Menus
Menus are a common user interface component in many types of applications. To provide a familiar and consistent user experience, you should use the Menu APIs to present user actions and other options in your activities. Beginning with Android 3.0 (API level 11), Android-powered devices are no longer required to provide a dedicated Menu button. With this change, Android apps should migrate away from a dependence on the traditional 6-item menu panel and instead provide an action bar to present common user actions. Although the design and user experience for some menu items have changed, the semantics to define a set of actions and options is still based on the Menu APIs. This guide shows how to create the three fundamental types of menus or action presentations on all versions of Android:
Android UI Design Kit PSD 4.2 [Free Download]
In August 2012, Android ICS/JB Photoshop GUI Design Kit 3.0 was published with some new Jelly Bean UI elements, and until today, the Design Kit has been downloaded over 21,000 times since the very first version back in December 2011 – not a huge number, but it is putting a smile on my face. It’s really nice to see there are many designers interested in Android Design and used the Design Kit to kick-start their design work in Android app. A big thank you to everyone that is using the design kit and I really hope it helps in your Android app design workflow in some way. And today, I have finally updated the Android UI Design Kit PSD to version 4.2, with the size of Nexus 4 screen resolution (768×1280), as requested by many supporters. Besides the resolution update, I have also added a few new UI elements into the Design Kit: Cards (Google Now)CroutonDrawer MenuQuick ReturnUndo BarGestures
Flat vs flat: a comparison of Windows Phone and iOS 7 app designs
As iOS app developers embrace the new flat UI conventions of iOS 7, many popular apps got a flat-design makeover. At the same time many of these apps also have a sibling Windows Phone app. As the two platforms have a slightly different interpretation of “flat design”, I’ve been meaning to compare the similarities and differences of third party apps trying to conform to the respective UX guidelines. Here is a quick list I put together. I hope to add more apps to this over time.
Free Wireframing Kits, UI Design Kits, PDFs and Resources
Advertisement To mock-up the user interface of a website, software or any other product, you’ll need some basic UI elements. And this is where wireframing kits and UI design kits come in handy.
Tabs
Developer Docs Creating Swipe Views with Tabs Tabs in the action bar make it easy to explore and switch between different views or functional aspects of your app, or to browse categorized data sets. For details on using gestures to move between tabs, see the Swipe Views pattern.
What Your Logo's Color Says About Your Company (Infographic)
When it comes to identifying your brand, your logo is probably the first thing your customers will think of. While honing the narrative and message behind your logo should of course be your primary concern, research suggests that your logo’s design–and specifically its colors–have more bearing on your customers’ opinions than you might think. Neuroscientist Bevil Conway, who has focused his recent research almost entirely on the neural machinery behind color, believes the science behind color processing to be very powerful and completely underexploited.
User Experience Trends for Admin Dashboards
The design techniques for admin dashboards are not as openly shared as website layouts. This is because you do not always find examples of admin designs open on the web. To gain access you would need a user/password combo, so designers are often left building with trends found in other examples. But the dashboard interface has grown very quickly as a popular layout style for administrators. In this article I want to look into various styles and ideas for creating administration dashboard pages.
Design Patterns for Responsive Android Design
According to Andy Rubin there are about 600 different Android devices available in the market right now. Supporting all of them is impossible, right? At least that is what we see in tech blogs throughout the Internet. Funnily enough, fragmentation seems to be much bigger problem to people who don't work in Android development or have good understanding of the platform than to people who do. iOS got a big head start when the latest smartphone revolution started.
