How to Easily Prototype Your Android L Material Designs: TripAdvisor App Case Study

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In my workshops, often the greatest challenge for designers is converting their existing Android designs to the new Material Design approach—making the interface both simpler and more visually rich than their corresponding Android 4.x designs, as well as laying out the “happy path” for the customers (using Floating Action Button or FAB, as one of the tools). The following sticky note wireframes demonstrate my quick take on converting the Android 4.x TripAdvisor app into Material Design using $1 Prototype methodology — perfect for prototyping Android Material Designs.

Visual Guide to Android L Material Design: 7 Insights Every Serious Designer Needs to Know

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Material Design is a new Google design language that Google hopes to port to everything from mobile phones and tablets to websites and desktop apps. Here are 7 hard-won insights from 4 Material Design workshops I recently facilitated with my top clients in Argentina, Abu Dhabi and United States.

C-Swipe: An Ergonomic Solution To Navigation Fragmentation On Android

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There are 3,997 different Android devices. Your navigation should work with all of them. C-Swipe can help: It is an alternative navigation pattern for tablets and mobile devices that is novel, ergonomic and localized. This article provides a detailed walk-through of the design and code and provides a downloadable mini-app so that you can try out C-Swipe to see whether it’s right for your app.

The Definitive Guide To The Android Carousel Design Pattern

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We’ll use the analogy of a real-world amusement park carousel to explain what makes for an authentically mobile user experience, and we’ll give you the design, the complete source code and a downloadable mini-app, which you can use today to add an enjoyable and effective carousel to your own app on phones and tablets.

Three essentials of Android design DNA

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For many years since its release, the Android OS has been behaving like a teenager in the grip of raging hormones. Growth has been nothing short of explosive and the changes have been sweeping and profound. With the release of Ice-Cream Sandwich OS, the UI standards and design elements have changed dramatically and the platform has really matured and even stabilized somewhat. Nevertheless, the OS has retained it’s rebellious hacker DNA with unique features that are authentically Android.

Mobile Welcome UX Antipattern: End User License Agreement (EULA)

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Like the overzealous zombie cross-breed between a lawyer and a customs agent, End User License Agreements (EULAs) require multiple forms to be filled out in triplicate, while keeping the customers from enjoying the app they have so laboriously invested time and flash memory space to download.

Essential Design Patterns For Mobile Banking

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Despite a great deal of mobile innovation, many creators of financial apps still copy their interface patterns from the desktop Web, even though these patterns are not as well suited to the mobile space. Small screens, custom controls, divided attention and fat fingers demand different thinking when designing for mobile: taking what works on the Web and converting it into authentically mobile flows using simple, effective design patterns.

Android 4.0, Siri and Tangible Future of Voice Search UX

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Today, Apple announced a bunch of enhancements to Siri and voice search. How does Siri UX compare with Android 4.0? What’s just around the corner for Voice Search? Don’t tell your phone or tablet anything else until you’ve read the article.

Cross Channel UX Elements Framework

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The Cross Channel UX Elements framework is a practical design tool you can use to create “Magic Moments” of flow and delight for your customers across the different channels in a more deliberate fashion, rather than arriving at great designs only through occasional happenstance.

Mobile Magic Moments: Transform the Trivial

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When mobile or tablet design is executed well, the device feels like the extension of our bodies. Because interfaces respond even before we consciously give them a command. Often, the interface “dissolves in behavior” and we feel empowered, as though the device we hold in our hand is the equivalent of Iron Man’s suit of cybernetic armor, or Batman’s utility belt. I call this empowering experience a “Magic Moment”.