CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-22 11:24:47 (3 comments, 16 reshares, 46 +1s)

ActionBarDrawerToggle and ActionBarSherlock

ActionBarDrawerToggle is a helper class to go along with the new DrawerLayout which replaces the Up caret with an animated drawer icon. However, the version in the revision 13 support library only supports the native ActionBar and since I wanted to use it on a project using +Jake Wharton's +ActionBarSherlock, I decided to implement ActionBarDrawerToggle in ActionBarSherlock so that it works on all ABS supported devices.

Unfortunately, the revision 13 of the Support Library is not yet on Maven, so Maven support (and merging back into the ABS repository) is on hold until that occurs. Hopefully won't be too long...

2013-05-21 19:06:15 (5 comments, 6 reshares, 28 +1s)

DrawerLayout and the associated Android Design guidelines made their debut in the Google Shopper and Google Earth apps before Google I/O. At the conference +Roman Nurik and +Nick Butcher gave a great talk introducing them to engineers while explaining other UI patterns (https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326204977) and +Richard Fulcher and +Jens Nagel gave another on related structural patterns as well. (https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326301704) As an adaptation of a long-standing pattern from the developer community, we had a big task ahead of us in standardizing a pattern for the sliding drawers that users have come to know and love while still meeting some very general requirements from the rest of the app ecosystem.

We started from both low-level details and high-level conceptual structure at once. Everyone uses nav drawers just a little bit differently andtho... more »

2013-05-21 13:47:28 (4 comments, 16 reshares, 103 +1s)

For those of you into #QuantifiedSelf , +Moves is coming to Android as previewed at #io13 : Google I/O 2013 - Beyond the Blue Dot: New Features in Android Location

2013-05-21 13:39:15 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 31 +1s)

A couple of great articles talking about Google's evolving design aesthetic that you might have missed in the #io13  madness.  Some choice quotes from +Matias Duarte on the Card pattern:

“The idea is that each card is a single atomic contextual piece of information; essentially, a suggestion, a prompt, a call to action […] It boils down to focus: in a very constrained space, they can communicate one thing really well.”
—http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/05/the-evolution-of-google-design.html

“We’ve given cards the barest minimum of physicality […]  If you were to imagine, it’s just a few pixels thick. It’s not a heavy thing. It’s not an overwrought thing. But it is tangible.”
—http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672605/how-google-unified-its-products-with-a-simple-index-card

Handy rules to think about before you card allthe things.

#an... more »

2013-05-21 08:26:46 (2 comments, 8 reshares, 41 +1s)

You can now use OkHttp as the transport layer for Volley with minimal code. Make sure you pull in the latest Volley changes from AOSP and then toss the linked gist as part of the Network for your RequestQueue.

Enjoy new features like SPDY/3 (on supported servers) as well as the greatly simplified configuration and optimizations OkHttp brings to normal HTTP.

#AndroidDev #Volley #OkHttp

2013-05-18 05:27:07 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 19 +1s)

Hey Android devs,
I want to point out a neat feature now on developer.android.com that improves search/navigation. If you haven't already noticed, typing in the search box now reveals suggestions for design docs, training classes, API guides, etc. But there's also an easier way to begin searching: hit the slash button /. The escape key also close search.

I've found this very useful when I'm deep in a doc and want to switch to another one I know of. I simply hit /, type a word to reveal the document I know of, then I'm there.

Hat tip to +David Chandler for the / shortcut idea.

2013-05-21 07:57:21 (19 comments, 202 reshares, 316 +1s)

Android Design for UI Developers

Slides from +Roman Nurik & my #io13  talk.  You can also watch a recording of the talk here: Google I/O 2013 - Android Design for UI Developers

2013-05-17 16:38:20 (13 comments, 97 reshares, 235 +1s)

Android Design for UI Developers
 The video of +Roman Nurik & my #io13  talk is now online.  In this talk we provide some tips and tricks for building the UI patterns & visual styling detailed in the #AndroidDesign  guidelines.

Alternatively you can view an album of our slides here: https://plus.google.com/photos/+NickButcher/albums/5878483541944650177

2013-05-17 15:35:50 (1 comments, 9 reshares, 21 +1s)

Since +Ficus Kirkpatrick presented at I/O about the Volley library, I thought I'd make a super simple Flickr client app to show people the basic. I won't even pretend that this is a good app, but it does show some basic concepts of how to use Volley.

