Android Patterns

I just got an Android with that great Virgin Mobile deal, and I was surprised at just how much the Back button is used in almost all contexts. It's severely overloaded: want to get out of an on-screen keyboard? Back. Want to move back a screen? Back, except when it's Google Reader that opened a Browser window, in which case it takes you back to the previous page that Browser had. Back through a menu? Back. Back to a previous page in Browser? Back.<p>It's as if people just substituted the button for any instance in human language where "back" was used.<p>What's somewhat interesting is that I found myself wishing that I could just swipe left in order to achieve the same functionality, if I am going to be forced to do it so much. Then I realized Windows Phone 7 uses swipe left as "back" in some contexts. Sometimes you do have to give Microsoft credit :)

This is amazing. Google's UI guidelines are severely lacking, so far I've just been looking at other Android apps for some guidance, and many of them are just kind of loosely based on existing iPhone apps. Hope this site continues to improve!

Adding code samples (java &#38; layouts) would be even more awesome. Very interesting, still.

Android Patterns does a good job of presenting the basics.<p>I have the HTC Evo and the Android 2.0 software beats anything else I've ever used. The top 3 rated phones on PCworld are all ran by Android 2.0 software (with iPhone coming in fourth place).<p>Also, for all you app developers out there, development in 2.0 is your best bet. Androids still have less apps out there compared with iPhone OS at this stage, so you'll have a little less competition to deal with.

it's like the HIG for android - cool....linking these to code samples for each pattern could render a very cool manual for android development :)

I was looking for something like this the other day, thanks.

This is a great resource for commonly observed interface conventions. It seems many applications have been ported from iOS to Android and the UI has not been changed that much. While there are a lot of good interface techniques are shared by Android and iOS there are also many differences how Android and iOS applications are used.

Awesome. I'm developing my first Android app and this should prove to be very helpful.

For anyone interested in the iOS equivalent look here: <a href="http://bit.ly/Apple_IOS_HIG" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/Apple_IOS_HIG</a>

Looks like this was done using Balsamiq. Definitely a handy tool for any designer!

Wonderfully done. Thanks!

As an iOS user developing for Android, this is awesome. Thanks!

Is there an iOS equivalent of this info?