# Android UI Patterns - Medium blog about Android UI Patterns - Medium This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Why companion apps often fail: lessons from automotive and smart-home apps DevFeed: [Why companion apps often fail: lessons from automotive and smart-home apps]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2019-12-02T22:13:46Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [App](), [Mobile](), [Development](), [Website](), [React Native]() Tags: [android](), [android-apps](), [app](), [apps](), [development](), [html](), [mobile](), [native](), [react-native](), [ux](), [ux-design]() ### AI overview This commentary examines recurring problems in companion apps, including poor design, weak mobile engineering, and reliance on website wrappers or technology promises. It uses Polestar and Fisker apps as examples while arguing that companion apps are often a customer's first contact with a product. ### Source excerpt The quality of Android apps has really increased in the past years. I've not been writing many rambling about bad design for a long time. App developers and designers (for the most part) understand Android and value the platform specific design and development needs. However, there is still one are which seems to be spawning apps that are really not good. Companion apps. Companion app disasters range from things like tooth brush companions to smart home apps. The companion app often is the very first contact point to the potential new customer. Do you think this will encourage the customer to jump on board with your product: What is it that leads into so many of these disasters even when there is clearly enough skill in the mobile app industry? I think (I'm guessing here) it's often ignorance of what it takes to build a good app. Sometimes it's the management being taken for a ride by a skilled sales people from a bad agency etc. Maybe sometimes it is spending money the wrong way and getting sucked into promises of technologies like React Native or HTML wrappers which promise a lot but end up always producing bad results. Cars are going digital. New cars get apps before they hit the market. These are examples of some of the worst mobile engineering out there. I pre-ordered a Polestar 2 some time ago. And when they launched their app I got really worried. The app is simply a pointless website wrapper. I don't understand why it was done at all. I got so worried, in fact, that I contacted Polestar asking what is happening and offering my help. I was later assured that the actual companion app is going to be built by a skilled team and will, in fact be great. Remains to be seen, I remain sceptical. Recently another car company was tweeting about an upcoming app for their unreleased car: Henrik Fisker on Twitter We will launch the Fisker App end of November & open up reservations for 'no hassle' subscription to our all electric vehicle. Production intend prototype re ## State of the Navigation Drawer DevFeed: [State of the Navigation Drawer]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2019-01-31T07:11:01Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [User interface design](), [navigation](), [Android](), [Google](), [Material Design]() Tags: [android](), [bottom-navigation](), [google](), [material-design](), [navigation](), [navigation-drawer](), [ui-design](), [ux]() ### AI overview This opinion article examines the changing role of the Navigation Drawer in Android UI design. It argues that bottom navigation is replacing the drawer in many modern Google apps because it makes core destinations more visible and discoverable, while the drawer remains useful for secondary or less frequently needed functions and for accommodating more items. ### Source excerpt UI design patterns evolve. Some come into fashion and some go out of fashion. A pattern, once common, over used, and pervasive has been slowly been turned into background and removed. I'm talking, of course, about the Navigation Drawer. I recently had a discussion with a customer about the Navigation Drawer and its role in the current Android ecosystem. I put forth a claim that it is being phased out where possible.. including most Google's apps. The Navigation Drawer pattern, or hamburger menu, has been receiving fair amount of criticism for quite a long time. Main reasons for the criticism has been the fact that it hides core navigation behind hidden UI. Users won't find new features added to apps or find out about the ones already there. There are a good number of sources and experiences advising against the drawer: Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics Spotify ditches the controversial 'hamburger' menu in iOS app redesign Side Drawer Navigation Could Cost Half Your User Engagement 3 Good Reasons Why You Might Want to Remove that Hamburger Menu from Your Product So is Google actually ditching the pattern in their Android apps? It is still, after all, part of the Material Design guideline. If we take a survey of Google apps that have been updated to the modern design we can find a good number of apps that used to use the drawer but now use bottom navigation as their sole navigation pattern: A selection of Google first party apps that rely on bottom navigation. Finding few Google Android apps without drawer is hardly a proof that the drawer is gone for good. However, it is a clear sign of times changing. The drawer was once something that was present everywhere. The much-more discoverability supporting bottom navigation pattern is replacing the drawer where possible. You can find much more information about the bottom navigation pattern in the Material Design guidelines. Truth is that the drawer still lives on. Even on Google's redesigned apps. A se ## Conference Talk: "Design-dev cooperation and fast Android prototyping" DevFeed: [Conference Talk: "Design-dev cooperation and fast Android prototyping"]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2018-02-07T15:58:56Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [Development](), [Android](), [ui]() Tags: [android](), [conference](), [design](), [dev](), [prototyping](), [talk](), [ui]() ### AI overview The article discusses a conference talk on cooperation between designers