A little resume of DroidConIT, presenting some of the most interesting guidelines to improve UX and usability in Android applications.

1. Google Developer Group Perugia
http://perugia.gdg.io
26.02.2014 @ Perugia

2. Who am I?
+DanielaMogini88
Software engineer
Java, J2EE, Android
daniela.mogini@gmail.com

3. DroidConIT 2014
A little wrap-up!

4. Looking for...

5. Where to start
Apple User Experience? Lesson learned...
Let’s start with Android
Design Principles!
http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html

6. Design Principles

7. Design Principles Overview
1. Enchant me
2. Simplify my life
3. Make me Amazing

8. Just like a well-made tool, your app should strive to combine
beauty, simplicity and purpose to create a magical
experience that is effortless and powerful.
Enchant me

9. 1 - Enchant me
Your own way
Android Way
Beauty
Simplicity
Graphics, color, brand, original
look and feel
Standard Android components.
The user already knows how to
use them
Magical experience
Combine elements and
functionality in a creative and
unique way
Purpose
Be part of a system without
reinventing the wheel
Effortless
No need to learn new things,
users don’t want to feel dumb!

10. 1 - Enchant me
Your own way
Android Way
Powerful?!
Which is the trade-off to build
powerful Android apps?

11. 1 - Enchant me
Your own way
Android Way
Creativity + Usability
Customize Android elements in
your unique way

12. Holo Theme
Theme.Hol
o
Theme.Holo.Ligh
t
Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar

13. Holo Theme
Since Android 3.0 and improved in Android 4.0
“Using one of the system themes as a starting point for
your customizations is a good idea”
“The system themes provide a solid foundation on top of
which you can selectively implement your own visual
stylings.”

14. Customizing System Theme (1/2)
1) Build your own theme starting from a system theme
In: res/values/styles.xml
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
<item name="android:windowBackground">@color/custom_theme_color</item>
</style>
In: res/values-v11/styles.xml
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:windowBackground">@color/custom_theme_color</item>
</style>

15. Customizing System Theme (2/2)
2) Tell your app to use the new theme
In the manifest
<activity android:theme="@style/CustomTheme">

16. ActionBar
● Since Honeycomb (API level 11)
● Support to 2.x devices with ActionBarSherlock
● Extends existing Option Menu framework
● Provides navigation: tab-based navigation, dropdownbased navigation

17. ActionBar
Action bar with
tab-based navigation

18. ActionBar
Transparent and splitted
ActionBar with
dropdown-based navigation

19. Navigation Drawer
The navigation drawer is a panel that transitions in from the
left edge of the screen and displays the app’s main
navigation options.
When navigation matters:
● More than 3 top-level views
● Navigation between lower level views
● Deep navigation branches

20. Navigation Drawer

21. ● Use Android elements to improve UX
● Customize elements in your own way
● Be creative while following design guidelines
● Learn from the best:
http://developer.android.com/design/
https://blog.stylingandroid.com/
ENJOY!
So… Enchant Me!

22. Users again
What???
Users again… Ok, we built a beautiful Android app,
what do you want more?

23. Your app should WORK...
● For their device
● as they expect
● taking care of their special needs
Simplify my life

24. For their device
You have to support different:
● Languages
● Screens
● Platform versions

25. Example - Different screens (1/3)
● Provide layouts for different screens

26. Example - Different screens (2/3)
● Design both for landscape and portrait mode

27. Example - Different screens (3/3)
● Provide drawables for different screen densities

28. As they expect
From the user point of view:
●
●
●
●
●
I should always know where I am
If it looks the same, it should act the same
Remember my preferences
Only show what I need when I need it
Make important things fast

29. Taking care of their special needs
1 billion user have special needs
and it is extremely easy to add accessibility features to
Android apps.
Android framework already integrates 2 services to provide
feedback to users:
● TalkBack
● BrailleBack

30. Android accessibility features
You can discover
it yourself!

31. Making your app accessible (1/2)
● Add “contentDescription”
and “hint” to your UI
components
● Express text dimension in sp to enable resizing
● Add captions to
videos

32. Making your app accessible (2/2)
● Make your UI components focusable
● Test navigation between focusable components
● If necessary, customize the navigation
<EditText android:id="@+id/edit"
android:nextFocusDown=”@+id/text”
... />
<TextView android:id="@+id/text"
android:focusable=”true”
android:text="Hello, I am a focusable TextView"
android:nextFocusUp=”@id/edit”
... />
● Test your app for accessibility

33. Your app should WORK...
● For their device
Support different languages, screens
and platform versions
Take care of UX and don’t make the
● as they expect
user feel lost or dumb.
● taking care of their
Design and test for accessibility
special needs
Simplify my life

34. And now?
Is that enough to have my five stars?

35. This is your business
BUT...
be careful not to annoy users!
Make me amazing!

36. Be reactive to users’ behaviour
Take care of:
● When: Is night? …
● What: What is the user doing? Is he driving? Is he busy?
● Where: Where is the user?

37. When: Is night?
If it’s night you may want to:
● Disable sound notification
● Provide a night layout based on white-on-black color
schema
You can provide a different
theme using night
qualifier

38. What: What is the user doing?
Google’s Location API can help you discover what is the user
doing: DetectedActivity
●
●
●
●
●
●
Still
On foot
On bycicle
In vehicle
Tilting
Unknown

39. What: Something more...
Is the user driving?
● You can check if the device is connected to a handsfree
audio system
Is the user busy?
● You can check the device orientation

40. Where: Where is the user
You can provide content, notification or even change the app
behaviour, basing on user location.
External location:
Geofences
With Fused Location API
you can get asynchronous
notifications when users
enter/exit a proximity area
Internal location:
iBecons
Bluetooth 4.0 is natively
supported by KitKat devices
with specific hardware

41. Yeaaah!!!
Here’s your five stars and your million downloads! :)

42. Thank you...
...and join the
community!