Questions tagged [android]

Us ethis tag only if Android system is an important part of the question for a user experience design. If your question is written from an *Android user*'s point-of-view, you'll probably get a good answer on the [Android Stack Exchange](http://android.stackexchange.com/).

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19 answers
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How could one prevent drunk users from using a mobile application?

Consider a mobile application which for some reason needs to prevent drunk users from using it (e.g. to avoid dreaded "drunk dials" or "drunk texts"). How could "sober authentication" be executed from ...
user avatar
84 votes
12 answers
11k views

Is the message "Data cannot be recovered." when reformatting misleading to users?

My Android phone gives the following message when I try to format a volume (SD card or USB OTG.) Formatting SD card will delete all data. Data cannot be recovered. Continue? Now, this message is ...
Fiksdal's user avatar
  • 859
40 votes
7 answers
16k views

Is copying other app's UI okay?

I'm making an Android game with a UI similar to Facebook Messenger Android app. I didn't re-create all the UI elements, but users will surely know it looks like Messenger since the game is about ...
polychromaticity's user avatar
37 votes
7 answers
22k views

Do material design's floating action buttons provide a bad UX?

Google's material design largely focuses on clean visuals and a good user experience, but there is one feature that I have questioned: floating action buttons. This is a large button that appears in ...
Keavon's user avatar
  • 1,694
36 votes
5 answers
50k views

Best Practices for UI design on Android (Usability/UX) [closed]

I'm switching for web development to Android development. I know some things about web usability and I see that UX is too often left behind on Android from my I experience with it. As the interaction ...
Édouard Lopez's user avatar
35 votes
6 answers
11k views

Is it acceptable to use Google Material Design in web applications?

We are considering using Material Design components in our website, but since this is an "Android design", wouldn't it turn away iOS users? What is the best practice? Is it wide-spread to use these ...
Oleg's user avatar
  • 453
34 votes
2 answers
8k views

Indicate long click option to user on Android

Background: Android has the feature of pop up menus (sort of like right click) that happen when a long click is done. This is typically done on list view but could be done anywhere. And even on list ...
Manfred Moser's user avatar
32 votes
6 answers
5k views

Is it frowned upon to allow the user two different options to perform the same action?

I have an app I am building where a user can browse through content similar to the Facebook timeline. One action the user can take is follow this person. All actions for each piece of content I ...
Andrea Tate's user avatar
  • 1,381
32 votes
5 answers
4k views

Should Android and iPhone UI be different?

I'm not completely new to developing apps, but I'm at a point where I'm trying to develop something and deploy it on several mobile platforms. To only concentrate on two major ones, suppose I'm ...
Phonon's user avatar
  • 421
32 votes
3 answers
29k views

Android UX - When to use Bottom navigation and when to use Tabs

I look at Material Navigation pattern on material.google.com It shows that android officially has Bottom navigation for Android UI Before March 2016 Android seriously put the page switch on top tabs ...
Bank's user avatar
  • 584
27 votes
17 answers
9k views

Tools for creating mockups for mobile device UIs [closed]

I am looking for tools that can help me to create UI mockups for different mobile phones such as iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. Is there any application that can do this?
gyurisc's user avatar
  • 373
27 votes
1 answer
7k views

How to handle pre-4.0 versions of Android when designing a layout?

I'm designing the UI for an Android app taking the Google User Interface guidelines into account for my Android 4.0 phone. The current concept looks like this: How would I go about supporting this ...
Overv's user avatar
  • 417
26 votes
6 answers
31k views

How to indicate container is scrollable without scroll bars

In Android I'm trying to work out a way to indicate to the user that a container can be scrolled. I'm not a fan of scroll bars and usually turn them off for all containers but would enable the fading ...
Michael Celey's user avatar
26 votes
4 answers
8k views

Is there a better solution than breadcrumbs to cascading categories on mobile?

I am working on a mobile application (Android ICS based) where I need to show a lot of products on screen. Now the products are categorized in several categories which are on X level, where X is ...
ajayashish's user avatar
  • 1,761
25 votes
2 answers
1k views

Should I follow the Android guideline or keep my app's own style when porting it from iOS?

My new project is to port an iOS app to Android platform. Before get started, I'm quite confused on whether I should follow google's guideline since some big titles on Android platform still keep the ...
amy's user avatar
  • 351
24 votes
4 answers
6k views

Will users know a CardView is clickable?

I am working on a personal project to sharpen my mobile development and UX skills and ran into a small UX dilemma. Each CardView contains some data and a start button that, when pressed, will take ...
krabinowitz's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
3k views

Do Samsung's Marshmallow skin Quick toggles have enough contrast?

