The books's target audience is developers and designers alike. Designers will be able to get a good overview of the available components and implementation approach of advanced Android UI components. Understanding the code examples or technical implementation is not mandatory for learning about Android when reading this book.
For developers this book explains use of many of the Android's UI components as well as more advanced concepts like responsive design to support multiple screen sizes and design patterns to create apps that look and feel like they belong to Android.
Buying the book
The book is currently available from multiple sources and you can pick the one you like the best. This list below is not complete and if you know a store that stocks the book (in ebook form or physical please leave a comment below and I'll add it here).
Google Play
Amazon US - Kindle edition
Amazon UK - Kindle edition
Amazon DE - Kindle edition
Wiley
Companion App
When writing the book I decided to try something new that I have not seen in tech books before. I created a companion app which contains all the examples of the book. While app is open source and you can browse any implementation details (see below) the point of the app is to give the reader a feel of the examples while reading the book. In the book each example has an attached QR code next to it. While reading you can simply scan the code and if you have the companion app installed the corresponding example will open on your phone. You can play around with animations, back stack etc. I hope this will make the reading experience more pleasant.Head to Google Play and download the free companion app now: Smashing Android UI Companion
Example Source Code
The source code for the companion app containing all the examples of the book is available from github at: https://github.com/JuhaniLehtimaeki/smashing_android_ui_example_app
Discussion
I really want to hear what you think about the book. The best way to get into contact with me is to join the discussion in Google+. I have created a page for the book where the discussion will be centralised. Please leave a comment in the threads and let me know if you found the book helpful or not. As a first time author this has been a learning process for me and constructive criticism is the best feedback I can get!Join the discussion here!
Need to see some reviews before buying a € 37,- book. but the app is verry nice :)
ReplyDeleteNice work, Juhani, I just recommend your book to my company manager here, we buy today! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteDo I get the ebook along with a printed copy of the book if I order it through Amazon? I find it ridiculous that I have to pay extra for an ebook when I get a printed copy or that the ebook doesn't cost significantly less than the printed copy. In this case, it's worse since the ebook costs ~$29 and the printed book costs ~$23!
ReplyDeleteThat is a question you need to ask the Amazon. I have no control over the book pricing or sales formats. The publisher and retailers are in control.
DeleteYeah, it's unfortunate. Some books I prefer an ecopy. Others, I prefer a hard copy. This one I'd have liked both, but with just one format, I think I'll get the hard copy from Amazon. Any idea when it would be available?
DeleteIt depends on the country. In the US they seem to have Oct 9th as the date currently. In Europe it seems to be few weeks later.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteOk, I bought this book and it is good, but I still was disappointed.
Please do not get me wrong, the book is good, but not exceeded my expectations.
When I saw a book on the UI for Android, I bought as soon as I could. I expected more than can be found in the Android documentation. I waited about how to develop a good interface. Step by step to create tabs on the project can be found on the internet and in demonstration files android.
I waited about creating a user-friendly interface. If you analyze the Pocket, Pulse, or any other app with a friendly interface you will understand what I mean. If I were hired by a company to develop an interface that would be different from the standard Android, I could not use this book to learn.
Obviously, the content of the book is great for the novice user who wants a way forward.
My suggestion is: make a second version of the book, showing how to customize every aspect of the interface. Showing how to make an interface like the Pocket, Pulse, Google Currents, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.. and then let me know the new version.
Hey, thanks for the feedback! I think this comes down to my personal preferences with books. I find books with technical implementation details fairly useless. Once you know what you want to do you'll find a library to do it or a straight solution to implement it from stackoverflow. Without understanding what to look for it is impossible to find solutions. My approach was to give devs who don't know what to do and what not to do that information. Technical implementation details change so fast that print media is the wrong way to distribute that information. If you look for example how fragments have changed now (allowing fragments in fragments). That change made basically all technical implementations not necessary valid anymore while the general idea of responsive design stays unchanged.
DeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the book and think its great. I particular like the QR code integration. I have not had that much involvement with UI development previously so it is good to finally get access to a gentle introduction and analysis of why particular design patterns are used. Thanks very much for taking the time to write it, highly recommended.
Thank you Richard :)
DeleteHi I am an amateur android developer who's day-job is as a medical doctor. I was drawn to your book as it seems unique in its concept of laying out the post android 4.0 UI patterns. It does this in a beautiful presentation which is very pleasing to read. I really like the idea of a companion app. Indeed you could have made more of this with more examples. I agree that for someone like me it is great to have all the concepts laid out and examples provided with skeleton code rather than huge amounts of code. As you say, stack overflow can help there. Overall really motivates me to try to make beautiful apps with lovely UIs. Cheers!
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