Standardized Navigation Principles for Android App Development - Visual Studio Magazine Article

Navigation in mobile devices is an important consideration. If a user isn't able to navigate an app, he might quickly abandon it. Learn the navigation principles of Android to keep this from happening to you.

Mobile applications have a number of screens (Activities and Fragments) associated with them. Navigating through these is an important mechanism. There are a number of ways to provide standardized navigation in Android. This article will look at three mechanisms to provide navigation:

  1. Menus: Menus provide a common UI component for an application. The Menu APIs are used to present actions, as well as other options within an application.
  2. Navigation Drawer: The navigation drawer is a panel shown from the side of the display; it provides the user with the application's main navigation.
  3. Action Bar: The action bar provides a familiar navigation mechanism to the user across the top of the screen via an app icon, action items and action overflow.

URL: http://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2014/06/01/standardized-navigation-principles.aspx

Many thanks to Tomasz Cielecki

1 Comment

  • "If a user isn't able to navigate an app, he might quickly abandon it" - Although this is a basic principle, so many fail to develop a fluid and intuitive app, and this might happen for reasons like:
    - Lack of testing
    - The impression that if it looks great it's surely good
    - The user experience is left to the end of the project, and such, a small amount of time is given to this

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