Match Timer – Part 1

Back in December 2013 there was a series of posts which covered how to write a basic app for the I’m Watch Smart Watch which allowed the user to track the stoppage time during a football (soccer to our American friends) match. With the arrival of Android Wear it seemed a good idea to port…

Ripples – Part 3

Previously in this series we’ve looked at the ripple effect touch feedback which was introduced in the Android-L developer preview, and looked at how we can define ripples, and also integrate them with existing background drawables. In this concluding article we’ll look at styling our ripples.

Ripples – Part 2

In the previous article we began looking an RippleDrawable which was introduced in the Android-L developer preview. In this article we’ll look at ways in which we can control the look of our Ripple.

Ripples – Part 1

At the time of writing, Google have recently announced the Android L Developer Preview which is a foretaste of some of the goodies coming in the full L release of Android. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be covering a number of the new APIs and features being added in API 21. To start…

Irregular Shapes – Part 4

Previously in this series we’ve looked at how to display images with irregular outlines, beginning with simply rounding the corners, but also displaying them in a speech bubble. In this final article of the series we’ll look at displaying an image with a love heart outline.

Irregular Shapes – Part 3

In the previous articles in this series, we’ve looked at two different approaches for creating an image with rounded corners. In this article, we’ll look at creating a speech bubble effect, similar to those used in some messaging apps such as WhatsApp.

Irregular Shapes – Part 2

In the previous article we looked at how we can use an alpha mask to create a round cornered image, although there were a couple of reasons why it wasn’t entirely suitable for our requirements. In this article we’ll look at an alternative mechanism for achieving the same result but without using a second image.

Irregular Shapes – Part 1

A little while ago I was asked about how to create images with irregularly shaped outlines such as those in WhatsApp which are shaped like a speech bubble. In this series we’ll look at some techniques for doing precisely that.

App UI / UX – Part 6

Previously in this series we’ve looked at various ways in which we can improve the experience for our user in terms of both simple aesthetics (making the app look nicer) and improving the controls and navigation through the app. In this final article in the series, we’ll focus on how we can speed the user…

App UI / UX – Part 5

Previously in this series we’ve looked at improving the ActionBar behaviour of our temperature app, but there’s another annoyance that we can fix by tinkering with the ActionBar: When the user performs a bluetooth device discovery scan there is no visual indication that the scan is in progress, and more importantly when the scan completes.…