A brand, start-up, and device maker collaborate, an Android app development business. We frequently work with new Android visual designers or we can say Android Designers.
We recommend the new Android Design website as our first resource. It is worth checking out. There are many more options! Our goal is to create applications that users adore using. We can accomplish this goal using careful UX and visually engaging visual designs.
This article contains practical design tips and considerations to help you create Android apps. We tried to provide something useful, regardless of whether you are creating pixel-perfect graphics assets, optimizing user flows, or developing XML layouts.
Mobile Design Practices For Android: Tips And Techniques
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Pixels
An application's perceived quality is greatly influenced by its visual appearance. It might even make things more usable.
Most coders have some exposure to UI patterns; however, developers with visual design talents are rare. They require you. The ideal way to provide an aesthetically pleasing experience to the end user is to provide high-fidelity mockups, drawable materials (i.e., graphic assets), and instructions to developers.
Scale Nice
Several screen sizes can be used with Android. Layouts, images, and widgets are measured using a density-independent measurement system rather than predefined resolutions.
It is not always possible to optimize graphic assets individually for every density. It is possible to scale down resources quite well using the platform. It is worthwhile to test designs on low-end hardware and optimize scalability-challenged resources.
Be A State Friend
Touch states are crucial for the confirmation of clicks and selections. When modifying widgets like buttons, including drawable for all states is crucial.
Devices that allow trackball or directional pad navigation to focus on the focused state will provide valuable feedback.
It is also important to consider the size of your screen. Fingertip input is inaccurate and can block the screen's user interface (UI).
Touch targets must typically be at least 45- 50 pixels wide or tall.
Fonts -
Droid sans, as well as Robo are the two fonts that are offered for Android. In Ice Cream Sandwich, Roboto has been made available (Android 4).
Although Helvetica's Roboto has been compared to it, it is a little bit smaller, which makes it perfect for small screens. There are other possibilities besides Roboto and Droid Sans. Any TTF font can be used in an application with some memory penalty.
9-PATCH Drawables Use
PNGs can be drawn in 9-patch increments. This allows them to scale and stretch well in predefined ways. Markings can identify the stretchable areas at the left and top edges.
Optionally, markings can be made along the right and bottom edges to define the padded content. 9-patches are necessary to create and customize UI widgets.
Although 9-patches can be manually created, the Android SDK comes with a straightforward tool named Draw 9 patch.
A PNG file can be quickly and easily transformed into a 9-patch. The stretchy region is highlighted, and previews of the final drawable in various widths or heights are displayed.
Handle Design Legacy
The Holo theme from Honeycomb (Android 3) and Ice Cream Sandwich updated the look of Android (Android 4). It's not always the case for device manufacturers to support the most recent platform iterations.
Most of today's most popular devices won't receive the Ice Cream Sandwich update.
How can we help? The options are two. You have two options:
- Employ a different set of widget designs and drawables for Gingerbread and lower.
- Give the same look.
- Feel, as well as experience across all devices.
Both have merit. Which do your customers prefer-modern or traditional?
Show Your Brand
Customers worry that following a particular UI design trend may make their apps less distinctive. I think the contrary is true.
When they become more frequent, patterns like the activity bar disappear into the background. Users may concentrate on how well an application handled their problem rather than wasting time figuring out how to utilize it.
A unique Interface is less valuable than this experience in terms of differentiating.
You can express your brand through icons, drawable widgets, and fonts and colors. Hire Android Designers and you can create a unique brand identity and maintain platform consistency by tweaking the platform widgets.
Create High-Fidelity Mck-Ups
The best method for developers that communicate visual design is through high-fidelity mockups. The Android Design website offers templates in PSD as well as other formats that have design guidelines with visual elements.
Testing mockups on actual devices is crucial to ensure they function properly on your device. With the Android Design Preview feature, you may instantly mirror mockups created in your preferred design software onto an Android device.
Mocking up the features of most devices' screens is a good idea. Create mockups for every conceivable arrangement, regardless of the size or orientation of the screen.
Polish
Take time to study the subtleties. Participate in the creation process. This will guarantee that your designs are carried out.
Designers that only provide a few mockups and materials before disappearing into thin air are not preferred by developers. Designs must be improved and iterated upon as the app is developed.
Several Android apps benefit visually from animated transitions. It's possible that independent developers wouldn't add these functionalities.
Include them as part of the design when it makes sense. Animations are excellent for amusing and diverting customers while they wait for an app to load.
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User Experience
Android adheres to the same standards that apply to every other platform. Users might develop expectations about just how unfamiliar applications will operate by using these standards.
When an iOS experience is translated to Android, a subpar user experience is nearly a given.
