The Golden AGe of Android

Designing the new AnDroiD experience

A new Android has emerged

Designing for Android used to be a uniquely challenging experience. It meant managing device fragmentation, maneuvering a foggy navigational structure, and dealing with clunky frame rates that limited the user experience. And it meant sleepless nights racking your brain, trying to figure out where to begin. But with Ice Cream Sandwich, all that has changed. Todays Android (4.0+) not only stands toe to toe with iOS in performance and appeal, but in many ways surpasses Apple in innovative design and providing a seamless user experience. Today, our Android Design Guidelines for Gingerbread are a remnant of the past. And so is everything else that came before Ice Cream Sandwich. we have finally entered the golden Age of Android.

Ice Cream Sandwich marks Androids turning point from a growing framework to a mature, cohesive, and beautiful OS.

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new Browser Ui and htML5 support

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how ice cream sandwich changed everything

Androids been rapidly improving from version to version, but most of those changes took place under the hood. Gingerbread, for example, made Android faster, smarter, and easier to understand. But like its predecessors, it suffered from the same stilted user experience: Important information was left hidden in frustrating contextual menus Transitions were rigid and clunky The architecture as a whole felt dense and verbose By introducing the Action Bar, for example, Android took its first step towards consistent navigation. And the Android team even took a firm design stance with their definitive design guidelines (Androids design Guidelines) complete with an inspiring vision statement and an amazing amount of instruction.

The first major design shift occurred in 2011 with Honeycomb, an innovative UI built specifically for tablets. It was beautiful, but it was only for tablets. So they replaced it with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the first Android framework to span all phones and tablets. Where Honeycomb hinted at the promise of more standardized design, ICS made all devices look and act the same. ics turned the once dense platform into a cognitive and consistent experience across all phones and tablets.

As a result, todays Android is smooth and graceful. Its navigation is intuitive and wonderfully simplified. But most importantly, it is consistent across all devices. Android used to be the platform that challenged us designers to create quality applications. now it challenges us to innovate.

the evolution of an Android application: evernote

Evernote released their first Android application in 2010. It suffered from jerky performance, lacked polish, and its design was based closely on iOS. In 2011 they took a first crack at the action bar and reorganizing the data to suit the platform. But performance was still an issue, and the applications hierarchy descended screen by screen to create an overly dense experience. In 2012, they released their latest design. Utilizing Jelly Beans speed and patterns of simplicity, they transformed their complicated program into an app that is fluid, intuitive, and extremely easy to use.

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A note on user distribution For the moment, most users are still running Gingerbread. But thats not by choice; OS upgrades are unfortunately at the behest of the device providers. This makes it difficult to predict when we will see the massive shift towards the new Android frameworks, but at the very least we can expect a constant change as long-time users hit the end of their two-year upgrade cycles. And we can expect an equally massive shift for consumer companies and the enterprise as they race to respond to the huge demand of mainstream Android users.
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SiX TiPS for The neW Android eXPerienCe

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Design for your users immediate needs
Navigational structure is important, but so is presentation. When the two work together, the user shouldnt even have to think about how they move between content. They should just enjoy the experience. Great Android design should never be a burden to the user, but instead act as a guide that shows only the most relevant information at any given time. By using animation and transitions as direction, simplifying Ui patterns, and relying heavier on imagery than on lengthy text, Android navigation can fade into the background and stand as the epitome of user-centered design. Google Current (Fig. 1) is a perfect example of these principles in practice. It visually presents everything the user needs on the very first screen, making every possible action clear and easy to follow across both the Action Bar and Side Drawer. When reading a blog, the action bar disappears to allow for a comfortable reading environment and can easily be brought back by the unassuming navigation options at the bottom of the screen. This navigation is so simple that while using the application, youre left thinking purely about the content and not at all about how you got there.

Fig. 1: Google Current makes use of an extremely simple design pattern.

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create engaging experiences with gestures and transitions
Choppy performance has long been a complaint against Android. But no more. At the unveiling of Jelly Bean, Google revealed the suitably named Project Butter as their major motion to fix all performance issues. Project Butter improves speed to approximately 60 frames per second, allowing for smooth transitions and animations to augment the already simplified design patterns. By combining this improvement with well thought-out gestures, we can create a truly integrated experience for the user that seems to transcend software entirely. As mobile design advances, well be able to use this speed to create even more tactile and cognitive experiences. Google states that real objects are more fun that buttons and menus,1 and were now seeing designers forgo heavy arrays of buttons and menus for a much more fluid, gesture-based experience.

Fig. 2: Feedlys delightfully simple navigation uses almost nothing but a series of swipes. Their tappable icons have been whittled down to almost nothing, and you dismiss side menus by flicking them closed. Tasks such as marking, saving, or closing an article are activated by a series of cognitive gestures that make for a quick and human experience.

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tear down the walls between applications
On iOS, you have to hard code an applications communication with other applications such as Facebook or Twitter. But with Android, any two applications can share information as long as theyre both fashioned to work together. This creates a rich ecosystem of diverse actions and a massive network of sharing. The system that makes this work is called intents. Intents are part of an extremely flexible system in which separate applications share information and speak to each other. Theyre not new, but should certainly work their way into your design. Using intents can make your feature set extraordinarily robust by simply utilizing functionality provided by other applications. here is a great list of all the features you can easily utilize from other applications by using intents.

Intents in Practice: Android makes it easy to share functionality across all applications on a device. In this example, you can quickly document an image and notate it using Evernote, pin it to Pinterest, post it to Facebook, geolocate it with Foursqure, or share it via Skype.

