Let's face it. Google Play Store is full of apps that are stuck in the pre-holo world of Android Gingerbread. When Android 4.0 ICS gave us a unified style language, Holo, and later the Android design guidelines the old apps all started to look outdated overnight. These apps need a facelift, a redesign.
In the latest Android Design in Action episode "Android Design in Action: Design Hangout No. 1" Roman Nurik encouraged the Android community to show their skills in giving the old apps a new refreshed look. To see what people have come up with search for the competition tags on Google+.
The quality as well as the quantity of redesigns submitted to Google+ this week is surprising to me. Just few short months ago it was impossible to find designers who understood Android but that is rapidly changing. It could be that more an more designers understand how good of a career step learning Android design is now that Android has captured more than 75% of the global smartphone marketshare.
George Venios's Little diary
Asher Simonds' Parcels App
Andreas Stütz's Tanken AT
Walmyr Carvalho's Last.fm
Markus Hi's runtastic Altimeter
Lars Werkman's Caland Cijfer
David Corsalini's ComingSoon Mobile Hd
Stephen Lopez's AndroidGuys
In the latest Android Design in Action episode "Android Design in Action: Design Hangout No. 1" Roman Nurik encouraged the Android community to show their skills in giving the old apps a new refreshed look. To see what people have come up with search for the competition tags on Google+.
The quality as well as the quantity of redesigns submitted to Google+ this week is surprising to me. Just few short months ago it was impossible to find designers who understood Android but that is rapidly changing. It could be that more an more designers understand how good of a career step learning Android design is now that Android has captured more than 75% of the global smartphone marketshare.
Maximilian Salomon's WhatsApp
Maximilian's WhatsApp redesign is simple and great. I hope WhatsApp team will pay attention to this and hopefully implement an update to their app soon! See more pics in the original post at Google+.
Taylor Ling's Google Finance
Taylor Ling took a look at an abandoned Google product in desperate need for overhaul. CHeck out Taylor's blog post and the original post art Google+ for more pics and description.
Paul Burke's IMDb
Paul's redesign of IMDb is an excellent example to demonstrate that following holo design doesn't mean that the app needs to lose any of its branding and unique style. See more pics in Paul's Google+ post.
Marie Schweiz's Blogger
While Marie's Blogger design isn't actually from this week you can't really talk about app redesigns in Google+ without mentioning her. Her take on Blogger is something I'd hope to see become reality soon. See Marie's post as well and her other redesigns in her Google+ stream.
Even more redesigns
George Venios's Little diary
Asher Simonds' Parcels App
Andreas Stütz's Tanken AT
Walmyr Carvalho's Last.fm
Markus Hi's runtastic Altimeter
Lars Werkman's Caland Cijfer
David Corsalini's ComingSoon Mobile Hd
Stephen Lopez's AndroidGuys
Find more redesigns
To find more redesigns form Google+ just search for the tags #androiddesign and #ADiA.
And don't forget to tune in to the next week's Android Design in Action to see the results! Follow Android Developers on Google+ to stay informed!
And don't forget to tune in to the next week's Android Design in Action to see the results! Follow Android Developers on Google+ to stay informed!
I suddenly feel like downloading all these apps but then I remember that these are mockups
ReplyDeleteI opened up the play store before I realized that. These people should be paid just for the mockups they make me want to use apps that I have no reason to use.
DeleteGreat Stuff! Looking forward to it!
ReplyDeletegreat work guys
ReplyDeleteAll of them looks so great! I'd love to see those designs.
ReplyDeleteActually, Holo was introduced in Android 3.0 Honeycomb
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, but what Juhani meant is the Unified Styling/Design Language after 4.0 is introduced. :)
DeleteLike the feauture andriod ui but if you look closely its starting to look more like windows8 phone ui ... Guess its now microsofts turn
ReplyDeleteIt really depends how you see it. I would agree that both Android Holo approach and Windows Style is using flat design without any skeuomorphism, but really they are different design languages. If you try to design the same app using them, you will find that the same approach you used on one side doesn't fit in automatically.
DeleteSome developers missed some similar examples for tablet applications
ReplyDeleteTasker?
ReplyDeleteTHIS. Everytime I use Tasker I feel like I'm back in the Eclair days.
DeleteDone, search for the tags on Google. Only one screenshot as I didn't have a great deal of time.
DeleteIt looks like some talented designers are basically giving these devs free design advice! It would be folly to ignore them!
ReplyDeleteDev here, I like these designs. What would you do with EZ Drop?
ReplyDeletehttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.dropper.ez.android.free
It's simple, but I don't have an eye like yours. I'd be happy to plug you in the description. :)
I can help. Add me on Google+ to show me more about your app and we can work on a revamp for your app. :)
DeleteMost of them are flat action bars and native widgets in holo style. boring.
ReplyDeleteI wish titanium backup looked like that.
ReplyDeleteAll these app looks more interesting after they are redesigned. This shows that Android has made good position in global market along with great features and functionalities to these applications.
ReplyDeleteI hope some of these designs also incorporated multiple screen sizes into the mix. We don't just need well designed phone apps but designers who can understand what to add and take away from the various screen sizes to get a great experience for each.
ReplyDelete