testing
User Testing with paper prototypes
Back to THE drawing board
Summary
Chapter 3: Considerations in Designing for Mobile and Touch Devices
Designing for Mobile
Use context of mobile devices
Mobile multitasking
Device constraints
Battery power is not endless
Rapid innovation
Network connection will drop
Data is not free
Passionate users and opportunities
Native apps versus web apps
Hybrid apps with HTML wrappers
Designing for Touch Interfaces
IMPLEMENTING Gestures
Gesture discovery
Gesture confusion
React to gestures immediately
Touch interface, not so natural interface
Summary
Chapter 4: Exploring the Android Platform
Challenges of the android platform
Hardware
Google’s control
Tablets
OEM distributions, skins, and themes
Holo theme unifies Android app look
Keyboard replacements
Third-party home screen replacements
Android versions
Android on tablets
Android Jelly Bean, the latest android release
Nexus Devices
Updates to older devices
Which version should you target?
Android app distribution
The app stores
Application safety and approval processes
Which app store to use
Make users feel safe
What does open source mean?
Access to source code
Android community
Custom ROMs
Summary
Part II: Android Platform Features and UI Components
Chapter 5: Android App Structure and Online Guidelines
Android app structure overview
Android app basic building blocks
Intents and broadcasts
Services
App Widgets
Android project structure overview
Component folders
Libraries
Official Android guidelines
Android developer documentation
Android design guidelines
Google Play guidelines
Summary
Chapter 6: Android Intents
Intents allow apps to work together
Using Social Networks and Sharing
Working with Browsers
How do Android intents work?
Types of Intents
Technical example of sending intents
Intent Filters: Actions, Data, and Categories
Technical example of Receiving intents
Creating your own Actions
Intents are everywhere
Intents Versus Third-party APIs
Summary
Chapter 7: Android App Navigation Structure
Components of Android navigation, Activities, and Intents
Modifying back stack behavior with intent flags
Tasks
Android Navigation controls
The Home button
The Back Button
The Up button
User Confusion
Navigation Improvements in Android 4.1
Multitasking
Where does an app start?
Exiting an app
Making sure that users know where they are
Navigating to another app
Navigating from notification
Non-activity navigation
Stopping running processes with the back button
Using Transition animations
Summary
Chapter 8: Home Screen App Widgets
Uses of Home Screen App Widgets
Displaying relevant up-to-date information and being context
aware
Providing easy access to simple functions and toggle controls
Providing Shortcuts to app functionality
Developing App widgets for tablets
Updating app widget data
Automated Updates
Updating Upon User Interaction
Designing Setup activity
App widget layout and functionality
User Interaction with App Widgets
Understanding the Home Screen Grid
Defining Your App Widget’s Minimum Size
Available Layouts and Components
Resizable Widgets
App widget preview
Implementing an app widget
Configuration XML
App widget layout
App Manifest file
App widget provider
Summary
Chapter 9: Notifying and Informing Users
Android Notification methods
Inline/embedded notifications
Toasts
Status bar notifications
Pop-up dialog boxes
When to notify users
Ongoing background tasks
Events
Errors
When not to notify users
Avoiding pop-ups
Getting the most from status bar notifications
Notification content
Stacking notifications
Be timely
Ongoing tasks
Implementing status bar notifications
Summary
Chapter 10: Designing for Hardware Buttons, Input Methods, and Sensors
Designing for the Touch screen
Resistive touch screens
Capacitive touch screens
The Future of touch screens
Designing Phone hardware buttons
The Menu button is dead
Designing for the On-screen keyboard
Input methods
Input type
Action button and IME options
Third-Party Keyboards
Designing for Hardware keyboards
Designing for D-Pads and Trackballs
Designing for the Stylus
Designing for Voice control
Designing for External Keyboards, mice, and touchpads
Designing for Connected smart accessories
Designing for Sensors
Designing for a Second screen
Summary
Chapter 11: Designing Platform User Interface Components
Using User interface widgets
Text widgets
Buttons
Toggle Components
Selection components
Date and time widgets
Progress bars
Media widgets
Sliding drawer
Lists
Customizing user interface widgets
Colors
Selectors
Adjusting the Typography
Fonts
Typeface
Text style
Text size
Text color and shadow
Formatting from HTML
Creating app-wide text styles
Using Icons
Dealing with screen densities
Icon types
Platform icons
Icon packs
Using Animations and transitions
Activity transitions
Tween Animations
Frame animations
Property animations
Animation Interpolators
Summary
Part III: Scalable Android Design
Chapter 12: Managing Android Resources
Using Android resources
Configuration qualifiers
Combining Qualifiers
Library Projects and Overriding Resources
API Level Requirements
Designing for Screen density
What does screen density mean in practice?
Why is screen density important?
Screen density in Android terms
Automatic graphics scaling vs. separate assets
res/drawable/ folder is for XML only
Preventing scaling
Screen densities that matter
Density independent pixels, dp
Designing for Screen size and form
Generalized size
Fine grained screen size
Aspect ratio
Screen orientation
Designing for Language and region
Designing for Device controls
Designing for Platform versions
Designing for Device modes
Summary
Chapter 13: Android App Layouts
Android layout strategy
Fixed areas
Resizable areas
Combining fixed and resizable areas
Layouts in Layouts
Layouts from XML and code
Layout managers
Relative Layout
Linear Layout
Frame Layout
Grid Layout and Table Layout
Tabs
Defining a layout size
Scrolling
Scroll View
Z axis, layout order
Padding and Margin
Import and Merge layout files
Custom layouts
Android Development Tools user interface builder
Debugging layouts
Summary
Chapter 14: Scalable Graphics
Nine-patching
Nine-patch structure in Android
Using nine-patch images in code
Nine-patch tool in SDK
Nine-patch images from drawing tools
Drawable XML
Shapes
Padding
Gradients
Color
Bitmaps
Composite drawables with layers
Scale and Rotate
Drawing from code
Drawing on Canvas
Paint object
Shape-drawing Example
Summary
Chapter 15: Beyond Scalable – Responsive Design
More Android devices than just phones
Android tablets
Google TV
Understanding Responsive design
How to approach responsive Android design
Don’t Build a Tablet App: Design for Tablets
Reusable components (fragments)
Finding minimum and maximum size
Cost-benefit evaluation
Common ways to create responsive user interfaces
Screens to columns
Floating screens
Optional content
Adjusting components one for one
Summary
Chapter 16: Implementing Responsive User Interfaces
Introduction to Fragments
Creating fragments
Fragment lifecycle
Adding fragments to layouts
FragmentManager and FragmentTransaction
Fragment and Activity architecture
Activities control the flow and layout
Isolated fragment functionality increases modularity
Migrating existing apps
Moving slowly: An iterative approach to new design
Get it over with: Full redesign at once
Looking at an Example app
App design
Building the phone user interface with fragments
From phone interface to two-and three-column interfaces
Older Android versions
Summary
Part IV: Android UI Design Patterns
Chapter 17: Introduction to User Interface Design Patterns
User interface design patterns
Designing the design
When to use and when not to use design patterns
Benefits of using UI design patterns
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Platform consistency
Library support and ready components
Design Patterns in Android design guidelines
User Interface Design patterns found in this book
Phones, tablets, and responsive design
Example apps
Example code
Design pattern naming
User interface design pattern categories
Summary