I also got some questions on how to get Volley, since there's no JAR to download. Here are the instructions for Linux, though it's similar on other platforms.

git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/volley
cd volley
android update project -p .
ant jar

Then, copy bin/volley.jar into your libs/ folder and off you go!

2013-05-17 00:57:06 (3 comments, 2 reshares, 21 +1s)

So +Nick Butcher and +Roman Nurik just "re-announced" ActionBarCompat. I can't give an ETA, but the fact that the #io13 app is currently using it should tell you that it's not very far away.

#AndroidDev

2013-05-16 05:34:50 (11 comments, 39 reshares, 118 +1s)

The Android Support Library has been updated to r13 with some great new additions:

– DrawerLayout for creating a Navigation Drawers
– ActionBarDrawerToggle to tie DrawerLayouts together with the ActionBar
– SlidingPaneLayout  for creating adaptive master/detail views

And much more!

#androiddev   

2013-05-16 04:53:27 (6 comments, 11 reshares, 49 +1s)

Very happy to announce a new design pattern for the Android Design Guide: The Navigation Drawer.

Navigation drawers have been a community-driven pattern for a while. We have now formalized its use on the Android platform with a new chapter in the official Android Design Guide. If you're interested in using this pattern in your app, or want to update your existing drawer to match best practices and recommendations, head on over and take a look.

2013-05-13 21:30:31 (2 comments, 7 reshares, 45 +1s)

My newest app, Android Design in Action, is now live in the Play Store!

Easily access all videos and resources of your most favorite +GDL show!

Main features:
 - Watch all shows on your Android device
 - Access Google+ stream of the #ADiA  and #AndroidDesign  hashtags
 - Share multiple slides with your co-workers or on the social network of your choice
 - Directly share the YouTube-Link of a show via Android Beam™
 - Receive notifications about upcoming shows
 - Receive a notification just before a show starts
 - Optimized for phones, tablets and everything between

Big thanks to +Roman Nurik, +Nick Butcher and +Adam Koch for their tips and suggestions as well as for their engagement in the Android Design community!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.astuetz.android.adia

#ADiA  #AndroidDesign... more »

2013-05-13 17:53:55 (22 comments, 18 reshares, 100 +1s)

I'll be raising awareness for an important cause at Google I/O. Find me in the Android Developer Sandbox and grab this must-have sticker to show your support.

#io13 #AndroidDev #14IsTheNew8

2013-05-12 17:53:47 (12 comments, 1 reshares, 38 +1s)

Google I/O is almost upon us. Expect to see a lot of interesting talks for both designers and developers. 

Enjoy the most exiting week in the Android calendar!

2013-05-11 18:29:01 (0 comments, 7 reshares, 32 +1s)

Design is quickly becoming one of the most important elements to creating a successful Android app. Whether you're a design novice or UX veteran we've got sessions all of day 2 to help hone your skills at #IO13 .

Starting with Cognitive Science and Design with +Alex Faaborg before +Rachel Garb and +Helena Roeber teach us how to Enchant, Simplify, Amaze: (with) Android's Design Principles.

You'll learn how to perform Agile UX Research Practice in Android with +Miki Konno and +Bethany Fong, before +Jens Nagel and +Richard Fulcher explain how to build good Structure in Android App Design.

We finish the day with +Roman Nurik and +Nick Butcher as they show you how to put all this Android design into action with Android Design for UI Developers.

Link:
https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326460111https:... more »

2013-05-10 00:41:31 (15 comments, 9 reshares, 85 +1s)

2013-05-07 23:17:55 (0 comments, 10 reshares, 23 +1s)

Bank holiday fun. Sample code by +Roman Nurik made this SO easy to implement.

2013-05-07 23:10:27 (2 comments, 25 reshares, 32 +1s)

Slidey tab indicator a la Play Store by +Andreas Stütz.

#androiddev  

2013-05-07 18:27:58 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 8 +1s)

Announcing the +Square, Inc. *Seven Days of Open Source*!

2013-05-07 18:26:46 (2 comments, 12 reshares, 20 +1s)

Crafting Android Custom Views

The slides from the talk I made at Mix-IT are now available on SpeakerDeck. If you want to learn why and how to build custom Android Views, you'd better have a look at the slides :). Half of the talk was demos & live-coding but I think some of the information in the slides can be really helpful.

https://speakerdeck.com/cyrilmottier/crafting-custom-android-views

PS 1: I will do the exact same talk at Breizhcamp in Rennes, France on June 13th & 14th.

PS 2: A similar talk by +Romain Guy and +Adam Powell is already scheduled at Google I/O (https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/325615129). If you're going to I/O this year, I highly suggest you to star the session and attend it.

