Another month, another UI/UX Tips article! This time I looked into the swiping action between tabs, proper handling of multiple notifications, proper dialog actions, and some smart use of colors to indicate different states.
Swiping between Tabs, Please
I think this has been mentioned many times by Android Developers Team, as well as some Android Designers. If you are using tabs in your app, please please please, make sure they support the swipe gesture. It is a system-level interaction pattern, and it is clearly mentioned in the Android Design Guideline. Your users won’t be happy to realize that they can’t swipe to change tabs, which is extremely useful when the device is used with one hand.
Properly Handle Multiple Notifications
In a previous version of Google Drive, when you try to upload multiple files in a session, you will get the notification spams (shown in above image), fortunately, it has been fixed in the latest update. If your app can create multiple notifications with some user actions, please make sure that they are handled properly – group them and show the relevant information.
Proper Dialog Actions
Sometimes developers/designers tend to overlook the actions available to the user in a dialog. In this shown example, when I was shown with this dialog, I have no way to confirm my selection of font unless I press the Cancel button. This is very confusing for the user, and definitely not designed according to the Android Design Guideline. Ensure that whenever there is such selection dialog, dismissive and affirmative action buttons are there for the user.
Smart Use of Color for State Indication
Above shows some great examples from recent updates for Google Current and Google+. These are very subtle, yet informative approaches to notify the user about the state, so do consider for such approaches whenever your app requires to give the user some information/feedback regarding the state of something in the app. I really like these!
That’s it for this Android UI/UX Tips! Feel free to share around if you find these information useful, and as always, hit me with comments if you have any.
#androiduiux 
You duplicate the strings of currents and google+!
Thanks! It fixed now 😉
How about a tab that contains scrollable view, say a MapView? How would suggest on this scenario? Thank you.
Hey,
I would explore the solution that Field Trip app is using – a bezel swipe indicator.
Check out the app and a post by Juhani about their indicator.
Rgds,
Taylor Ling
Thank you. That’s a great example. 🙂
Interesting implementation. However, I would suggest that if one of the main pages of an app requires scrolling around a map/zooming, etc. it would be better to avoid using tabs that support swiping. They should be used when they fit well with the app structure, sometimes ‘fixed’ tabs work better in my opinion.
Great write-up, although colour alone should never really convey the state of something in particular.