and developers, with a focus on fast Android prototyping. It points readers to recordings from Droidcon UK and Droidcon Berlin and to the talk slides. ### Source excerpt Last year, Pierluigi Rufo (@pierluigirufo) and I were touring couple of conferences talking about Dev-Designer cooperation and how we tackle it. This is an issue very close to my heart. When the interdisciplinary cooperation works the results are amazing and work pleasant. (photo by Droidcon UK) There are couple of recordings online. I recommend you check out the Droidcon UK recording. This was our second round of the talk and we improved it a bit. Free registration required though to watch the video: How To Bring A Product To Reality In A Few Days: Design-Dev Cooperation And Fast Android Prototyping | SkillsCast | 26th October 2017 Droidcon Berlin was our first round. It's OK but could have been better. Recording of that is online here: https://medium.com/media/deb520b2abb0af80fd47e89d362f97d3/href You can find slides of the talk here: https://medium.com/media/e880a61816303a792a288bcafbc06b83/href Conference Talk: "Design-dev cooperation and fast Android prototyping" was originally published in Android UI Patterns on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. ## UI Pattern Evolution -- FAB-in-Bottom-Nav DevFeed: [UI Pattern Evolution -- FAB-in-Bottom-Nav]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2018-01-10T14:19:30Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [ui](), [navigation](), [Material Design](), [Android]() Tags: [android](), [bottom-navigation](), [design](), [design-patterns](), [material-design](), [ui](), [ux]() ### AI overview This article discusses how established Android UI patterns evolve, focusing on placing a floating action button in a bottom navigation bar. It explains the intended roles of FABs and bottom navigation, the rationale for making a persistent action accessible across top-level screens, and the tension between navigation and action elements. The supplied text ends mid-sentence, so the discussion of anti-patterns is incomplete. ### Source excerpt I've been writing about Android UI Patterns now for nearly 10 years. In the Android ecosystem existing patterns evolve and new patterns emerge from the work designers and developers do on the platform. Established pattern evolution is one of the most fascinating things to follow for couple of reasons: It points out that design patterns are not design rules. Patterns are solutions to problems. Solutions are not absolute. You are free to think what you can do with an established pattern to better solve your specific issue. You don't need to stop where the Material Design Guidelines end. However, to break the rules you should know the rules. Break them when you have a reason to. A designer proposing an alternative to an established pattern should be able to answer the question "why?". So before you decide to throw out the conventional FAB, take a look at what the FAB actually is and where it's meant to be used. FAB in Bottom Navigation FAB is the main action on the current screen. The default positioning to the bottom right enforces this thinking with users. But what if you have an action that you want to be reachable from anywhere from your top level screens? One option would be to repeat the button on each screen. In these cases you should make sure to keep the FAB constantly visible to indicate that it has not changed. But there's another option. Place the FAB on the bottom navigation bar. The bottom navigation pattern is also very well defined in the Material Design guidelines. It's worth taking a look before diving in. The bottom navigation is used to navigate between your top-level content. Your main action might logically feel to be on the same level than the other top-level content. However, making one of the navigation items an action does not feel right. All content accessible from the bottom navigation should be on the same level in your app hierarchy. FAB is already a well-established pattern and users can be expected to understand it. FAB triggers an actio ## Toolbar Delight DevFeed: [Toolbar Delight]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-27T17:06:38Z Content type: tutorial Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [Android](), [ui](), [Framework](), [implementation]() Tags: [android](), [arc](), [components](), [containers](), [design](), [feature](), [layout](), [toolbar](), [ui](), [ui-framework](), [ux]() ### AI overview This tutorial explains the design and implementation of a custom Android toolbar for the Social Steps app. It covers playful animations and state changes, scrolling behavior with AppBarLayout and CollapsingToolbarLayout, offset tracking, toolbar elevation, and a custom ToolbarArcBackground view. ### Source excerpt In this article we explain how and why we did our Social Steps app custom toolbar from implementation point of view. Design Adding delightful details to your user interface is a great way to push your app above competition (assuming, of course, that all the important functionality exists and is well designed). Toolbar is a playground on Android. We decided to fully utilise it in playful but meaningful animations and state changes. The design for this feature, like for the rest of the Social Steps app, was done by Pierluigi Rufo. Pier has promissed to write about the design side in much more detail soon. Stay tuned! Implementation Android's UI framework is extremely powerful and flexible. If you take the time to learn what you can do with it you'll be adding a very powerful tool to your toolbox. Personally, I believe native Android UI being the most powerful prototyping tool currently available. Nearly everything your designer comes up with you can implement in matter of hours (or at least create an approximation of the intended feature). This flexibility extends to proper, scalable, implementations of production-ready features. In our Social Steps app the toolbar was the obvious place where to push the brand and user delight aspects of the app. To maintain scalability, scrolling containers are very commonplace in Android screens. So much so that Google introduces special components for developers to be able to add interesting