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I am designing a UI for an android app that is developed for tablet devices, I would like to know is there any mockup grid available? Like 960.gs for web... what is the good size to start designing. Any suggestions and valuable tips will be appreciated.

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There is no single screen resolution for Android tablets. Although many current Honeycomb-based 10" tablet screens have a resolution of 1280x800, your application can also run on smaller screens (say, 7") and different resolutions and aspect ratios. And don't forget the portrait orientation.

The solution is to design adaptive layouts. On the design side, there are a number of mockup tools you can use(*), but regardless of the tool, you should make sure to annotate your designs to indicate how the design should stretch. This will inform the developer(s) about what kinds of layout types they should use (RelativeLayout, LinearLayout, FrameLayout, etc.). Additionally, you could create different layouts for different size screens, and more specifically, different physical screen size buckets, or different minimum horizontal widths (similar to CSS3 min-width media queries).

I'd also have a look at the below presentation that the Android UX team and I gave at Google I/O 2011. It covers several tablet UI patterns and the design goals for Honeycomb, which should help inform your design decisions. Slide 23 also has a rough grid system.

Lastly, take a look at this article on Smashing Magazine that discusses Android tablet UI design and how things differ from iPad design. It also pulls information from a number of good sources including the presentation above.

(*) See this question for recommendations on mockup tools: [ Tools for creating mockups for mobile device UIs ]. Personally, I find the best tools to be: old-school pencil sketches on graph paper, Keynote/Powerpoint, OmniGraffle, Pencil for Firefox, and Balsamiq.

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You can check also http://www.androidpatterns.com/ that can help you design Android apps.

Basically, this site displays or shares interaction patterns specifically for Android. This is just a guide for Android developers and designers to help them with the problems with interaction e.g. (how Android users) do this following, how to deal with data, how users navigate... and so on.

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  • Can you explain what the site is about?
    – Patrick McElhaney
    Dec 20, 2011 at 13:42
  • Hi Patrick, I already briefly explained the site that I was referring too. Hope it helps.
    – UXgirl
    Dec 21, 2011 at 4:26
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The thing is that the average size won't mean a whole lot. A tablet has a decent sized screen, so if you think in terms of a fluid layout/responsive design, you should be good.

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You may be able to find your answers on these sites:

Designing for android tablets

Android app developers gui kits icons fonts and tools

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    Welcome to UX! Please provide summaries of what is on these sites and why it is relevant to the OP.
    – Rahul
    Aug 13, 2011 at 16:53

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