March 26, 2010

Upcoming new Andchat app UI

Filed under: Android Design, Mobile Application Design — tr.slate @ 7:55 am

The current Andchat UI

The new upcoming layout

Recently I have had the opportunity to focus on more personal projects while I look fora new job designing. Probably the biggest focus right now is going through some of the applications in the Android Market that need UI improvements, and offering concept UI’s for free to their developers. I think it’s a great way to stay on top of the mobile game, as well as improving my design chops by doing something new all the while giving back to a largely open-source community from which I have been offered so many great applications for free.

When i offered free design services for dev’s on XDA, dev Zer0day of Andchat fame asked me to take a look at the UI for his great IRC client. After a while of going back and forth, we have finally come to agreement on a new design for his app that should make it both more robust, and easier to use.

Some of the new additions users will notice are:

-A new background image to polish the design a bit

-a revised more cohesive color palette

-a server indication bar at the top of the screen allowing the user to know which server they are currently using

-a revised channel bar to highlight channels where the user has direct Private Messages, as well as normal messages

-slight revision of the button layout to switch channels

This is only the main chat window layout, and I hope with in the next day or two , to be able to also go through some of the options menus and tighten up the layout there as well. Stay tuned for more in the next couple of days…

March 18, 2010

[Alt Design Concept] Pandora Android App

Filed under: Android Design, Design Concept, Mobile Application Design, Mobile UI Design — tr.slate @ 9:32 am

Here is the first in what will hopefully be a small project I am undertaking to improve some android app layouts and keep up on my graphics chops while I search for a new design gig. If people like this I will do some others and continue to post them here. Enjoy.

-Travis

The Issue:

This concept UI assumes that most Pandora users run the program in the background while they browse the web and take care of other business, which may or may not be true. I personally use Pandora often in the car and while commuting (or used to, haha awww). One thing that struck me about the app was it was not friendly to the user on the go who may only have a few seconds to interact with the program.

One of the most confusing things about the stock layout is the controls are small and hard to see at a glance, and could possibly be mistaken for the actual built in virtual keys on the N1 and other new phones. I also am somewhat concerned by the placement of the album artwork as the most prominent design element, which I doubt anyone really looks at for more than 3 – 4 seconds.

Generally I thought the usability could be cranked up about 1000% by simple things like making buttons larger, and placing them far more strategically in the middle of the screen, replacing the less important artwork. In this version, artwork is in the background, blurred to give a more interesting texture than the normal black and adding a layer of depth to the UI.

Most of the button functions stay the same, with the addition of the bookmark song button. Action buttons (Play & Next) are larger, and set on opposite sides of the screen for muscle memory.

Song title and artist title have been changed to a larger size to be more legible at a glance. Hopefully this facilitates finding the song title you are listening to quickly, then with the other improved elements, just as quickly being able to rate it, play the next track, change stations, or bookmark the song.

In general I think this would be a good starting point for a redesign for the app, or at least the addition of something similar for car use, much like the built in Google dock adds easier functionality to other programsPandora UI Concept Built For Ease of Use.

Full Screen "Battery Saver" edition

Improved Notification Bar Controls