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Android™ User Interface Design: Turning Ideas and Sketches into Beautifully Designed Apps

Android™ User Interface Design: Turning Ideas and Sketches into Beautifully Designed Apps

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by Ian G. Clifton
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Release Date: May 2013
ISBN: 9780133154849
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Book Description

Build Android Apps That Are Stunningly Attractive, Functional, and Intuitive

In today’s crowded Android marketplace, it’s more important than ever to differentiate your apps. Great design is the best way to do that. Now, leading Android app design expert Ian G. Clifton shows you how to make your apps come alive and how to deliver apps that users will want, love, and buy!

Reflecting the Android 4.2 SDK, this book serves both as a tutorial for the entire design and implementation process and as a handy reference you’ll rely on for every Android development project.

Clifton shows how to create effective designs, organize them into Android components, and move gracefully from idea, to wireframe, to comp, to finished app. You’ll learn how to bring your own voice, personality, and style to your app designs; how to leverage advanced drawing techniques such as PorterDuff compositing; how to test designs on diverse Android devices; and much more.

Android User Interface Design details each step of the design and development process and contains extensive downloadable sample code, including complete finished apps.

  • Learn how Android has evolved to support outstanding app design

  • Integrate app design with development, from idea through deployment

  • Understand views, the building blocks of Android user interfaces

  • Make the most of wireframes and prototypes

  • Build efficient layouts and integrate smooth animations

  • Make apps more useful by automatically updating ListViews

  • Combine views into custom components

  • Use image compositing and other advanced techniques

  • Work with the canvas and advanced drawing

  • Leverage Google Play and Amazon Appstore assets

    • One step at a time, this guide helps you bridge the gap between Android developers and designers so you can work with colleagues to create world-class app designs...or do it yourself!

    Table of Contents

    1. About This eBook
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright Page
    4. Praise for Android User Interface Design
    5. Dedication Page
    6. Contents
    7. Preface
    8. Acknowledgments
    9. About the Author
    10. Introduction
      1. Audience of This Book
      2. Organization of This Book
      3. How to Use This Book
      4. This Book’s Website
      5. Conventions Used in This Book
    11. Part I. The Basics of Android User Interface
      1. Chapter 1. Android UI Overview
        1. A Brief History of Android Design
        2. The Android Design Website
        3. Core Principles
        4. Standard Components
        5. Supporting Multiple Devices
        6. Notable Changes
        7. Summary
      2. Chapter 2. Understanding Views—The UI Building Blocks
        1. What Is a View?
        2. Displaying Text
        3. Displaying Images
        4. Views for Gathering User Input
        5. Other Notable Views
        6. Listening to Events
        7. Summary
      3. Chapter 3. Creating Full Layouts with View Groups and Fragments
        1. ViewGroup
        2. Fragments
        3. Summary
      4. Chapter 4. Adding App Graphics and Resources
        1. Introduction to Resources in Android
        2. Resource Qualifiers
        3. Understanding Density
        4. Supported Image Files
        5. Nine-Patch Images
        6. XML Drawables
        7. Other Resources
        8. Summary
    12. Part II. The Full Design and Development Process
      1. Chapter 5. Starting a New App
        1. Defining Goals
        2. High-Level Flow
        3. Wireframes
        4. Summary
      2. Chapter 6. Developing the App Foundation
        1. Organizing into Activities and Fragments
        2. Breaking Wireframes into Views
        3. Creating Themes and Styles
        4. Summary
      3. Chapter 7. Finalizing the Design
        1. Wireframes and Graphical Design
        2. App Visual Style and Personality
        3. Text Considerations
        4. Standard Icons
        5. Dynamic Content Considerations
        6. Navigation and Transitions
        7. Error Cases
        8. Summary
      4. Chapter 8. Applying the Design
        1. Working with the Designer
        2. Slicing the Graphics Assets
        3. Updating Themes and Styles
        4. Breaking Comps into Views
        5. Improving Efficiency
        6. Basic Testing Across Device Types
        7. Summary
      5. Chapter 9. Further Improving the App
        1. Hierarchy Viewer
        2. Animations
        3. Custom Fonts
        4. Summary
    13. Part III. Advanced Topics for Android User Interfaces
      1. Chapter 10. How to Handle Common Components
        1. Splash Screen
        2. Loading Indication
        3. Complex TextViews
        4. Autoloading ListViews
        5. Summary
      2. Chapter 11. Combining Views for Custom Components
        1. When to Combine Views
        2. Combining Views to Simplify Working with Them
        3. Implementing a Multibutton Toggle
        4. Summary
      3. Chapter 12. Developing Fully Custom Views
        1. General Concepts
        2. Developing the Custom View
        3. Summary
      4. Chapter 13. Working with the Canvas and Advanced Drawing
        1. PorterDuff Image Compositing
        2. Creating Custom Drawables
        3. Summary
    14. Part IV. Helpful Guides and Reference
      1. Appendix A. Google Play Assets
        1. Application Description
        2. The Change Log
        3. Application Icon
        4. Screenshots
        5. Feature Graphic
        6. Promotional Graphic
        7. Video (YouTube)
        8. Promoting Your App
      2. Appendix B. Amazon Appstore Assets
        1. Overview
        2. The Application Icon
        3. Screenshots
        4. Promotional Graphic
        5. Videos
      3. Appendix C. Common Task Reference
        1. Indicating Loading in the Action Bar
        2. Dismissing the Software Keyboard
        3. Using Full Screen Mode
        4. Keeping the Screen On
        5. Determining the Device’s Physical Screen Size
        6. Determining the Device DPI
        7. Checking for a Network Connection
        8. Checking if the Current Thread Is the UI Thread
        9. Custom View Attributes
    15. Index