Android interface design specifications-7

Document directory

• Up and back
• Use navigation in applications
• Applications navigate through the home screen widgets and notifications
• Navigation between applications

Navigation

Consistent navigation is an essential part of the overall user experience. Operations that are inconsistent with user behaviors and unexpected operations will make users feel disgusted. A significant change in Android 3.0 is global navigation behavior. Kindly follow the design specifications for return and up navigation, which will make the navigation of your application predictable and reliable.

Android 2.3 and earlier versions depend on the system's hard "return" button in the application's navigation. The action bar introduced in android3.0 appears in the second navigation mechanism-"up" button, which is an icon or a symbol to the left.

Up and back

The up button is used for the application based on the navigation relationship between screen layers. For example, if the screen shows the project list, select a project to display screen B (more details about the project), and then screen B should provide a button to return to screen.

If the screen is at the top of an application (that is, the application homepage), an up button should not appear.

The system's "back" navigation button is arranged in the order of the time that the user has recently accessed the historical screen. It is generally returned based on the relationship between the time on the screen, rather than the application hierarchy.

The previously viewed screen is also the parent layer of the current screen. The returned result is the same as that of the up button. However, the "up" button ensures that the user is still in your application. The difference is that the "back" button allows the user to return to the main screen, it is even a different application.

The "return" button also supports some navigation actions that are not directly related to the screen:

L clear floating window (dialog box, pop-up window)

L remove the highlighted items from the context operation bar

L hide the keyboard on the screen (IME)

In the application, you can navigate multiple entry points to

Sometimes a screen does not have a strict position in the application structure and can be accessed from multiple portals, such as setting the screen, the setting screen can be reached from any other screen in your application. In this case, select the "up" button to return to the screen that references it. This is equivalent to the "back" button.

Change screen view

Changing the screen view does not change the "up" and "back" behavior: the screen is still in the same position of the application hierarchy, and no new navigation history is created.

For example, the following view changes:

L use labels or left or right to switch the view

L use a drop-down to switch the view (also known as collapsed labels)

L Filter list

L sorting list

L change the display features (such as scaling)

Navigation Between brothers' screens

When your application supports selecting one of the projects in the List to navigate to the detailed view of these projects, it usually needs to support one item from one of the items in the list to another item in the list order. For example, in Gmail, sliding left or right in the same inbox makes it easy to move from a session to a new or old view. Just as when you change the screen view, the navigation does not change the "up" or "back" behavior.

However, there are also notable exceptions. view details are not tied to the specified list. For example, when you browse applications of the same developer in the application market, or an album of the same artist. In this case, each link creates a history, and the "return" button runs through the screen that you have previously viewed. You should use the "up" button to bypass these related screens and navigation and directly go to the upper-level container screen that has recently browsed the view.

You have the ability to make operations at the upper level smarter and more convenient based on your understanding of the Details View. From the example above, expand the App Store and imagine that the user is finally navigating from the detailed view of a book to watch a movie adapted from a book of the same name. In this case, the "up" button can be returned to the container screen (movie) without browsing by the previous user ).

Applications navigate through the home screen widgets and notifications

You can use widgets or notifications on the home screen to help users navigate directly to the depths of your application hierarchy. For example, Gmail inbox gadgets and new mail notifications can both Skip the inbox screen and directly go to a session view.

Handle the "up" button in the following two cases:

L when you directly navigate from another application to the hierarchy of your application through some purposeful operations, the "up" button should be directed to the screen.

L otherwise, navigate to the application's top screen ("home.

When the "return" button is displayed, make sure that the navigation is more predictable. You need to insert the return stack of the task, the stack contains the complete path to navigate up to the top screen of the application. This leaves users forgetting how to enter the application and navigate to the top screen of the application before exiting.

As an example, the widget on the Gmail home screen has a button that allows you to directly locate the screen for writing a new mail. In the new email writing screen, "back" is to go to the user's inbox and continues "back" from there to the home page.

