The Best Designed Android Apps
When thinking about what kind of design you want to go with for your app, you're probably pulling inspiration from an existing app that you have in mind. Have you ever downloaded an app and just been like "Wtf this is amazing!" Design goes hand in hand with functionality and these specific apps just nail that balance.
I'm going to list some of the best designed apps so hopefully you can get inspired to implement some of these looks into your own app. What I find best about these apps is that each one in very unique. Let's check them out.
Top Five Best Designed Android Apps
5. Lyft
Lyft is a taxi-alternative ride sharing app. It's so easy to use, you'll be setup and ready to go within 2 minutes tops. You can view where the local cabs are and filter through the different types of rides you want. The graphical interface is simple and to-the-point.
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4. Pocket Casts
Pocket Casts will deliver all of your favorite podcasts directly into your ears. I've learned so much from podcasts. Did you know 9/11 was an inside job?! Crazy! What's every crazier is how good this app looks. The media player is brilliant with how they display all the information you need in simple and clever icons. Check out these screenshots to see what I mean.
View attachment 3592046View attachment 3592047View attachment 3592048
3. B&H Photo Video Pro Audio
When you first launch this app you'll be expecting the usual shopping app like Amazon or Walmart. Boy are you in for a surprise. This is one of the best looking shopping apps you will find. It's worth downloading just to check it out and see how great everything looks.
2. Weather Timeline - Forecast
You're probably not used to paying 99 cents for a weather app. You're probably also not used to having a weather app that will blow your socks off and suck on your toes. This is by far the best designed weather app on the Play store. Check your forecast in style, right before the tornado hits and destroys your entire town.
1. Tumblr
The animations in the tumblr app won it a Material Design Award from Google. Tumblr is the app to check out if you want to trigger your creativity for animations and layout design. It really adds something nice to the experience when you're posting selfies of your new blue and green hair color.
These are my favorites apps when it comes to design, and they have all be featured at least once on Googles design website. What apps do you think have fantastic designs? Share them in the comments.
Sweet man
Related
Hello Guys,
i saw this ,
it's a Home for our android devices...
Here
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A better Home Screen for your Android Tablet, designed to fit your lifestyle. Always relevant. Immediately valuable.
Looking for a better Home Screen for your Android Tablet? Introducing Chameleon.
Chameleon replaces the standard Android Home Screens and App Launcher with one that isn't just more useful, but more beautiful as well.
You can set up multiple Home Screens with your own layout of widgets and apps, giving you the most relevant information that you want, when you want it. So whenever you unlock your device, you are presented with the Home Screen that is immediately valuable to you.
Your apps, your content. When you need them, where you need them.
Chameleon Home Screens can be set up based on GPS locations, WiFi networks and time ranges, allowing you to define which Home Screen is the most relevant for the situation. Patent Pending
In the morning, you can set up your own Morning Home Screen for your tablet based on a time range that you specify. During that time, your tablet can be set to display your favorite news, social feeds, weather, schedule and email.
At the office, Chameleon can recognize when you are at your office based on a GPS location and display a Work Home Screen to display things like your email inbox, tasks, calendar and your latest documents.
In the evening, when you are ready to sit down and relax, your tablet can be set to recognize your home network - and display your favorite apps for movies, music, photo sharing and social media.
Beautiful Widgets.
Chameleon widgets are not just useful, but beautiful as well. We are aiming to include the following widgets based on popular apps and services:
Facebook
Twitter
Nextflix
Instagram
Google Drive
Gmail
Clock
Calendar
Weather
Media Player
RSS Reader
Link is dead man!
safariking said:
Link is dead man!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry i forgot a H on the URL
looks fun but the big question: how well will it run.
a homescreen is the no1 thing that can't be sluggish.
5$ is kinda steep asking price for an app that isn't even out yet and can't be tested.
guess i'll wait till its officialy released and then have a look at it...