and useful behaviour to the Android toolbar: AppBarLayout and CollapsingToolbarLayout. With the two above components and a small custom view it's possible to work magic on your toolbar design. Tracking scrolling eventshttps://medium.com/media/cbcccefeb5031bb6f4e8b840e61f1c66/href AppBarLayout.OnOffsetChangedListener This is the tool you can use to get a handle to events when user scrolls your main view (collapses your toolbar). This code is in my main Activity but it works as well in a Fragment if your toolbar is defined in one. appbarLayout.ad ## On the Bottom Navigation Bar DevFeed: [On the Bottom Navigation Bar]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-12T10:15:35Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [Android](), [Material Design](), [User interface design](), [ui](), [iOS]() Tags: [android](), [animation](), [bottom-navigation](), [design](), [material-design](), [navigation](), [ui](), [ui-design](), [ux]() ### AI overview An opinion article discusses Android bottom navigation, focusing on how it interacts with the Android back button, tab behavior, and navigation state. It recommends using tap-based navigation, hiding the bottom bar deeper in the app hierarchy, and carefully managing animations and back-button behavior. ### Source excerpt Android bottom tabs, I mean Bottom Navigation, is here to stay. I have to admit that I wasn't overly happy when this was added to the Material Guidelines. But hey, times change. In the end this addition makes sense and for me, as a business owner, this makes even financial sense. By utilising bottom navigation we can make Android apps take one steps closer towards iOS app design. It's one step less we need to take into account when designing apps targeting multiple platforms. Note however, that I'm still not advocating 1-to-1 iOS-Android design. The platforms are different and need different designs! Now, the reason I had anxiety over introducing Bottom Navigation to Android is the thing that keeps causing most of Android navigation problems: the back button. On iOS back is always contextual as it is rendered in the UI. Not so on Android. The Android back button is outside your app's UI. It's a platform control without any visual hints of what it might or might not do. This is why on Android it is easy to make a UI design mistakes leading into a conflicting navigation state. Also, on Android tabs are swipeable, on iOS they're not. Fortunately, the Material Design guidelines propose bottom navigation not to behave like Android tabs but instead like iOS tabs. i.e. you tap, don't swipe between the navigation views. This solves yet another platform navigation issue. Swiping tabs are still reserved for the Android top tabs. Like they've been so far. All of this to work and to be understandable to our users we need to be consistent and careful. When implementing bottom navigation make sure to pay attention to details. Pay attention to the animation you play when switching views and make sure your back button management is spot on. To not make your user confused with the combination of bottom navigation and Android back button there are few simple guidelines you should follow: Whenever user navigates deeper into the app hierarchy make sure that the bottom navigation bar is ## Matias Duarte talks about the role of Android guidelines DevFeed: [Matias Duarte talks about the role of Android guidelines]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-03T19:04:20Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [Android](), [consistency](), [ui](), [Google]() Tags: [android](), [consistency](), [design](), [google](), [ui]() ### AI overview The article discusses Matias Duarte's explanation of how consistency, conventions, and Android design guidelines help users understand and use interfaces. It also connects the discussion to the Yahoo! Weather app. ### Source excerpt The head of Android design in Google, Matias Duarte, posted a great post to G+ about the role of consistency and Android design guidelines. The post is a good read and relates directly to the discussion about the Yahoo! Weather app. "Consistency and conventions are there to help your users. They help users get things done and not worry about how to get things done. Design guidelines are there to help you understand the consistency and conventions, especially if you're not from around here." -Matias Duarte Originally published at www.androiduipatterns.com on August 17, 2013. Matias Duarte talks about the role of Android guidelines was originally published in Android UI Patterns on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. ## Yahoo! Weather app -- a followup DevFeed: [Yahoo! Weather app -- a followup]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-03T19:04:01Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [App](), [Development](), [Android]() Tags: [app](), [article](), [dev](), [developers](), [development](), [opinion](), [ux]() ### AI overview The author responds to criticism of an earlier critique of the Yahoo! Weather app and explains why the app is a useful case study for designers and developers. The article focuses on design evaluation, including the risks of using icons that differ from platform standards. ### Source excerpt Yesterday, I wrote an article pointing out issues in the new Yahoo! Weather app. To my surprise the post has turned out to be quite a controversial one. Here are some reactions to it (I won't even touch reddit comments ;) Now, before anyone tweets / messages these people, don't. They have a point (although I'm not sure if being called "pathetic" is fully justified). I appreciate (most) of these comments and I thought I'd address some of them and explain my "nitpicking" in the previous article. While getting posted (and voted up) in /r/android usually means a nice incoming traffic to the site I'd rather not see my posts there. /r/androiddev /r/androiddesign are much better places for what I write. I don't write app reviews for end users. I write for designers and developers. An app like the Yahoo! Weather is a gold mine as an example when writing about design for couple of reasons: It's done by a large company with large budget -- I think it would be wrong to do a similar