Catch Notes separates two sections of their dashboard with a horizontal line and different background texture.
Foodspotting is one of the visually best looking apps for Android today. They use action bar mainly for branding as the app doesn't have clear front page so the app logo isn't clickable.
This app is built by Reto Meier who works at Google as an Android developer advocate and has also written the book "Professional Android 2 Application Development."
His use of action bar is interesting. As the app has only two screens an neither of them is a clear app landing page the action bar's left side buttons are used to navigate between the two screens. This makes perfect sense especially as the buttons are aligned to left which is usually reserved for the home button.
Flow combines action bar and action drawer with a clear dashboard implementation.
Scanner Radio
Very clear dashboard implementation.
Magic TG Tracker
This app is a good example of an amateur app that manages to achieve good usability by implementing patterns correctly.
triMirror
Visually different dashboard. It isn't very successful in my opinion. There's too much going on visually. On top of that, actions that have been selected to be presented as dashboard icons are not the most important functions of the app. In general there should not be any reason to have action in the action bar in the dashboard screen. All the most important actions should be in the main area.
doubleTwist player
This dashboard looks like it is not complete. It lacks all branding and doesn't display even the application name in any form. They should consider using an action bar.
Ustream
This design is very simple but very clear and intuitive. They could have spent a bit more time for their landing screen to make it look more appealing.
Earthquake Alert!
This app has a very clear action bar implementation. They don't use the application icon for navigation though as the app only has two screens. They also use quick actions when a row is selected (a blog post about quick actions is coming).
Hi, great blog!
ReplyDeleteI am the developer of Folder Organizer, in my app I am using Dashboard and quick actions. Could you tell what you think about my app? Any suggestions are welcome!
Regards, Fabio
Hi Fabio,
ReplyDeleteThank you!
I downloaded the Folder Organizer (lite). Very nicely done. I particularly like how you've used the top left action bar icon as a navigation menu and still tapping the app name takes you to the front page. Nice extension to normal.
One thing you could do to improve your dashboard page is to add some "new and noteworthy" on the bottom part of the screen. I know that at least now you use the space for ads in lite version but maybe you can find a way to design it in with the ads (or maybe just leave as a premium feature to the paid version). Your app now notifies in the notification bar whenever I install new apps. I think many people will turn of the notification feature. You could, for example, add that info to the dashboard too so people who donät get notifications still have the info. See GDD app or Miso from here for a example implementation: http://www.androiduipatterns.com/2010/11/dashboard.html
Just a thought though. Neat app. I would like to use it in future posts if it's fine for you?
Hi, of course you can talk about my app in a future post!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, full version already shows some info on the bottom of dashboard but I'll change the info in a future version.
Thanks!
Fabio
Really nice post, thanks.
ReplyDeletePretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!medical assistants
ReplyDelete