Get Ready for Google I/O

Google I/O is the annual Google developer events in San Francisco. This year's event is just few short (long) days away. On top of new release announcements we're going to see many good presentations covering large range of topics from technical to designy.

As the Android platform has matured the IO talks have gradually been including more and more design topics. This year is no exception. Here's some talks I'm particularly exited about. (But don't forget to check out the agenda at https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions#t-android.)

Android Design for UI Developers

By Roman Nurik, Nick Butcher.
Link: https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326204977

Design on Android is no longer a complex mystery of disjointed patterns; the Android design guidelines have paved the way for a design renaissance following the tenets of content forward and responsive mobile design. In this talk we'll explore the arsenal of tools available to Android UI engineers that let you implement some of these important guidelines, including responsive design with multi-pane layouts, metrics and layout grids, and core navigation components.

Nick and Roman have been active in the Android community pushing design topics. Their Android Design in Action video podcast has been helping developers and designers alike to understand where the platform design language is heading to. I expect to see a lot of interesting information in this talk.

Android Graphics Performance

By Chet Haase, Romain Guy
Link: https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/325418001

Engineers from the Android UI Graphics team will show some tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for getting the best performance and smoothest UI for your Android applications.

Chet and Romain have probably more in depth understanding of the inner workings of the Android's UI framework than rest of the world put together. This presentation will be a must for all developers working with UIs. Designers can probably safely skip this session.

Android Protips: Making Apps Work Like Magic

By Reto Meier
Link: https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/326454327

Learn how to use advanced Android techniques to build apps so good, people think they're magic. Featuring advanced coding tips and tricks, implementation patterns, and exposure to some of the lesser-known APIs, you'll gain insight into how to build context sensitive apps that delight your users without draining their battery.

Reto's talks have been very useful every year. He usually brings up topics you might have heard about but don't really know that they could have helped you solve issues much more easily than the manual approach you took in the project. This is another must one for every dev working with Android UIs. This information is something that developers must know about when there's a discussion what is possible and what isn't in early phases of new projects.

What's New in Android Developer Tools

By Xavier Ducrohet, Tor Norbye

Link: https://developers.google.com/events/io/sessions/324603352

An in-depth tour of the Android development tools, with a closer look at everything new - along with tips and tricks for getting the most out of them.

Not only are Tor and Xavier very good presenters but their approach is to show more and explain less. This talk will probably give you a very good understanding how you can improve your usage of the Google's Android tools. I'd recommend this session to designers as well to get a good overview of how developers are building the UIs.

And tons more!

As already mentioned this year we'll see much more design topics than any year before. Here's few other picks.
Cognitive Science and Design
Agile UX Research Practice in Android
Structure in Android App Design

Unfortunately, I won't be in SF this year but I'll be watching the live streams as well as recordings. I'll post more recommendations in couple of weeks after the IO based on the sessions.

Exiting week coming for everyone involved in Android design or development!