Android UI Design

Key Features

• Take an initial idea for an Android app and develop it into a detailed plan, supported by sketches and wireframes
• Provide a better experience for your users by following best practices and the new material design principles
• Work more efficiently and save time by testing your ideas at an early stage by building a prototype

Book Description

Great design is one of the key drivers in the adoption of new applications, yet unfortunately design considerations are often neglected in the face of “will it work,” “can we make it quicker,” or “can we get more people using it”?

This book seeks to redress this balance by showing you how to get your PM to start treating the design phase of your project seriously. This book is focused entirely on the development of UI features, and you’ll be able to practically implementing the design practices that we extol throughout the book.

Starting by briefly outlining some of the factors you need to keep in mind when building a UI, you’ll learn the concepts of Android User Interface from scratch. We then move on to formulate a plan on how to implement these concepts in various applications. We will deep dive into how UI features are implemented in real-world applications where UIs are complex and dynamic.

This book offers near complete coverage of UI-specific content including, views, fragments, the wireframing process, and how to add in splash screens-everything you need to make professional standard UIs for modern applications. It will then cover material design and show you how to implement Google’s design aesthetic in a practical manner. Finally, it ensures the best possible user experience by analyzing the UI using various tools, and then addressing any problems they uncover.

By the end of the book, you’ll be able to leverage the concepts of Android User Interface in your applications in order to attract new customers.

What you will learn

• Develop a user interface that adheres to all the core material design principles
• Transform your initial app idea into a concrete and detailed plan
• Add Views, ViewGroups, layouts, and common UI components to your own Android projects
• Use fragments and various strategies to gather user input
• Create a new Android Studio project and develop it into a prototype
• Identify and solve problems with your app’s UI to deliver a better user experience

About the Author

Jessica Thornsby studied poetry, prose, and script writing at Bolton University before discovering the world of open source and technical writing, and has never looked back since. Today, she is a technical writer and full-time Android enthusiast residing in sunny Sheffield, England.

She enjoys writing about rooting and flashing mobile devices, Java, Eclipse, and all things Android and Google. When not wordsmithing about technology and obsessing about the latest Android developments, she keeps a blog about her local food scene, and writes about looking after exotic pets. On the rare occasions that she’s dragged away from her computer, she enjoys beer gardens, curry houses, the Great British seaside, scary movies, and spending lots of time with her house rabbits and chinchillas.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introducing the Android UI
Chapter 2. What Goes into an Effective UI?
Chapter 3. Expanding your UI – Fragments, Resources, and Gathering User Input
Chapter 4. Getting Started with Material Design
Chapter 5. Turning Your Bright Idea into a Detailed Sketch
Chapter 6. Turning Your Sketches into Wireframes
Chapter 7. Building a Prototype
Chapter 8. Reaching a Wider Audience – Supporting Multiple Devices
Chapter 9. Optimizing Your UI
Chapter 10. Best Practices and Securing Your Application