Android Design Patterns: Interaction Design Solutions for Developers

Everything you need to create a spectacular mobile experience! The state of the Android ecosystem right now is the perfect storm, combining the factors for explosive near-term growth and long-term market dominance. Now's the time to begin designing and developing Android 4 apps, and this book is about what works: patterns. Here are 58 essential interaction design patterns for handling the most challenging aspects of Android app design: the welcome experience, home screen, navigation, search, sorting and filtering, data entry, and forms. Equally important are 12 antipatterns, describing common mistakes to avoid in your quest for customer empowerment, delight, and enjoyment. Here's everything you need to create a spectacular mobile experience. In-depth review of 58 essential native Android 4 patterns A complete methodology for building and user-testing effective, inexpensive prototypes Case studies of what works and what doesn't Android interpretations of great ideas from other mobile operating systems Chapters devoted to key design patterns for mobile banking and tablets Experimental patterns to explore the cutting edge of Android design

Foreword xix Introduction xxi Part I: UX Principles and Android OS Considerations 1 Chapter 1: Design for Android: A Case Study 3 Launch Icon 4 Action Bars and Information Architecture 5 Tabs 11 Dedicated Selection Page 11 Select Control  12 Buttons 14 Search Results 15 Result Detail 19 Bringing It All Together 22 Chapter 2: What Makes Android Different 25 Welcome to Flatland 26 Tap Anywhere 28 Right–Size for Every Device 30 Mobile Space, Unbound 33 Think Globally, Act Locally 36 Chapter 3: Android Fragmentation 41 What’s Fragmentation? 42 Everything Is in Time and Passes Away 42 Android Device Trends 43 Celebrate Fragmentation 53 Chapter 4: Mobile Design Process 55 Observe Human–Mobile Interaction in the Real World 56 Your Prototyping Methods Must Allow for Variety in Form Factors 56 Your User Testing Must Allow People to Explore the Natural Range of Motion, Voice, and Multitouch 57 Touch Interfaces Embody Simplicity and Sophistication 57 Delight Is Mandatory 58 Tell a Complete Story—Design for Cross–Channel Experiences 58 Mobile Design Case Study 59 Part II: Android Design Patterns and Antipatterns 69 Chapter 5: Welcome Experience 71 5.1 Antipattern: End User License Agreements (EULAs) 72 5.2 Antipattern: Contact Us Impediments 74 5.3 Antipattern: Sign Up/Sign In 77 5.4 Pattern: Welcome Animation 80 5.5 Pattern: Tutorial 83 Chapter 6: Home Screen 87 6.1 Pattern: List of Links 88 6.2 Pattern: Dashboard 92 6.3 Pattern: Updates 95 6.4 Pattern: Browse 99 6.5 Pattern: Map 103 6.6 Pattern: History 108 Chapter 7: Search 113 7.1 Pattern: Voice Search 114 7.2 Pattern: Auto–Complete and Auto–Suggest 120 7.3 Pattern: Tap–Ahead 126 7.4 Pattern: Pull to Refresh 129 7.5 Pattern: Search from Menu 132 7.6 Pattern: Search from Action Bar 135 7.7 Pattern: Dedicated Search 138 7.8 Pattern: Search in the Content Page 141 7.9 Antipattern: Separate Search and Refinement 144 Chapter 8: Sorting and Filtering 149 8.1 Antipattern: Crippled Refinement 150 8.2 Pattern: Refinement Page 153 8.3 Pattern: Filter Strip 160 8.4 Pattern: Parallel Architecture 164 8.5 Pattern: Tabs 170 Chapter 9: Avoiding Missing and Undesirable Results 179 9.1 Antipattern: Ignoring Visibility of System Status 180 9.2 Antipattern: Lack of Interface Efficiency 182 9.3 Antipattern: Useless Controls 184 9.4 Pattern: Did You Mean? 185 9.5 Pattern: Partial Match 189 9.6 Pattern: Local Results 192 Chapter 10: Data Entry 197 10.1 Pattern: Slider 198 10.2 Pattern: Stepper 204 10.3 Pattern: Scrolling Calendar 210 10.4 Pattern: Date and Time Wheel 215 10.5 Pattern: Drop Down 224 10.6 Pattern: Multiple Select 228 10.7 Pattern: Free–Form Text Input and Extract 232 10.8 Pattern: Textbox with Input Mask 238 10.9 Pattern: Textbox with Atomic Entities 247 Chapter 11: Forms 251 11.1 Pattern: Inline Error Message 252 11.2 Pattern: Toast Alert 257 11.3 Pattern: Pop–up Alert 263 11.4 Pattern: Callback Validation 271 11.5 Pattern: Cancel/OK 274 11.6 Pattern: Top–Aligned Labels 285 11.7 Pattern: Getting Input from the Environment 293 11.8 Pattern: Input Accelerators 302 Chapter 12: Mobile Banking 307 12.1 Pattern: Login Accelerator 308 12.2 Pattern: Dedicated Selection Page 316 12.3 Pattern: Form First 321 12.4 Pattern: Dedicated Pages Wizard Flow 324 12.5 Pattern: Wizard Flow with Form 329 12.6 Pattern: Verification–Confirmation 334 12.7 Pattern: Near Field Communication (NFC) 338 Chapter 13: Navigation 347 13.1 Antipattern: Pogosticking 348 13.2 Antipattern: Multiple Featured Areas 349 13.3 Pattern: Carousel 352 13.4 Pattern: Popover Menu 358 13.5 Pattern: Watermark 365 13.6 Pattern: Swiss–Army–Knife Navigation 371 13.7 Pattern: Integration: The Final Frontier 383 Chapter 14: Tablet Patterns 391 14.1 Pattern: Fragments 392 14.2 Pattern: Compound View 394 14.3 Experimental Pattern: Side Navigation 396 14.4 Pattern: Content as Navigation/Multitouch Gestures 401 14.5 Pattern: 2–D More Like This 404 14.6 Experimental Pattern: C–Swipe 408 Index 413

Greg Nudelman is a Mobile Experience Strategist and CEO of DesignCaffeine, Inc. For more than 15 years he has helped clients such as eBay, WebEx, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Safeway, Cisco, IBM, Associated Press, and Groupon amass millions of satisfied customers. Greg is an internationally acclaimed design workshop leader who authored Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success (Wiley, 2011) and has contributed to a half–dozen UX design books.