The back button best illustrates how Android and iOS interact differently. All Android devices have physical back buttons or on-screen navigation bars to browse backward.
It comes as part of Android by default. The presence of a back button in such an Android app's layout seems odd to Android users. It makes me pause and consider which one to employ and whether my behavior will change.
Design User Fllows
A stack makes up an android app. Buttons, action bar icons, and list items can all be used to traverse inside the stack.
Using the platform back button, you can turn the stack around.
A web convention is mirrored in the action bar. Typically, the app icon on your left will take you to the home screen.
Another affordance enables the use of temporal memory instead of structural memory. To the left of your app icon, you can see a chevron facing backward. This means that pressing the icon will advance the user to the next level of the informational hierarchy.
Although the up-affordance goal can appear clear initially, it probably becomes more nuanced with time. In addition to the launcher, several entry points are available for Android apps.
Deep links between apps are possible, and widgets on your home screen and notifications may point you toward certain information. No matter where you started, you can move up the informational hierarchy.
You can test user flows with potential users using wireframes and mockups. Then iterate. Because you can test in real mobile environments, prototyping on real devices is ideal.
Although this may seem daunting, testing your ideas with just a few people is possible.
Be Platform Consistent
UI patterns, your buddy. These patterns ought to be considered as aids rather than limitations. Users of your app would not want to have to learn how to use it, so patterns provide recognizable cues for navigating and interacting.
The most common Android design is the action bar. It reveals your location and your options. As a result of Honeycomb, this feature is built-in into the platform.
It is also accessible on earlier systems thanks to the great Action Bar Sherlock library. An example of the dashboard and action bar patterns
Also, using the dashboard design is fairly common. When users launch apps, these symbols are shown to them. Dashboards are the app's top-level navigation, outlining the key features.
The dashboard of the Songkick app was designed with my help. It enables top-level navigation and displays the main features of the application.
You can put the workplace concept into practice with the ViewPager component. Users can now swipe left or right to switch between different pieces of material.
This can be used with tabs to provide a seamless browsing experience using tabbed data.
The ribbon menu is a modern navigation style. This enables us to take the user straight to the content. When we press up, a menu slides into View from the left of the screen with the top-level navigation available.
An alternative to the dashboard menu is a ribbon menu.
Apps designed for tablets frequently use multiple-pane layouts. One tablet screen may display content from many phone screens simultaneously.
Creating multiple layouts for various screen sizes could be necessary when optimizing tablets. UI components can be created once, then arranged in various ways for various screen sizes. To avoid having an excessive number of list items as well as sparse layouts, use multi-pane layouts.
These are well-known and tested UI patterns. These are the greatest resources to use as you begin to sketch up the layout of your app.
They shouldn't prevent you from attempting novel things. Ensure that the app displays predictable behavior.
Design Responsively
Android supports many screen sizes. Various gadgets with screens ranging from 1.8 to 10.1 inches are available. The changing screen area of Android shares some similarities with responsive web design.
Designing and deploying a responsive experience across all devices takes a lot of work. While it is ideal for supporting every screen, there are sensible ways to deal with various platforms.
Understanding your target audience and the most popular devices is crucial for concentrating your efforts and avoiding pointless optimization.
Starting with medium-sized phones (4.2" - 6.1") is a smart concept. Next, by using different layouts and flows, optimize for smaller devices (5") and tablets.
Being agnostic about orientation is always preferable. Certain devices demand that the keyboard be held in landscape orientation.
The on-screen keyboard is also simpler in landscape mode. Touch screens make typing challenging and error-prone. Let's at least offer the landscape keyboard to our users.
Understand Mobile Interactions
Mobile apps differ from websites and desktop software in how they interact with users. Mobile apps are not designed to be used with complete attention.
Most interactions require touch input which may not be as precise as we would like.
In a few seconds, many mobile interactions may be measured. Recently, a location-based software that lets users check in at bars was developed.
We counted the clicks users made during check-in to see whether any steps might have been skipped or made simpler. User stories outline every function an app should have. It should be easy and quick to complete the most common stories.
This is especially important when the user may be impaired by alcohol.
Optimize First Use
It is important to have a positive experience at your first launch. Applications are frequently developed to address real-world issues.
If the first attempt is unsuccessful, the user is not required to try again. Provide users who register for the app with preview capabilities so they may become accustomed to the experience. Sign-up forms need to convince them that it is worth the effort.
Analytics can also determine where users are dropping off during the sign-up and launch process.
A tutorial is included with many programmes. This is frequently used as a cover for an overly complicated app. However, if you are certain you will need one, make it short and simple.
Analytics can also be used to verify that the tutorial is serving its purpose. Is the tutorial making users more active? What percentage of users skip the tutorial?