detailed breakdown to an app done by a small team or an individual dev. Small teams & small budgets often create external constraints to the development and design. A large company like Yahoo! on the other hand has everything it needs. Yahoo! got close -- a detailed evaluation of an app that is so far from the goal that even multiple iterations could not take it there might not be as valuable as evaluating an app that is almost there. The Yahoo! Weather app is beautiful and has a lot of potential. That makes it an optimal example. The app doesn't have to be fully redesigned. It's a popular app -- everyone knows the app and everyone has an opinion about it. None of the critics actually told which parts they felt were the wort nitpicking in the article. However, it's pretty safe to assume that my comments about the "hamburger" icon and the share icon could easily be seen as such. So why did I choose to talk about them? Are all users now confused when using the app because the icons don't match. I'd bet m ## Nick Butcher and Roman Nurik on design consistency DevFeed: [Nick Butcher and Roman Nurik on design consistency]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-03T19:03:40Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [ui](), [Android](), [consistency]() Tags: [android](), [design](), [design-consistency](), [ui]() ### AI overview This article discusses Android design consistency, including how to follow Holo guidelines without making every app look identical. It explains how to preserve brand identity across platform versions while still making an app feel like Android, including the use of custom accent colors with standard Holo widgets. ### Source excerpt In yesterday's Android Design in Action video podcast Nick Butcher and Roman Nurik talked about design consistency on Android. This is a topic that keeps popping up in many design discussions and seems to be often misunderstood. What does it mean to follow the Holo guidelines when building an app? Does it mean that every app must look the same? What if you are publishing your app on multiple platforms? How do you make sure that your brand is consistent throughout the different app versions but still make your app feel like an Android app? Nick and Roman explain how to approach different parts of your app design to achieve all these goals. You can find the video from here (direct link to the design consistency part of the video) and the presentation slides are available here. In a related G+ post Nick gives some tips about choosing colours for your app: "The Holo visual language does not dictate a strict colour palette. While it does provide some base colours as a starting point [0], it is not prescriptive. You should use colour to bring your own brand's personality to your app.One technique that works particularly well is to use a single strong accent colour to marry Holo's visual style with your brand. By default, Holo widgets use a blue accent colour -- but they don't have to! By theming the standard widgets with your own accent colour they will appear both distinctly Android and completely branded." Read the full post here. Originally published at www.androiduipatterns.com on July 17, 2013. Nick Butcher and Roman Nurik on design consistency was originally published in Android UI Patterns on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. ## Timely Alarm Clock demonstrates how Android design guidelines can support creative interactions DevFeed: [Timely Alarm Clock demonstrates how Android design guidelines can support creative interactions]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Juhani Lehtimäki Published: 2017-09-02T19:32:10Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Android UI Patterns - Medium]() Topics: [Android](), [App](), [Google Play]() Tags: [android](), [app](), [components](), [context](), [design](), [google-play](), [icons](), [innovation](), [patterns](), [standard]() ### AI overview The article praises Timely Alarm Clock as an example of Android design that combines platform guidelines with creative interaction. It highlights a gesture-based method for setting alarms, contextual guidance for discoverability, and the use of standard components and icons where appropriate. ### Source excerpt Tasks app is something I've been using as an example of great and simple Android app in many occasions. It's one of the apps that took the new Android design and implemented it in it very basic and in the simplest form possible. I've used it as an example what to do when you don't have access to a lot of design resources. Now, the same team has released their next app. And it is beautiful! Before reading further get the app from Google Play for free. There's so many things in the app that can't be shown in screenshots. Many seemed to think that following design guidelines somehow limits creativity or makes all apps look the same. That's absolutely not true and Timely Alarm Clock app is the best example of this ever released. The Timely Alarm Clock app follows the Android design guidelines on every screen. Any Android user feels home in the app from the initial launch but it is beautiful. It most certainly doesn't look the same as other apps. Another misconception about the design guidelines is that if you follow them you're bound to using only the standard components provided by the platform. That's not true either. The Timely Alarm Clock app team has created a new and novel way to set the alarm time. On the app's main screen user can pull from the left-hand-side time bar to create a new alarm. This is not done in any app in the Google Play (as far as I know). It's a new idea and it works. There's absolutely nothing wrong in creating this kind of new interaction. There's, however, an issue when it comes to new thing. Discoverability. If you do things that are common on the platform you can trust that users know how to use them but when you're creating something completely new you have to guide users a bit more. The app team does this perfectly as well. I've seen apps that try to explain how their app works by using popups. Never do that! Guide in context instead. Do what this app team has done. The available actions are explained in context and user is not blocked b