Nice looking launcher, very pretty. Too bad the dev took the $$ and ran. Not good reviews in playstore, especially at $5.99. The customers are feeling ripped off.
Last post was May 2012, over a year later, and still a no go...
Tooo Bad!
Looked good for starters.
Google Design Resources
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Howdy, chumps. Before you get going on designing an Android app, it's important to know what kind of resources are available. Many people head straight to AI and just start designing from the ground up without knowing about all the amazing recourses available from Google. These recourses are going to focus only on the Graphical UI aspect of the app. So if you came here looking for technical stuff, I'm calling the cops.
While these are supposed to help you get started on your app design, they're also just a great source of free graphics, fonts and templates that can be used for anything.
I'm not saying you'll be a millionaire overnight but it can happen a lot sooner than you think.
-Tai Lopez
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Material Design Guidelines
So if you're wanting to embrace the material design standard to make your app look beautiful, this is where you start. The guideline will reference everything that you need to know to make your app look just as good as one from Google.
Icon Library
The icons library contains every icon that you would find within the stock Android system UI. They're great looking icons that you can use for anything. Download the .zip file that contains all of the icons because that's going to come in very handy as you begin to design your app.
Device Metrics
If you ever need to reference the exact size and resolution of a specific android device, this is where you will go. This section is always be updated with the newest devices and their deimensions.
Roboto & Noto fonts
Roboto is the default font for material design. If you want everything to look great without taking time to search through thousands of fonts, just use Roboto as your default. It will also tell you when to use white or black colored fonts.
Sticker sheets & icons
Here you'll find "stickers" which are basically premade graphical interfaces pieces. Everything from volume sliders to shadow effects can be downloed for free. This will help you put together a mockup of what you want your app to look like. Everything will be compatible with Adobe Illustrator which is most likely what you'll be working with most of the time.
Color Palette
Bookmar this page because you'll be coming back here a lot. This is the material design color palette. Pretty much any assortment of colors from this page will look good together.
There is so much more in Google's design resource site that it's basically a wonderland full of goodies. But if you're just starting out, use these sections to get going. You can also check out all the other great stuff that have at design.google.com/resources
Android Design Resources - Best Websites
Greetings people of Earth, hahaha I'm not really an alien that was just a prank! So there are several different websites that I always go to for great design resources for Android. There are some fantastic free graphics, fonts, icons, animations and all kids of stuff to find through on the internet. I'm going to save you some time searching on Google and list some of my go-to websites that I use whenever I'm in need of inspiration or design resources.
Material Palette
This website is brilliant! You get a pallet of a bunch of different material design colors. You select two colors that you want to go with and it will generate a preview of how they will look in an Android UI. After you find the look that you want it will generate a color palette that you can download. It will even label the colors as what they should be used for to obtain the look you've created. Bookmark this website because you will be using this a lot.
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https://www.materialpalette.com/
Flaticon
This is the best resource for basic flat icons. You can get icon packs anywhere but what sets the website apart is the ability to go through and add all the icons you need to your cart, then download them all as a pack. Everything is free to download. You'll have the option to download in several different file types depending on what you need. There are trillions of icons in here so no matter what you're looking for, you'll find it on this website.
http://www.flaticon.com
Google Design
Google Design has so much stuff to look through and it's all completely free. Templates, fonts, icons, stickers, design guides, everything you need to get started with designing apps for Android.
https://design.google.com/resources/
Materialup
Material up is all about material design. This is a community driven website where you can browse projects uploaded by other users. There's so many cool tools, templates and graphics to explore on this site. My favorite section where I spend the most time in is the freebies > UI Kits section. Check it out
http://www.materialup.com/
MediaLoot
This is a pretty new website that I immediately started using. It's similar to Materialup with the type of content that's available but it has a subscription options that get's you unlimited access to everything on the website. Right now that subscription is $14/mo. I have not been able to find a better deal anywhere else on the internet.
http://medialoot.com/
So those are my personal favorite websites that I use on a regular basis. What about you?
