How can I improve the look and feel of an Android app?

Question

I have seen that standard Android UI components have a poor look and feel.

Can anyone provide me with some links or suggestions on how to improve the look and feel of an Android app?

Dont include tag name in the title of the question, read http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19190/should-questions-include-tags-in-their-titles — Abdul Rahman, Nov 14 '12 at 06:41

score 87 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

Some ideas:

LayoutAnimations for your ListViews.
Using TextSwitcher and ImageSwitcher instead of TextView and ImageView.
Add animations to your views.
Provide the correct resources for every device. You can use android-ui-utils.
Use android-wheel for iphone like pickers.
Provide some android patterns with GreenDroid.
Use rounded corners for your ListViews.
Check the third party libs available.
Internacionalize your app using android2po or getlocalization.
Use mapviewballoons for your android map.
If you have some sort of tutorial, place it inside a SwipeView.

PS:If you want your login to be secure, use naked-password for Android ;)

I just wrote a blogpost of how I updated my app using most of them: http://android-argentina.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-your-android-app-look-pro.html — Macarse, Apr 24 '11 at 22:14

score 21 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 14 '11 at 09:31

21

Clearly you need to go take a look at the awesome Android Patterns website! Now with ten percent more useful!

answered Mar 14 '11 at 09:31

Robert Massaioli

13,379
7
57
73

That website suffers from a lot of `Error establishing a database connection` errors. :/ Other than that, cool site. – Codemonkey Mar 14 '11 at 09:37
@Klaus: Really? Oh, I've never seen one. You should just let them know they would probably really appreciate that. – Robert Massaioli Mar 14 '11 at 09:40
The site you mentioned is indeed worth a click but could you tell what this has to do with changing the look & feel of UI components? I think this question is referring to changing colors, borders and stuff.. aint it? – Chris Mar 17 '11 at 08:29
@Chris: The question was 'suggest me some links/suggestions to improve the look of an Android app?' and it did not specify what it wanted whether that was changing colors or something different so I gave the best link that I could with the information provided. I guess If the OP gave more info then we could tailor our answers to be more specific. – Robert Massaioli Mar 17 '11 at 12:01
The site has no source code, but rather some ideas on how to better design UI. I would say that it is a good place to help give beginners an idea of how a UI should flow. – Wayner Mar 18 '11 at 19:47

Abhinav · Answer 3 · 2012-04-02T14:01:04.147

14

Edit Just launched http://android-patterns.rickreation.com. Has a number of examples from top apps on Google Play. I'll be adding information about implementing those patterns too.

The convention that most apps have started following now is one from this Google I/O conference talk. Saw this in Facebook, Twitter, Picplz and a couple of other apps. GreenDroid is a library to get some of these without much work.

The two most useful things I have found while modifying components are selector drawables and nine patches.

StateListDrawables help you handle different UI events easily in one XML file. There is no need to mess around in code. Nine patches help you create stretchable backgrounds which expand according to the View size.

Shape drawables also come in handy to do basic stuff like rounded rectangles.

edited Apr 02 '12 at 14:01

answered Mar 17 '11 at 04:44

Abhinav

38,516
9
41
49

Yeas, GreenDroid is One of the best ready to use Ui widgets library. Give it a try.. – Piyush Patel Mar 21 '11 at 05:44
Wow , greendroid looks amazing. Especially interested in the title bar, spent quite some time getting the google IO one to work in my app. – Jords Sep 26 '11 at 12:49
first link is dead. – Mohammed Farhan Aug 21 '18 at 07:30

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 17 '11 at 07:09

9

Please look at this .

Here you can find all the psd files for making good android Ui .

answered Mar 17 '11 at 07:09

Chirag

56,621
29
151
198

Chris · Answer 5 · 2011-03-17T08:35:27.397

7

The look & feel of your android application basicly depends on the default theme you are using on your phone.

However you can change that behaviour for your application by applying Styles and Themes to your application. You have a lot of possibilities to style and theme your application by the android API itsself. There should be no need for an external additional framework to use.

I hope that helps.

edited Mar 17 '11 at 08:35

answered Mar 17 '11 at 08:28

Chris

7,675
8
51
101

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 22 '11 at 19:23

Some of the answers suggested adding animations. There's some merit to that idea, but please keep in mind that at least some users will disable animations. Some of the "reduce your battery usage" apps, for example, will automatically disable all animations just to cut down on a little CPU usage and response delay.

Personally, I usually don't care about "gee-whiz" in UI design nearly as much as I care about responsiveness, consistency, intuitive operation, and conserving screen space. Eye candy is pleasing to me, but only if it doesn't waste pixels, obfuscate functionality, or slow down the phone. Make it pretty, or make it plain, but make sure that it quickly does what I expect.

Gordon Glas · Answer 7 · 2019-08-23T11:44:43.233

Check out Jake Wharton's ViewPagerIndicator. It makes it relatively easy to add a modern UI/UX to ViewPager swiping, and it's compatible with the Android Support Lib, so works with Android 1.6 and up. Gives it the same look/feel as some of the more current modern Android apps.

Just keep in mind, to get it to work you'll need to specify a theme to your activity, which isn't mentioned in the "Usage" section, but is in the manifest file in his sample code.

Of course, you'll also need to add the support library to your project. Can do this by right clicking project in eclipse -> Android Tools -> Add Support Library.

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 21 '11 at 10:47

The look & feel of your android application depends on the default theme you are using on your phone.

UI can be customized to the most in Android. You can create custom UI components and widgets. Since v10 of the ADT Plugin Update, UI elements had been improved greatly. Many new widgets (Previously coded) are readily available now for development.

see here for my Blog Post:

http://sree.cc/google/android-development-adt-plugin-v10-improvements-designing

Android is evolving.. See the changes so far..

http://tools.android.com/recent/

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

2

I'd have to say custom xml drawables is a very large part.

With them you can create simple animations, use multiple 9 patches on a button (for unfocused,focused, or pressed), create backgrounds. All easily edited,integrated, and tested.

9 Patch Tutorial

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

1
1

answered Mar 18 '11 at 20:11

Wayner

3,303
1
16
10

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 07 '14 at 02:08

1

I think this link can help you: https://developer.android.com/design/patterns/index.html

It contain some rule for design UI android. By other way you can using some UI Pattern like Flat Design. I hope it can help you.

answered Feb 07 '14 at 02:08

quangson91

1,044
1
16
30

How can I improve the look and feel of an Android app?

10 Answers10

Some ideas:

Linked