I recently updated to Marshmallow, and I'm not happy with the blue over white scheme in daylight conditions. My question is if it's just me, or if this is documented and studied somewhere? If so, how ...
GUI Junkie's user avatar
  • 1,759
23 votes
3 answers
18k views

Do spinner-based date pickers on iOS & Android detract from the user's experience?

Generally speaking, the rule of thumb on mobile devices is to follow the platform conventions, and that native controls are almost always better than custom UIs. However, I'm at a loss as to whether ...
Daniel Newman's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
6k views

Asking feedback/rating for a mobile app?

Fig.1: A typical prompt, asking user for feedback/rating in iOS Background Any serious smartphone users must have seen a message similar to Fig.1 above at least once. Variations of such prompt include:...
melvynkim's user avatar
  • 375
22 votes
5 answers
4k views

Why do some mobile apps have mute buttons when the device has physical mute & volume switches?

Is there a recommended UX reason for including a Mute button in a mobile app for in-app sounds? It seems redundant since the mobile device itself (e.g. iPhone, iPad, Android phone/tablet) has a ...
Firemaw's user avatar
  • 331
21 votes
5 answers
5k views

What key things form the best Android app UI? [closed]

To those of you who've built many apps, what are the things that are critical for a good UI? I'm thinking things like: Action Bar Well-designed icons Use threads to keep the app responsive A selector ...
Ollie C's user avatar
  • 535
21 votes
3 answers
3k views

Should I put "." at the end of messages for mobile users?

Should I write "." at the end of messages displayed to the user in my mobile Android application? For example: High bandwidth required, switch to WiFi. or High bandwidth required, switch to ...
Daniel's user avatar
  • 313
19 votes
8 answers
19k views

Is there a "best place" to put ads in an app to avoid user irritation or will users look over them anyway?

I'm embarking on a new project and one of the stipulations from the client is that the Android app I am designing MUST have banner ads in it but they are also to be put where they will "cause the ...
KitP's user avatar
  • 1,288
18 votes
3 answers
12k views

Back vs close icon in Material Design

Some Material Design apps use the "close" icon instead of the more common "back" icon in the toolbar, for example: (From https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27125340/material-close-button-in-toolbar-...
fhucho's user avatar
  • 580
18 votes
2 answers
3k views

Is swiping up/down better than swiping left/right for changing months on a calendar?

I have created a custom View to display a Calendar in Android. The display is always 1 month. I'm using a swipe to the sides to switch months. Now I have seen some other Apps (including the installed ...
Yalla T.'s user avatar
  • 293
16 votes
7 answers
6k views

Using two different fonts on a mobile application

In my mobile app, I use two fonts; MaaxRounded for h1-h6 and Roboto for paragraph and description text. My co-worker asked why I was using two fonts, and I at first didn't have an answer. After ...
Agera Thedo's user avatar
15 votes
6 answers
10k views

How to indicate that a card is expandable?

Currently I'm working on an app which uses a vertical 'list' of cards, somewhat like Google Now. These cards can contain static text, (small) images and some control elements (buttons etc.), or a ...
Jelle's user avatar
  • 153
15 votes
7 answers
14k views

iPad/iPhone alternative for hover states

I've recently updated my personal portfolio with some CSS3 and jQuery magic. I'm extremely pleased with the results and yes, it's fully responsive. But i have an issue. I've structured my portfolio ...
benhowdle89's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
14k views

Android UX - when to use Tabs and when to use Navigation Drawer?

I'm looking for guidelines regarding when to use Tabs vs. when to use a Navigation Drawer(sidebar). For example, as of these days, Facebook and Dropbox, which are extremely popular (+100M users), use ...
AlikElzin-kilaka's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
8k views

Buttons placement convention in Android

Is there any convention of placing positive buttons on the right and negative on the left in Android. I know for dialog boxes this is preferred as opposed to this because its more intuitive But ...
Vrashabh Irde's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
9k views

How to structure Android app navigation with many levels?

