Android 4+ interface guidelines, core concepts, some tips for programmers and designers. Originally created for Mobile Optimized 2013 conference.

1. Modern Android UI,
or
not by Action Bar alone
Anton Rutkevich,
CTO at Boolba Labs

2. Intro

3. State of platform
Android 2.3 still valid (~40%),
but will disappear in 0.5 .. 1 year
Android 3x skipped
Android 4 finally has design guidelines

4. Modern UI principles

5. Holo theme
Gives overall style
Backport: HoloEverywhere

6. Action Bar
Must be used for actions
Up button
Backport: ActionBarSherlock,
ActionBarCompat (soon)

7. ViewPager
Lateral navigation
Group of similar screens
Backport: android-support-
library, ViewPagerIndicator

8. NavigationDrawer
Dashboard pattern
replacement
Navigation between app
sections

9. Animation
Makes UI more dynamic
Many animations already included
Backport: NineOldAndroids

10. Responsive design

11. Problems
Unbalanced UI

12. Ideas
Divide content into Fragments
Use different layouts

13. Master-detail view

14. Alternative master-detail layouts
Hide Expand/Collapse
Sliding Pane

15. Macro reflow

16. Limit width

17. List to Grid

18. Programmer tips

19. Coding
Use 9-patch and .xml drawables
Use sw<N>dp, w<N>dp
to detect large screens (ex.
sw600dp, w720dp)
Define common settings in
style.xml, themes.xml
Define dp values in dimens.xml
(padding, text size, line spacing, …)

20. Tools
Show GPU overdraw Show layout bounds

21. Tools
Multi-screen preview

22. 3rd party libraries
Staggered Grid View Showcase ViewParallax Scroll View

23. Designer tips

24. developer.android.com/design
Android has more than one screen size
Ideas behind the visual representation
Good Holo style description
Ready to use assets

25. Android Asset Studio
Android Holo Colors Action Bar Style Generator

26. Android Asset Studio
Device Frame Generator

27. Links
http://developer.android.com/design
http://android-ui-
utils.googlecode.com/hg/asset-
studio/dist/index.html
Google I/O 2013 - Android Design for UI
Developers (some illustrations are taken from
there)
http://www.androidviews.net/

28. Thank you for your attention
Questions?
anton.rutkevich@boolbalabs.com
Anton Rutkevich at Google+
http://www.linkedin.com/in/antonrutkevic