Android Wear Design Guide

This article by the South China University of Design graduate Lu child translation, view original

A new form requires a new UI design pattern. At a high level, Android's wearable UI consists mainly of two core aspects: advice and inquiry. Applications play an important role in both.

Suggestions: Information scenarios

The vertical layout is a vertical list, and each one in the list shows useful or timely information. Just like Google Chrome on Android phones and tablets, users slide the interface vertically, get brief information about the card, or see something more useful for themselves. On the screen, only one card is displayed at a time, and the background image often provides additional visual information. An application can create a card that can be inserted into a context stream if this card is the most common.

The card in the layout is not a simple notification, the user can slide to show more pages horizontally. Future horizontal swipes may show a clickable button that the user can reject or accept by clicking on it. If you swipe the card from left to right, the card will disappear. The card can be removed from the context stream first, and the card can then be added to the context stream the next time useful information is available. In the simulator, when the mouse over the top of the screen, the top of the blue bar will light, when you click, the interface will return to the home page.

Ask: Tips card

The card in the context stream can not know in advance what the user wants, and the reminder card allows the user to talk to the device. The user can open the reminder card by saying "Ok, Google", or by clicking the "g" icon on the home screen or by swiping up an actionable reminder card that is clickable.

This series of actions include Android voice operations, the upcoming Android wearable SDK allows developers to match the application and this operation, the user can use voice commands to operate. Many applications can load speech, users can choose their favorite applications.

Design Principles

Android wearable devices provide the right information at the right time, linking the user's real life with the virtual world.

There are some great user experience design guides on the Android wearable device design platform. In essence, designing an Android wearable device is different from designing a phone or designing a tablet. We started by describing how the content fits into the entire Android wearable device.

To better understand the Android wearable device user experience, you can read the Android UI overview.

Android wearable device experience includes:

According to the situation intelligence changes. These devices have reached a new level of calculation. No longer need users to follow or enter, Android wearable devices can take note of changes in context and provide helpful information at the right time. It is timely, appropriate and clear. briefly. Wearables are working all day long, even though wearable devices are out of our sight. Efficient applications provide maximum error-free information and provide small snippets of optimized relevant information. It is short, quick and straightforward. Zero / weak interaction. Maintaining the advantage through small elements, Android wearable devices focus on simple interactions, requesting user input only when absolutely needed. Most of the input is based on touch and sound, and avoids the need for high-precision skills when typing. These operations are gestures and are simple and fast. helpful. The Android wearable is like a great personal assistant: It understands you and knows your preferences, it only bothered you when it's absolutely needed, and it always provides off-the-shelf answers. It is effective, polite and responsive.

In the area of ​​concern to users, to provide users with intelligent contact with the world. Android wearable devices are both personal and global, both simple and smart, and although unobtrusive, are ready to serve. Attention to these principles at design time will make the entire Android wearable experience an affinity.

UI mode of notification

Android notifications appear as a summary of the context streams in the form of a card that forms the heart of the Android wearable device experience. Many Android design guides for notifications also work on Android wearables. Respect users and reduce unnecessary interruptions.

Omitted in the notice of unnecessary text. For a quick glance, not to design for reading. Use words or phrases at design time rather than sentences. Where possible, simply display simple icons, symbols, or visualizations to convey your message.

In some cases, especially for informational applications, the dynamic content that a card contains may not fit on one screen. In these examples, the content is automatically reduced to fit the size of the card, and when the user clicks it, it zooms in and you can see all the information.

The priority of the notification should reflect the urgency of the notification, and the timely notification should have a high priority. Proactive notification - causing equipment vibration - should be used in the event of a user's immediate concern or behavior (eg, time reminders, messages from friends). Non-urgent notifications (such as transitional time cards, daily pedometer counts, social network updates) should silently be added to the card stream.

operating

It is the user's right to be able to proceed with the notification and the application should allow the user to proceed with the notification. Allow up to three operations, the most commonly used operation should be in the first place, so this separate operation is away from the content.

The operation consists of an icon and a title. The icon should be in PNG format with a white transparent background and a size of 32x32dp (8dp padding). According to the icon of the operation bar design guide to the design guide, the title should be verb, and is short, within a row will automatically shorten.

The operation should be optional, and many useful notifications do not need to include all of the operations.

For details of the operation button development, see "Creating Notifications for Android Wear."

image

The image appears in the card stream, providing context and a look at it. The image should provide the core message of the notification. For example, a card for a sports team needs to include the team's color and logo. Information about the contact should include a personal photo of the avatar.

Remember, the card may cover the bottom half of the image. When swiping horizontally, the picture should appear on the phone in the right size (64x64dp). Landscape-like photos play a much better role in notifications that include pages or actions.

Use the setLargeIcon () function in the notification to grow the image, see "Creating Notifications for Android Wear" for more information.

Application icon

The application's launch icon is automatically displayed on the card to make it easier for users to recognize the notification. Do not use the notification title or the background image to identify or mark the application. Instead, let the icon act as a recognizer to convey crisp, concise information in cards and images. You can use the setHintHideIcon () function to hide these icons.

page

The page is an extra card that appears to the right of the mainstream card. If the core information is not a small fragment, but a lot of information into the main notice, the user will not know what is the content, this time should use the page to provide additional content.

The page appears to the right of the notification. They often provide additional details or other perspectives on the contents of the card. E.g:

The current weather card may provide an extra page to show the forecast for the next three days. The next train time card may provide an extra page to show the departure time of the train. Remembering the number of cards per day may provide an extra page to show calorie and distance measurements.

Users can add any number of pages. However, there should be no more than three pages in the notification to ensure that the operation is easy to access.

The page is optional, and many useful notifications do not need to include the page.

For more details on page design, see "Adding Pages to a Notification."

Notify the library

Notification Library Assembled a large number of notifications, these notifications are a pile of cards integrated into the notifications in the same application. The page usually provides extra detail in a separate notification, and the notification library is a collection of related notifications. When the user enters a separate card to view the contents, the notification library will zoom in.

Notification Libraries are a way to add a large number of useful notifications without adding a burden on the user's card flow. If your application will have push notifications at the same time, consider merging them in the notification repository.

Each notification in the notification repository can contain different pages and separate actions related to its specific notifications. The user can zoom in on the notification card in the notification library to access these operations.

For more details on Notification Libraries, see "Stacking Notifications."

Voice reply

Voice response is mainly used in information applications, providing a way to send short messages without having to write by hand. In each case, users can use up to 5 default replies, or "default replies." The default response is clickable, and in some situations that can not be spoken, users can quickly and simply reply in this way.

There should be a series of simple, neutral responses in the selection. Long voice replies may be truncated automatically in voice reply.

For more details on voice response design, see "Receiving Voice Input from a Notification."