Google Launches Style Guide For Android Developers

mspohr writes "On Thursday, Google launched Android Design, a website created specifically to help aid developers in the creation of applications for ICS. The site offers a comprehensive visual to third-party application developers, giving suggestions on everything from how to implement different visual elements to overall back-end patterns for the OS itself. In theory, it will help developers better understand just how the Android team thinks about layout and implementation, while simultaneously giving suggestions to interaction designers on how to maintain visual integrity. Basically, it will help both first-time developers and Android veterans make apps look less crappy. 'We haven't really had a style guide,' Duarte says. 'We haven't really given you a lot of guidance on how to migrate your application from a phone, perhaps, to a tablet. We've done so only by example.'"

Comments

free advertising?

[viperidaenz]

Why link to the wired article when you can link directly to the website in question?

Re:free advertising?

[phantomfive]

Great, that link is exactly why I came here. After reading through the style guide, on this page I came across some text that seems to typify the entire document:

1 Keep it brief. Be concise, simple and precise. Start with a 30 character limit (including spaces), and don't use more unless absolutely necessary.
2 Keep it simple. Pretend you're speaking to someone who's smart and competent, but doesn't know technical jargon and may not speak English very well. Use short words, active verbs, and common nouns.
3 Be friendly. Use contractions. Talk directly to the reader using second person ("you"). If your text doesn't read the way you'd say it in casual conversation, it's probably not the way you should write it. Don't be abrupt or annoying and make the user feel safe, happy and energized.
4 Put the most important thing first. The first two words (around 11 characters, including spaces) should include at least a taste of the most important information in the string. If they don't, start over.
5 Describe only what's necessary, and no more. Don't try to explain subtle differences. They will be lost on most users.
6 Avoid repetition. If a significant term gets repeated within a screen or block of text, find a way to use it just once.

Note how points 1/2, 5/6 seem to violate point number 6? The whole site is filled with that tripe. There are some parts of the document that are better, like this page on gesture standardization.

Actually there's lots of good stuff on the page, but finding it between their preaching is painful.

Re:Style?

[nschubach]

Or the "Display Density: Compact" option under the gear in the upper right to reduce the white-space right on the page...

Re:Style?

[BasilBrush]

If you think white space is useless, you don't know much about style yourself. Any designer knows that whitespace is just as important as the items that are in it.

Re:S, Galaxy, and ...?

[meisteg]

Anyone know what that tablet is behind the Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus?

It's the Motorola Xoom.

But have you ever used a WP7 phone?

[jbernardo]

I got gifted with one. I am trying, hard, to not hate it at first sight. But god, this thing is so limited! No standard USB connection, no uSD card; uSIM instead of regular SIM; everything seems to have been done to make life difficult. One has to use a iTunes clone to transfer videos and music into it, that or a dropbox clone that doesn't work with linux. The interface wastes nearly one third of the screen with a blank column, no idea why. The rectangular widgets can be moved around, but that is about it. The toilet paper roll approach of putting everything should have been killed in teletype days, You can't change the background, only the lockscreen background. There is no way to bind the search key to anything else, it is locked to bing. If you want to search in the market, you have to install an app to do the search. There is no alternative browser, only IE. No ad blocking or anything. There is a limited list of apps in the market, and most are for pay only. No google apps apart from search. No synchronization with outlook, only with exchange, and only if your admins have enabled activesync. No skype, fring or nimbuzz. No way to install applications except the market. To top it, the WP7 phones are limited to "old" hardware. No dual core CPUs, only 512MB memory, screen resolution limited to 480x800, incapable of 1080p recording. How can someone call this competitive? Really? It is competitive if you're comparing with 2010 android phones; but with anything more recent than that, forget it.