As an OG Android user I remember the wild west days of app design, when we had powerful apps that...

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

As an OG Android user I remember the wild west days of app design, when we had powerful apps that were just horrific in design, but we didn't care it worked. Fast forward to today and I uninstall apps that don't conform to my high standards for design (at present one is close to being erased from my phone  but I was offered to join a beta group to improve it so it got a stay of execution). Now with Android Wear we are seeing Google giving clear guidance to developers to ensure these apps are not only powerful but functional and beautiful. Its a great time to be an android fan. 

 

Originally shared by Android Developers

 

Today’s #AndroidDesign #Protip from Roman Nurik is about optimizing notifications for #AndroidWear.

 

Since we announced Android Wear last week, thousands of designers and developers have joined the Android Wear Developers community (g.co/androidweardev) and shared their wearable app ideas. Some of these pioneers have even shared some super useful resources like UI design kits (goo.gl/IaCI6q) and device mockups (goo.gl/UqSZkg) for Photoshop.

 

You may be wondering, “how can I get in on the fun?” for wearable software design. Well, the first step is to read the Android Wear UI Overview [1] and Design Principles [2]. That’ll get you up to speed on how the UI for Android wearables differs from that of Android handhelds.

 

Since the focus of the Developer Preview is on the Suggest aspect of the Android Wear UI, let’s take a quick look today at ways in which you can optimize your notifications for wearables.

 

1) Rich notifications. Notifications are more than just an icon and some text. Android Wear automatically uses the full breadth of notification features [1], including notification actions, expanded text and large images.

 

2) Signal, not noise. Be mindful of the user’s attention. Remember that notifications that vibrate the phone also vibrate the wrist, so things that don’t require the user’s urgent attention or action (like a news article) should remain silent. Also remember to specify a priority for your notification: if your alert isn’t urgent, give it a minimal priority. And not all notifications belong on the wrist to begin with, so keep them limited to the handheld device with setLocalOnly [4]. You probably don’t care that an upload has finished when scrolling through cards on your wrist, for example.

 

3) Minimal interaction. Users should be living their lives, interacting with the real world, not fiddling with something on their wrist. As such, it’s best to offer voice-driven replies [5] over more complex flows that require the phone keyboard for completion. Note that you can accept voice input for the primary notification touch target or any of the notification actions. And for cases where a handful of replies are most common (e.g. “Yes” “No” or “Can’t talk now”), Android Wear even supports touchable or spoken canned responses.

 

4) Immediate consumption. While on a handheld device, touching a notification to see more details is a lightweight interaction, this isn't the case for wearables. The Android Wear APIs offer several ways in which you can show content upfront. On handhelds, inbox-style aggregated notifications are best for showing multiple emails for an account, or multiple check-ins from friends. On Android wearables, this is best done using notification stacks [6]. And oftentimes there are one or two additional pieces of information about a notification that are useful but would be a bit noisy to show in the notification shade on phones and tablets. On wearables, you can show this content using additional notification pages [7]. This way, the user can get the full picture without reaching for their pocket.

 

That’s all for today’s tip, but stay tuned in the coming weeks for even more ideas on developing great content for the wrist with Android Wear!

 

[1] UI Overview http://developer.android.com/wear/design/user-interface.html

[2] Design Principles http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html

[3] Notification Design http://developer.android.com/design/patterns/notifications.html

[4] WearableNotifications.Builder.setLocalOnly http://developer.android.com/reference/android/preview/support/wearable/notifications/WearableNotifications.Builder.html

[5] Voice Replies http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html#VoiceReplies

[6] Stacking Notifications http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html#NotificationStacks

[7] Adding Pages to a Notification http://developer.android.com/wear/design/index.html#NotificationPages

[G+_Tom Gehrke]

As a fairly recent iPhone expatriate, I won't even install an app that looks like crap. Fortunately, I switched just as Holo design was becoming a thing and it's been a rare occasion where I had to put up with a poor design just to get certain functionality.

 

It's absolutely a great time to be an Android fan.

[G+_Joseph Cappellino]

And, don't get me started on iOS ports!  Uggh!

[G+_Marlon Thompson]

Yep Joseph Cappellino I don't touch got those call me hipster android