The app I'm working on is a little like a set of sub-apps within one app, so the structure is basically as follows. Note that the subsections are a mix of tools and content (i.e. this isn't an app ...
Ollie C's user avatar
  • 535
14 votes
7 answers
5k views

Ads, when the user has no internet connection

I have an Android app which, in free version, has an ad block at the top of the screen. Of course users can see ads only if they're connected to internet. If they are not connected they get the same ...
c0dehunter's user avatar
14 votes
13 answers
7k views

Custom UI vs Default UI [closed]

This question is mainly for iOS/Android developers, but anybody can answer. Do you prefer using the default UI provided by the OS or do you prefer using custom UI. I've heard many developers argue ...
14 votes
3 answers
14k views

What's the Android recommendation for error handling

I'm looking through the Android UX design docs, and I'm not finding an article for best practices around error handling. The type of errors I'm concerned with are limited functionality due to no ...
NotSimon's user avatar
  • 641
13 votes
6 answers
3k views

Is it appropriate to use Metro style design for a cross-platform mobile app

I'm finding it really difficult to design UI's for android and ios after falling in love with the windows metro design. I wondered if providing a metro style app across all platforms would be such a ...
Darcbar's user avatar
  • 233
13 votes
6 answers
98k views

Why doesn't the Android OS have a system wide "Forward" button?

I find it too easy to hit "Back" (in a browser kind of way) forgetting that there is no "Forward" to correct my mistake.
PhillipW's user avatar
  • 11.2k
13 votes
7 answers
790 views

Easy to understand public transit journey planner results

I am developing a London jouney planner app (called Pubtran London, it's on Android Market). Somebody told me that the results are hard to understand and I was quite surprised by that. Maybe it's ...
fhucho's user avatar
  • 580
12 votes
6 answers
2k views

Should I stick to Google's Android UI Design Patterns or not?

Both the official Twitter application and Facebook application use a similar set of UI design patterns in their apps. These patterns were set out by google themselves in this blog post. The thing is ...
matto1990's user avatar
  • 630
12 votes
7 answers
8k views

Is the use of hamburger button in Google material design an example of a bad user experience?

I have constantly found numerous issues with hamburger button, like: People tend to show a lot of options with them. It takes at least twice as many taps to change sections. Hamburger button is also ...
steve's user avatar
  • 184
12 votes
4 answers
5k views

ICS style guide - Is there a standard icon to indicate drag and drop in a list view?

I searched here but didn't see an answer. I've gone through the new ICS Android design guidelines but did not see a standard icon or recommended icon for drag and drop in list views. Is there one? ...
Ryan's user avatar
  • 121
12 votes
3 answers
8k views

Printable sketch templates for Android phones [closed]

Can you recommend a printable sketch template ("idea sheet"/6up) for Android phones? Preferably, the template should contain several real-size screens to sketch on. Here's what I'm using for iPhone,...
Yosef Waysman's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
4k views

How to indicate that a list view can be swiped to reveal controls?

I would like some advice on any approach which is conventionally used for indicating that swiping sideways will reveal buttons. I need to answer this design issue both for iOS and Android although ...
Andy Dent's user avatar
  • 317
11 votes
10 answers
3k views

What is an easier unlock pattern: gesture or code?

There are two popular ways to unlock a phone. iPhone makes you type in a numerical code. Android gives you the option to draw a gesture. Which of these two is easier to remember and easier to execute? ...
JoJo's user avatar
  • 10.8k
11 votes
7 answers
13k views

Alternative for circles page indicator for many pages?

What's a good alternative for indicating that the user can swipe across the screen to get the next/previous item and/or showing the current position, considering that there are many pages (usually ...
Lescai Ionel's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
11k views

Android back button - Global history back, or menu back?

On the Android, is the expected action of the back button to navigate backward through menus, or does it just go "back" to the previous screen you came from? I don't have an Android device to sample ...
Stefan Kendall's user avatar
11 votes
7 answers
12k views

Alternatives to Microsoft Visio? [closed]

What are good alternatives to Microsoft Visio? I use it in my Android/iPhone app design workflow to illustrate a sequence of actions. Then I can generate a PDF to share with developers. However, ...
Derrick's user avatar
  • 293
11 votes
3 answers
2k views

Is the Floating Action Button going away

I am contemplating whether to use the material design Floating Action Button vs. Menu with different Action options and I noticed that Google in Google sheets, for example, has removed the button in ...
Eidan Apelbaum's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
9k views

What tools can I use to design for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)? [closed]

I have to create a few prototypes (Balsamiq style) for Android 4.0 (ICS). I tried looking into tools etc from previous questions and from Google, but nothing seems to work for me. What tools can I ...
carora3's user avatar
  • 1,201
11 votes
2 answers
14k views

Android Multi-Step Wizard Examples

I am designing a multi-step wizard to display at the startup of my Android App. Looking for examples which serves as both tutorial and tour of the major benefits of the app. So far I haven't found ...
Rico's user avatar
  • 113
11 votes
2 answers
13k views

Spinner is to Android, as "____" is to iOS?

In Android, to make a selection from a list of predefined options, we'd use the Spinner element seen below. What is the best approach to replicating this on iOS? The iOS SDK offers pickers, segmented ...
es0329's user avatar
  • 213

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