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porting from ios used to be a bad idea. now its inexcusable.
When Android lacked a clear vision, it was no surprise that many early applications pulled heavily from iOS patterns. Sure, this didnt create the best Android experience, but it created an experience. And that used to be good enough. Android and iOS devices rely on different UI patterns that speak not only to the hardware used, but also to the different platforms user bases. At this point, iOS is a wonderfully worn suit that their users are completely comfortable with. But that same suit does not fit your typical Android user. If you follow the creative vision provided by Androids guidelines, it is clear that Android benefits from a much more simplified experience. For example, iPhones familiar Tab Bar shows the user all the key functionality that can be navigated through. This gives each page a very clear hierarchy. Android, however, abides by the philosophy of only show me what I need when I need it, meaning even if all the options are not immediately available, the main user journey is obvious and clear, making for an extremely refined experience for the majority of users. Make sure youre not just copying over ios design patterns, but creating for the modern Android unique user. Take advantage of Androids built-in action bar, and use simple gesture-based navigation rather than tab-like buckets. Finally, avoid using iOS visual paradigms (button styles, icons, etc.) to carry your application. It may be intuitive for Apple users, but this is likely not the case with Android users.

Pinterest (Fig. 3) does a phenomenal job adhering to each platforms particular user needs. You can see that iOS presents the same navigation functionality across the entire application. It does not prioritize these functionalities depending on the setting, but always gives each equal importance. Android, however, focuses the experience to the primary use case, and makes the secondary functionality accessible from different, easily findable locations. On the Android Pinterest, the user can swipe between their profile, their home screen, and the category screen with a series of simple tactile swipes. Also, notice that the camera on Android is presented as an action and not a function, only showing up when its helpful for the user. These subtle differences play to the philosophy of the different devices: while iOS provides a familiar experience to long-time iOS users, Android favors recently found patterns of simplicity and cognition.

Fig. 3: Pinterests mobile experiences for iOS and Android.

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Design with flexibility in mind
Android is an open OS. This has helped Androids quick rise to prominence, but it also means there could be any possible number of devices to develop and design for. Fortunately, ICS has helped reign in the problem of developing across screen sizes, devices, and resolutions. today, overcoming Androids device diversity is as simple as simplifying design patterns. We develop just a few flexible layoutsacross tablet and phoneand utilize ICSs framework for adapting these to work across any screen size. We also follow Androids qualifying naming conventions to isolate assets based on screen size and density, and make sure to keep assets global and flexible. Well explore how to develop across device sizes in much greater detail in our next piece, but its helpful to know that this is a well-documented, manageable task. Is that all there is to fragmentation? Fragmentation goes well beyond designing for different devices and screen sizes. It refers to how manufacturers actually customize and release distinct versions of the Android framework. This has fueled efforts such as the Amazon Kindle, but it also poses development challenges that Android is actively working to eliminate.

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think outside the pocket
The Android framework isnt limited to mobile devices, and it isnt just the Android-powered Google TV thats making a splash. Chinese car company Roewe recently released a car with an Android console4, Nokia and Nikon have released Android-powered cameras5, and Casio utilizes an Android POS system6. If you consider that all of these devices could be using the same code, the possibilities for design become boundless. So the true conversation of Android design lies beyond the app. You need to think about the experience as a whole, and the way each touch points communicate with all othersfrom mobile to household appliances to industrial equipment and devices we havent even thought of yet. its time to start thinking about Android design as being not just a series of applications, but as an entire ecosystem.

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Android applications can be beautiful too
Androids been treated as the ugly mobile OS for too long now. This is no surprise, considering the difficult learning curve to handling design assets and building across a fragmented device landscape with no universal design standards. However, considering what we know today about designing for Android, beautiful design is absolutely obtainable for the platform. By following Androids creative vision and being conscious of fragmentation and the limitations that it may present, we can create applications that are refined, graceful, and truly beautiful.

The latest Android applications are beautiful, minimalistic, and extremely easy to use.

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The neW Android hAS finAllY eMerGed

Over the last couple of years, Android has evolved leaps and bounds into a fascinating and innovative operating system. Its start was patchy, but constant iteration and user feedback have made the Android platform as viable to design for as ios and equally essential in any mobile strategy.

Up next: learn what it takes to create beautiful experiences across all devices and screen sizes.

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ABoUt MUtUAL MoBiLe Mutual Mobile comprises over 300 mobile specialists across Android, iOS, Windows 8, and web. Our end-to-end solutions have delighted major clients including Google, Audi, Cisco, and Xerox. We work to bring consumer-grade design to the enterprise, and in 2011 introduced the first Android Human Interface Guidelines to encourage design consistency across Android. Weve received numerous awards and accolades, including a CES Innovations Award for creating an Android-enabled radar detector, recognition as a Forbes Most Promising Company, and a 2012 Webby Nomination in the Retail/Tablet category. Mutual Mobile is experienced at crafting mobile strategy that addresses enterprise-sized concerns and challenges to create efficiency, engagement, and measurable value for userswhether those users are employees or consumers.

Citations
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Android, Design Principles. http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/creative-vision.html Android, Design Principles. http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html Android, Design Principles. http://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html The Economist, Do Android Dream of Electric Cars? June 14, 2012. http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/06/car-infotainment cnet, How camera makers are getting their design groove on. October 1, 2012. http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57517481-76/how-camera-makers-are-getting-their-design-groove-on/ Casio, Casio America Releases New Android POS Terminal for the Retail and Hospitality Industry. July 27, 2012. http://www.casio.com/news/content/18A90C33-337F-44A8-8EC0-CF93B115D782/ Images sourced from Androids Design Guidelines. http://developer.android.com/design/style/devices-displays.html

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