Bring The App To Play
The app should not be the only place where user experience is considered. It is worthwhile to look through the Google Play Store listing to make sure it is immediately obvious what the app performs and why customers would desire it.
You can create promotional materials that seem appropriate for the various settings and scales they appear in with the help of these graphic asset guidelines.
The presence of these visuals is necessary.
Also Read: Where Can I Design Android Apps
Layouts, Styles, And Themes
The visual layout editor for Android is always improving. Yet we still favor making XML layouts by hand. The main topics of this section are the implementation details and recommended practices for developing maintainable, effective layouts.
Although some visual designers might skip this part, being informed of the specifics is crucial.
The most common layouts are LinearLayout and RelativeLayout. RelativeLayout should always be preferred for efficiency.
By utilizing weights, LinearLayout may be used to allocate room amongst views. Honeycomb now has a new feature called GridLayout. This eliminates nesting and enables the creation of complicated layouts on huge screens.
It is not good for code readability and performance to nest too deep for Remote Android Designers.
Leave The Framework To Do The Work
Based on folder structure, the Android framework provides automated resource switching. You may build unique layouts and designs for various screen sizes by organizing your graphic elements in the appropriate folders.
This goes beyond that. You can switch between different platforms' color resources or animation durations to suit different screen sizes.
Depending on the available screen width in density pixels, Honeycomb enables you to move between resources. This eliminates the customary switching between bucketed small, medium, big, and extra-large screen sizes.
This enables flexible layout swapping and responsive design. You may, for instance, choose between a layout that is 600 dpi or 800 dpi optimized for tablets. Several combinations of the same components can be made using multiple layout files, typical for various screen properties.
Drawable state lists provide you with the ability to be state-friendly. They let you declare several drawables that correspond to various UI element states in an XML file.
As was already established, it's crucial to portray states accurately.
Extract Values
There shouldn't be any specific dimensions or colors in Layout XML. You can separate these and use references to them in your layouts.
It is easier to adjust afterward if you declare colors and dimensions independently. These numbers can change the dimensions for various platform versions, screen sizes, and orientations. For small screens, padding can be changed, and on large screens, which are held farther away from the face, font size can be increased to make it easier to read.
Use Styles And Themes
It is a good practice to separate stylistic and positioning concerns to maintain consistency in layout XML. At least one width or height attribute is required for each View.
This adds far more boilerplate. You can get rid of it by deriving from a set of base parent styles.
Styles can be used to move recurring attributes into them.
The theme might also incorporate widget designs that are essentially uniform throughout the program. Instead of repeating the properties for each instance, it is simpler to declare the style for a certain type of button.
A relatively recent addition to the Android Development Tools is lint. Lint scans all resources within a project to detect duplicates or performance issues and warns users about them.
This tool is extremely useful in removing clutter from apps that change over time. It's worth checking for warnings during development.
Debug
Layouts occasionally don't turn out as you had hoped. It can occasionally be challenging to see issues between every angle bracket.
The answer is Hierarchy Viewer. A layout tree for an active app in the emulator can be inspected using this tool. The attributes of each View can be looked at.
For graphic designers, Hierarchy Viewer also includes several cool tricks. The screens can be seen in ideal zoom mode, and the layout layers can be exported as a PSD file.
Why Mobile-App Accessibility Is Important
Mobile accessibility is making websites and apps accessible to disabled individuals using mobile phones or other devices.
This content can be delivered on devices other than mobile phones or tablets.
- Smart TVs
- Wearables and connected cars (Android Auto)
- seatback displays for cabs and airplanes
- technology for connected appliances and smart homes
Accessibility is crucial for mobile applications, given that users engage with the material. Native apps, which are programmes pre-installed on a device, increase user engagement and client loyalty.
Also, they allow businesses greater possibilities for customizing their interactions. So, the effects of creating an inaccessible experience could be amplified. According to some estimates, native apps account for 90% of mobile device time.
This shows that app-accessibility needs to be improved.
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6 Step Checklist To Achieve Mobile-App Accessibility
Six all-inclusive design principles for native apps are listed in this checklist. To guarantee usability and accessibility, we have distilled the essential elements that any native app developer or designer should consider.
#1. Design for Various Screen Sizes
The screens on mobile devices are smaller, and the aspect ratios are more varied. This must be taken into account while designing native apps.
The screen size limits the amount of information that can be absorbed once, especially if users have poor vision or need to magnify certain content.
These are some tips to help users make the smallest screen possible:
- You can lessen the amount of information on each page by developing the site responsively or with a mobile-specific layout.
- Give people with low eyesight a good default content size and touch controls to lessen the need to zoom in or out.