2013-05-02 14:29:20 (5 comments, 6 reshares, 45 +1s)

#AndroidDev   #AndroidDesign  

On day 2 of #io13 , +Nick Butcher and I will be giving a talk called Android Design for UI Developers. We hope to see you there! And if you're not attending the conference, don't fret, as the session will be live-streamed on YouTube.

I also wanted to provide a bit of background for the talk. While developer.android.com/design is a fantastic (and very important) resource for designers, we still get lots of questions from developers about how to implement all those guidelines*. In this talk, we'll help answer some of those questions by providing some key recipes for implementing proper navigation, responsive design, and the Holo visual language.

(*) Yes, we are working on ways to improve navigation of and between our docs!

2013-04-28 20:25:34 (5 comments, 5 reshares, 16 +1s)

2013-04-26 08:52:25 (3 comments, 12 reshares, 36 +1s)

Modal dialogs that ask me to rate apps are my least favourite. Viable alternative pattern?

2013-04-26 08:33:52 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 16 +1s)

If you have been using my EndlessAdapter, I strongly encourage you to upgrade to v1.2.1. There had been various reports of an exception in the field, but only today was I given a reproducible test case for it, and that bug should now be fixed.

2013-04-24 13:31:04 (24 comments, 187 reshares, 446 +1s)

Very thorough explanation of writing an Account Authenticator by +Udi Cohen to supplement our training class [0].  Also comes with a sample project [1].  When writing your AccountAuthenticatorActivity consider using the Login template [2] to bootstrap.

#androiddev  

[0] — http://developer.android.com/training/id-auth/custom_auth.html
[1] — https://github.com/Udinic/AccountAuthenticator
[2] — http://developer.android.com/tools/projects/templates.html#login-activity

2013-04-24 10:41:18 (7 comments, 3 reshares, 20 +1s)

Nice design and great content – really enjoying this app.

Read more about it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/BBC-iPlayer-Radio-app-on-Android-devices

UK only

2013-04-11 15:21:25 (3 comments, 7 reshares, 39 +1s)

This is another comparison of the details pages. We've tried to put so many elements in the left column while still maintaining the bottom alignment across the columns, that the main cover art was ridiculously small.

Now that we've moved the buttons and subscription note to the right column, we can display much larger cover art.

2013-04-11 15:45:10 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 30 +1s)

I wish I did it for all the screens that we've restyled, especially for the new purchase flow. Alas, by the time I thought about doing this, I only had one screen left. So here is the process of restyling the "Free song of the day" screen in the Play Store client app.

The final visuals are not final, as the price eventually moved to a different position. But otherwise this is how I've spent the most part of the last three months. Apart from doing the #pixelpushing posts, of course. Not gonna lie there.

2013-04-10 17:53:49 (11 comments, 23 reshares, 62 +1s)

Looks handy.

#androiddev via +Jeff Gilfelt

2013-04-10 12:36:59 (0 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

The Android Developer Relations team is hosting another weekly live hangout. Join them live tomorrow, or drop your questions in the moderator linked below. 

2013-04-10 10:44:37 (3 comments, 11 reshares, 31 +1s)

Here are the  #droidcon  slides from my talk today.
Thanks everyone for coming!

I would have wanted to stay and have a chat with the people there but unfortunately I'm still feeling like crap so I head out already.

Huge thanks to droidcon organisers! Very well organised event.

2013-04-09 15:32:33 (4 comments, 4 reshares, 27 +1s)

After a few hundred rounds of #pixelpushing, the first iteration of the new Play Store look is out.

2013-03-30 18:33:34 (1 comments, 7 reshares, 10 +1s)

Slides from my quick talk today at GDC.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9nKG1gqyh_xNTBHWTRsbWQwZVE/edit?usp=sharing

2013-03-30 18:27:48 (1 comments, 14 reshares, 28 +1s)

Here is our doc triggering intents on android from the browser.

2013-03-30 18:25:38 (0 comments, 10 reshares, 43 +1s)

Mastering Android Drawables

Here are the slides from the talk I gave yesterday at Devoxx France.

During the talk, I gave an introduction to Android Drawables and explained how developers can leverage Drawables to make their UIs way cooler and smoother.

https://speakerdeck.com/cyrilmottier/mastering-android-drawables

2013-03-29 19:58:31 (0 comments, 5 reshares, 37 +1s)

#DevBytes : Window Zoom Transitions

How to easily create a thumbnail zoom transition when launching a new activity.

