Google Style Guide for Android Apps
Written by Lucy Black   
Monday, 16 January 2012

Android Design is a new website launched by Google to  help developers get a more consistent and portable user interface across devices.

Google has finally produced a style guide for Android applications - something that it has been visibly lacking as demonstrated by the unstylishness of many of its apps.

 

androidstyle1

 

The style guide has arrived in the form of a website, Android Design, an integral part of the Android Developer site, which has been created specifically to help developers in the creation of applications for Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

The site relies on visuals - one of the Design Principles it advocates is "Pictures are faster than words". Which is a sort of qualitative version of the quantitative "A picture is worth a 1000 words".

In its Style section you'll find  information on the three system themes for Ice Cream Sandwich: Holo Light; Holo Dark and Holo Lick with dark action bars; and after Typography, Color and Iconography you'll find tips on Writing Style.

 

andtypography

 

The Patterns section is where you'll find the information needed to design apps that behave in a consistent, predictable fashion - it has sections on gestures, app structure, navigation, Action Bar, multi-panel layouts etc. This is followed by Building Blocks, a section where there is an inventory of ready-to-use elements: tabs, lists, buttons, dialogs and so on.

 

andicons

 

In places the style guide is currently a bit thin but there is promise of more in-depth content to come - and compared with the previous lack of style guidance it's a welcome and important resource.

More Information:

Android Design


raspberry pi books

 

Comments




or email your comment to: comments@i-programmer.info

 

To be informed about new articles on I Programmer, subscribe to the RSS feed, follow us on Google+, Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

 

Banner


Quantum Computers Really Are A One Trick Pony
17/03/2024

Google is offering $5 million if you can think up a use for a quantum computer. Wait, I thought quantum computers were the next big thing, a revolution! Surely we know what they can do?



Chainguard Joins Docker Verified Publisher Program
15/03/2024

Chainguard has joined the Docker Verified Publisher (DVP) program, meaning its Chainguard Developer Images are now officially available on Docker's container image registry.


More News

Last Updated ( Monday, 16 January 2012 )