- Adapt the link text length to the viewport width.
- Put form fields below their labels rather than next to them.
#2. Accentuate Touch Targets and Placement
Mobile devices' greater resolution enables the presentation of numerous interactive components side by side on a more compact screen.
These components must be big enough and placed far apart for users to reach out and easily touch them. An app's tap targets should be big enough for users to interact with the app confidently and precisely, even while they're working quickly.
The best methods for achieving your touch target size are shown below.
- The minimum dimensions for touch targets should be 9 mm in height and 9 mm in breadth.
- More space should surround tiny touch targets (closer than the minimum size)
Apps for mobile devices should place interactive elements in a way that they are easily accessible regardless of where the device is held.
Developers must consider the possibility that a simple button layout for one user may be challenging for another (e.g., left- or right-handed use, assumptions regarding thumb range, etc.). Here are some tips for placing touch targets:
- Button locations should be simple to find.
- Every interactive component can be used in a variety of ways.
#3. Make Sure To Keep Your Device Gestures Simple And Give Plenty Of Feedback
Several mobile devices have touchscreen controls that can only be used for gestures. These movements might be as basic as a single finger tap or more intricate like several finger taps.
Native apps should be as easy to use with gestures as feasible. Controlling complicated gestures might be challenging for individuals with motor and dexterity issues.
You can design substitutes that let users tap or swipe straightforward movements instead of more intricate ones.
Simpler gesture controls should be available in native apps. In the event of accidental clicks and unintentional acts, users should be able to swiftly reverse their actions and change their direction.
Users should be able to quickly return to the proper interactive parts if they unintentionally click on the incorrect area of an app.
Customized gestures can occasionally take the place of obnoxious confirmation dialogues. Developers should consider including these gestures in their applications because they might be useful to users with disabilities.
#4. Make Sure You Use Consistent Layouts And Templates
Components that repeat across pages should be laid out consistently in mobile applications. Responsive web design is where components are placed based on screen orientation and device size.
Therefore, web pages should have a consistent layout.
A logo, title, search form, and navigation bar might be present in a native program. Every page has these components at the top in the same relative arrangement.
On a smaller screen, the app can be seen in portrait mode. However, the navigation bar will condense into a single icon with a drop-down menu. Yet, the order of the items on that list doesn't change.
Consistency is essential for seamless cross-channel user experiences. Various technologies enable the user to feel comfortable and in charge.
#5. Simple Methods to Enter Data
Another aspect of native applications for mobile devices is multi-modal data entry. Users can input information in various ways, including via the keyboard, bluetooth keyboard, and speech.
Text typing might be time-consuming and difficult for some users. It can be swapped out for other data-entering techniques, though. Choosing menus, radio buttons, or checkboxes will help you reduce the quantity of text needed.
Instead, you might pre-fill the information (e.g., date, time, or location).
For data entry, typing takes time. Alternatives can enhance the app experience and minimize errors, such as autofill, data exchange between apps, or dictation.
#6. Double-Check Color Contrast
The WCAG specifies the color contrast ratios that are suitable for most users. Apps and mobile devices must be taken into account, though.
Mobile devices are frequently used outside, where the sun's glare could impair vision. For all users, good contrast is crucial. Those with vision impairments may find accessing content on their mobile devices more difficult when the contrast is poor.
A strong contrast between the font and background colors is required for text legibility. To comply with WCAG 2.1 AA, the text should have a minimum color contrast ratio (minimum 4.5:1).
There should be a minimum of 3:1 for larger text. Different contrast ratios for larger text are advantageous because it is simpler to read characters with wider character strokes at even a lower contrast than those with narrower strokes.
Best Android Designers now have more control over contrast, which is advantageous for things like titles. Because the app content is displayed on smaller screens, allowing for reduced contrast in large fonts is challenging.
Conclusion
The platform and its tools have been introduced to you. What comes next, then? Android can best be understood by using it daily.
Satisfying app designs share a few characteristics: they follow the same platform standards, pay attention to details, and use simple visual design. You can find the first two by examining currently available Android apps.
Android has advanced significantly over the last few years. Both the platform and the apps are improving. Functionality is insufficient for now.
Customers expect polished apps in a market.
Paul is a highly skilled Full Stack Developer with a solid educational background that includes a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a Master's degree in Software Engineering, as well as a decade of hands-on experience. Certifications such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect, and Agile Scrum Master bolster his knowledge. Paul's excellent contributions to the software development industry have garnered him a slew of prizes and accolades, cementing his status as a top-tier professional. Aside from coding, he finds relief in her interests, which include hiking through beautiful landscapes, finding creative outlets through painting, and giving back to the community by participating in local tech education programmer.
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