Ingredients of Awesome App

There are an increasing number of apps that come with great design nowadays, and most of the carefully crafted apps resonate with the Android users due to their great and consistent User Experience (UX) design. Many developers and designers try hard to create an app with great UX by largely referring to the Android Design Guideline, however, to make remarkable UX design is certainly more than that, and often they missed certain important items from their check list. If you want to check if your app(s) is heading the right direction to awesomeness, be sure to check out this ‘advanced’ check list in making awesome Android apps.

Note: This is a modified version of the decks that I used for my presentation in DroidCon Tunisia to ensure every deck is readable (the original one have many animations and movements which doesn't help in reading the main content).

Transcript

1. Ingredients of Awesome app DROIDCON TUNISIA ©Taylor Ling 2014
2. Introduction
3. Introduction Taylor Ling +taylorling @taylorling
4. Introduction Malaysia Tunisia ~13 hours flight time
5. Good to Great to Awesome
6. Good? Great? Awesome? GOOD GREAT AWESOME Stable Uses Best Practices User-tested Runs 4.0 and above Provides solid experience Remove everything Branding and Consistency Variation Polish Guenther Beyer http://bit.ly/androiddesigngtg
7. Ingredients of Awesome app
8. Ingredients of Awesome app • Subtle, yet noticeable • Buttery smooth, but not too fast/too slow • Purposeful and/or Informative • Don’t overdo it (because it kills) Ingredient #1 Animations
9. Ingredients of Awesome app Great, it is removed! OK, something is added. I got it.
10. Ingredients of Awesome app OK, this is checked. Checked. Last spam checked. Ready to delete.
11. Ingredients of Awesome app Selected Item
12. Ingredients of Awesome app OK, now I’ve back to homescreen. Great. Wait, what the heck have just happen?
13. Ingredients of Awesome app Evgeny Belyaev bit.ly/upscaleandroid Upscale Android
14. Ingredients of Awesome app Ingredient #2 Feedback • Interaction • Dialog • Error Message • Loading • Navigation • Empty State TRIGGER RULES FEEDBACK LOOPS & MODES FEEDBACK Microinteractions – Dan Saffer
15. Ingredients of Awesome app Example: Overscroll Edge Effect TRIGGER RULES FEEDBACK LOOPS & MODES
16. Ingredients of Awesome app Interface/Interaction feedback is very important to give the touch confidence. And care about the touch area.
17. Ingredients of Awesome app Give sufficient touch area. You are designing for finger, not needle.
18. Ingredients of Awesome app Dialog is a very direct way of giving information or capture attention. But it can be annoying. Minimize the usage and use it wisely. And don’t confuse the user.
19. Ingredients of Awesome app Error Message tells the user why something isn’t work – but don’t just tell them why it doesn’t work, if it’s possible, tell them what’s the solution as well. Better yet, try not to allow them to execute the error. Screenshot is not allowed for security purpose.
20. Ingredients of Awesome app Loading indicator tells the user something is working at the background due to the selection – but do give them options or inform them if it’s taking too long. Also try to mask the time-wasting loading into a delightful experience.
21. Ingredients of Awesome app Visual Feedback for Navigation give the immediate impression to the user about the app structure, and in some cases, allow them to focus on app navigation. It’s not the job of the user to remember the app hierarchy.
22. Ingredients of Awesome app Empty state must be handled properly so the user knows what is needed to be done to fill it up. Give them that action(s). It’s not the job of the user to figure out why it is empty.
23. • Quick Tutorial • Allow Undo/Skip • Provide Helps • Confirmation Ingredients of Awesome app Ingredient #3 Help
24. Ingredients of Awesome app Quick Tutorial gives brief introduction of the value of the app to the user (read: not on how to use the app). And do allow the user to skip it.
25. Ingredients of Awesome app Users sometimes regret for their action, so if it’s possible, allow them to Undo – For less critical stuffs, it can be as forgivable as possible. And make it easy to undo.
26. Ingredients of Awesome app Help section helps. And make it offline if possible.
27. Ingredients of Awesome app Confirmation is a must if the action is a critical one eg. Delete. Do not ask for every actions though.
28. Ingredients of Awesome app Ingredient #4 Gesture • One important part that provides awesome user experience • Empowers the user, make them feel like a wizard in control – enhance interactivity • Must coupled with great corresponding animations
29. Ingredients of Awesome app Always explore simple yet efficient gestures that enhance interactivity. Touch screen isn’t just meant for tap. Chrome for Android set a great example.
30. Ingredients of Awesome app Sensitive for gesture trend that enhance user experience. Eg. Swipe to dismiss/delete is almost like a must-have gesture for item manipulation.
31. Ingredients of Awesome app Look out for potential gesture conflict! Bad example: In Rdio, full screen swipe calls Navigation Drawer, and it conflict with the progress slider.
32. Ingredients of Awesome app Don’t be afraid to be the first to integrate and test new gestures to enhance usability! Example: Double swipe is currently at system level only, but it can be very well integrated in app interaction as well! Carbon for Twitter
33. Ingredients of Awesome app Ingredient #5 Polish, polish, polish
34. Ingredients of Awesome app Every single details can make or break the user experience. From the moment the user launch the app…
35. Ingredients of Awesome app Every single details can make or break the user experience. …to a button, a line of text, a picture… Circle button widget for Android By Markus Hi https://github.com/markushi/android-circlebutton
36. Ingredients of Awesome app Every single details can make or break the user experience. …until the user quit the app. Everything counts.
37. Ingredients of Awesome app 1 User always change app Settings and customize according to their preferences. doesn’t UX MYTH
38. Ingredients of Awesome app 1 95% 5% These users always using application with default settings. These users explore and customize from default settings. Always care about the default settings. UX MYTH
39. User love to learn new things. Ingredients of Awesome app 2 doesn’t UX MYTH User only learn when it is a must to achieve their goal. Learning is hard; users are lazy. They want to learn once and applies everywhere. They don’t want to think.
40. Ingredients of Awesome app 2 UX MYTH CONSISTENCY FAMILIARITY
41. User have no patience, they can’t wait . Ingredients of Awesome app 3 UX MYTH Well Informed Worthwhile Delightful
42. User doesn’t know what they want. Ingredients of Awesome app 4 UX MYTH User doesn’t know what they need and how to achieve what they want.
43. Want Ingredients of Awesome app 4 UX MYTH Need Awesome things happen here
44. Ingredients of Awesome app One Few more things…
45. Ingredients of Awesome app Attention to details shows that you care about the user and their experiences using your product.
46. Ingredients of Awesome app Embrace design is the way to go.
47. Ingredients of Awesome app Always ready to support user like there’s no tomorrow because user base is your most important asset. 24x7
48. Closing
49. Ingredients of Awesome app Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence. Vince Lombardi
50. Ingredients of Awesome app Taylor Ling AndroidUIUX.com androiduiux@gmail.com Shot me question now if you have any!