Indirect notifications

When your application needs to submit multiple event information at the same time, it can use a single notification to direct users to a interstitial screen. This screen summarizes these activities and goes deep into the path that the application provides to the user. This type of notification is called indirect notification.

With Standard (direct) notifications, the user returns the notification to the trigger point based on the interstitial screen of the indirect notification returned. No additional screen is inserted into the back stack. Once the user enters the application from its quality screen, the upward and backward behavior is the standard notification, as described above: navigation the application, rather than returning to the interstitial.

For example, assume that a user receives an indirect notification from the calendar in Gmail. Touch the notification to open the interstitial screen (calendar), where multiple different event reminders are displayed. Touch "return" from the interstitial screen to return to the user's Gmail. When you touch an event notification on the interstitial page, you can get the details of the reminder event. to display the details of the reminder event, you can enter the calendar application. From the event details, "up" and "back" navigation is to the top-level view of the calendar.

Pop-up notification

The pop-up prompts the notification to bypass the initiator of the notification, instead of directly appearing in front of the user. They are rarely used and should be retained for necessary occasions, which must respond in a timely manner and interrupt the user context. For example, a user reminds a friend in a chat to invite a video to chat in this style. The invitation will automatically expire several seconds later.

From the navigation behavior, the pop-up notification follows the action of directly notifying the interstitial screen. The "back" button will destroy the pop-up notification. If the user browses the notification and enters the corresponding application, inside the application, the "up" and "back" Buttons follow the standard notification rules.

Navigation between applications

One of the basic advantages of the Android system is that it can use applications to activate another application, allowing users to directly navigate from one application to another. For example, when you want to take a photo, you can start a camera app. "Back" will return the photo app that references it. This is a huge benefit for developers. developers can easily use the code from other applications, and users will enjoy the consistent experience of the same application.

To understand the application-to-application navigation, it is important to understand the android framework. The following describes some framework behaviors.

Activities, tasks, and intentions

In Android, an activity is an application component that defines information on the screen and All executable actions associated with the user. Your application is a collection of activities, including activities you create and re-use from other applications.

A task is a sequence of user activities required to complete a target. A single task can ensure an application activity, or you can plan an activity from a certain number of applications.

The intent is a mechanism in which an application sends a signal and wants another application to assist in completing an action. The activity of an application can indicate the intention of the response. For common intentions such as "sharing", you can install many applications to achieve the "sharing" requirement.

For example, shared navigation is supported between applications.

Learn how activities, tasks, and intentions work together and consider how applications allow users to share content with other applications. For example, the store application starts a new job a from the homepage (SEE ). After browsing the playback storage and touch the promotion book to view its details, the user is still in the same task and added to the activity to expand this task. When the "share" action is triggered, a dialog box is displayed, listing each activity from different applications. These activities can process the sharing intent of logged-on users.

When the user selects "share" Through Gmail, The Gmail writing activity is added to task a as a continuation of task a, and no new task is created. If Gmail runs its own task in the background, the background task will be affected.

Send a message from the activity writing activity or click the "back" button to return the activity details of the book. If you continue to return, you will be directed to the store until the homepage is displayed.

However, by touching the "up" of the activity, the user's intention is still in Gmail. The Gmail session List activity appears and creates a new task B for it. New tasks always originate from the home page, so clicking "back" from the session List will return to the home page.

Task A still exists in the background, and you can return it later (for example, through the latest screen ). If Gmail already has a task running in the background, it will be replaced with Task B-the previous context is abandoned.

Multi-pane Layout

When writing an application for Android, remember that Android devices have many different screen sizes and types. Make sure that your application consistently provides a balanced and beautiful layout, which requires adjusting its content based on different sizes and screen directions.

Panels (panel) is the best way to achieve this. The Panel allows you to combine multiple views into a composite view. When there is no available space in the horizontal direction, you can split the content into different views.

By Bruce Lee
Source: http://www.cnblogs.com/BruceLee521
This blog Original article is copyrighted by the blog and I share it with you. You are welcome to reprint it. However, you must keep this statement without the author's consent and provide the author name and original article connection clearly on the article page, otherwise, you are entitled to pursue legal liability.