YouTube:
DevBytes: Window Zoom Transitions

Code:
http://developer.android.com/shareables/devbytes/WindowZoomAnimations.zip

2013-03-27 15:51:22 (0 comments, 11 reshares, 32 +1s)

A new lesson I worked on last month was published recently. It's an add-on lesson to the 'Displaying Bitmaps Efficiently' class. Recognise any of the techniques? ;-)

2013-03-22 19:31:03 (7 comments, 9 reshares, 64 +1s)

#AndroidDev   #Protip  

Android Development Protip / Plea: Stop using ProgressDialog. Inline indicators are your friend.

This one's quick. Stop using ProgressDialog and other modal loading indicators. They're extremely interruptive and annoying, especially when:

• You see one every time you switch tabs.
• You can't Back out of them.
• They say "Please wait." No thanks, I'd rather just uninstall.

Either show loading indicators inline with your content (e.g. http://goo.gl/Pv7uQ) or better yet, load small amounts of data in the background so that you minimize the need to even show a loading indicator.

More about progress & activity in the design guidelines: http://goo.gl/OfJ5N (thanks for the reminder +Peter Siegmund)

h/t +David Chandler 

2013-03-19 21:18:26 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 31 +1s)

I love this notification.  Really shows the power of using rich notifications to make the user powerful.

2013-03-19 21:16:52 (0 comments, 7 reshares, 30 +1s)

New guest blog post by +Lucas Rocha:

Flat Design is Content Driven
The Shift to Visual Flatness

http://blog.opoloo.com/articles/flat-design-is-content-driven

We're proud to feature the great Lucas Rocha in our blog with an article about the shift from iOS' skeuomorphic approach to flat design, as followed by Android and the new Windows. It's on: A battle between chrome and content...

#design   #skeuomorphic   #android  

2013-03-19 16:28:28 (5 comments, 7 reshares, 21 +1s)

#AndroidDesign   #ADiA  

Today on Android Design in Action, +Nick Butcher, +Adam Koch and I discussed some UI behaviors to enhance the news consumption experience:

• Two-finger swipe down previews on lists, ala Android 4.1 notifications
• Alternative item collection presentations for photo-rich content
• Customizable navigation drawer
• Flattening topic hierarchies using search
• Specialized detail contexts for the beginning, middle, and end of an article

We also did a deep dive on units of measure, including:

• Density-independent pixels (DPs) for keeping things the same physical size across devices and as the primary unit for layout (as opposed to pixels)
• Scale-independent pixels (SPs) for sizing and spacing text
• Best-practice layout grids (4dp grid, 48dp rhythm)
• Wireframing in MDPIso that in your wiref... more »

2013-03-19 14:27:11 (8 comments, 4 reshares, 22 +1s)

#AndroidDesign   #ADiA  

Android Design in Action: News Readers and Units of Measure is starting in just a few minutes!

2013-03-07 10:14:00 (11 comments, 4 reshares, 8 +1s)

Which mobile platform do you use?

Join the T3 Battle of the Platforms Challenge and show your support!

2013-03-06 15:22:10 (2 comments, 9 reshares, 26 +1s)

Talking about Android Over-The-Air installs using G+ sign-in, on the Android Office Hours https://developers.google.com/+/features/play-installs #androiddev  

(Hangout: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/108967384991768947849/108967384991768947849/posts/38EaT4zEqiF)

2013-03-06 04:36:18 (0 comments, 23 reshares, 51 +1s)

New blog post: Get your #android  app to run smoothly.

A must-know for every Android developer.

#androiddev   #androiddevelopers  +Android Developers 

2013-03-05 15:32:47 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 20 +1s)

#AndroidDesign   #ADiA  Android Design in Action: Home Screen Widgets is starting in just a few minutes!

2013-03-02 14:51:47 (1 comments, 22 reshares, 57 +1s)

I just pushed a new library that makes it easy to use the carousel widget from the People app. Apollo uses it when you're viewing profiles.

It's useful for when you're swiping between two sets of data.

You and read more about it here. http://goo.gl/LQ0Z0

And you can grab the source from here: http://goo.gl/JX0bY

#Android   #AndroidDev   #LibraryProject  

2013-03-01 16:21:42 (16 comments, 43 reshares, 103 +1s)

Handy tool for #androiddev s

2013-03-01 12:23:35 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 10 +1s)

Rough notes from recent meetings with mobile developers using WebView. Lots of gold here, but it has to be mined.