Designing Your App Icon
Get an Idea
Alright so you've got your app idea and maybe a basic wireframe layout. You sit there thinking "What is the perfect icon to represent my 'Goat in heat detector app'"? Well let's start by thinking about what is the simplest image that gives some sort of representation of what you're all about. It could be a mascot, a letter, a prop or anything that sounds good to you. For this, we will want a goat engulfed in flames as a play on "Goat in heat". It's clever and tasteful.
Design Guidelines
Once you have an idea, you'll be eager to whip something up in AI. But wait just one second, space cop. There are tools to help you design your icon within Google's material design standards. It's very simple and it will help you make a great looking app icon.
Start by downloading the "Product icons" sticker sheet from here.
Download Icon Sticker Sheet
This will provide you with an outline to design in. Check out this brilliant and quick guide on how to use the icon sticker sheet.
Product Icons
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This is a great resource and will only take you a moment before you're ready to create a great looking app icon. Check out these examples of icons created using the sticker sheet.
The way that Google lays out their guide is in such a way that you do not have to be very good at graphic design to obtain great results. It's a very simple and fun process.
Inspiration
Ok so you've done all of your reading and know how to make an icon. Now it's time to get inspired! Take some time to look at icons that have been created by others. My favorite place to go is the freebies sections on the MaterialUp website.
MaterialUp Icons
Browse through here and download some of the free icons that are available. You'll find something that will spark your creativity in here for sure.
Now you should have everything you need to create the perfect icon for your Android app. Have fun and post if you have any other tips or resources that you'd like to share!
We are Ken and Houtan, two developers building a personal trainer AI for wearables. Over the past year we've built out tech that can automatically recognize a user's exercises, like bench presses and squats, if they are wearing an Android Wear smart watch. We are launching the beta program for our app, YouMove, and are inviting members of the XDA community to join. We would love your comments and feedback on what we've done and would be thrilled to hear your suggestions on what we should do next!
Apply for the Beta!
We recently added the ability for the app to learn new user exercises, which we are really excited about!
Other features we are currently testing:
- Automatic, passive recognition of weight training, calisthenics and cardio exercises
- Tracking of exercises, reps, sets, resting times, calorie counts, and intensity
- Detailed display of a user's workout in a timeline on watch and phone
We know the XDA community can provide some great feedback on what we've made so far. Thanks everyone!
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This looks really cool! I've been tracking my workouts using Google Sheets for a while now, but if this works, I could totally see it replacing that. I'll let you know more of my thoughts after I sign up for the beta and try it out a bit, but I was just wondering if there is a way to see your progress by exercise type in some place on the app. I've always roughly guessed how I've improved over time at, say, bench press, and I know that I can do it now if I really wanted to, but it'd be really cool to have it readily available on the app.
Looks interesting, may take it for a spin!
Where is the link for download? Also:
1. Will you be having only dark color for the app?
2. Does it support Android Wear independently without the need of the phone?
2.1. Does it support the internal GPS of Sony Smartwatch, for instance?
sapiora said:
Where is the link for download? Also:
1. Will you be having only dark color for the app?
2. Does it support Android Wear independently without the need of the phone?
2.1. Does it support the internal GPS of Sony Smartwatch, for instance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Current it is a closed beta, so once you apply we will send an email with a link.
1. We are switching to a lighter color UI on the phone. Sticking to a dark color on watch to conserve battery life.
2. Yes, it works on the watch independently of the phone.
3. At this point it doesn't support GPS. Right now we are primarily focused on weight training and calisthenics. But when we do hit cardio, we'll make sure to use GPS on the watch.
I'm interested in trying this out. How's progress on the app?
Link not working
I would love to participate but the link is not working
I would like to apply for the beta but the link is not working.
I mostly go sporting/gym 3 times a week.
Can i get a beta because i was searching for this kinda app ?
Thanks !