Let me guess - MOST OF THE TIME.
In this new series of articles I will try to share my experience on how to improve and adjust your UI designs for Android mobile apps. We will learn how to change colors, adjust margins, add shadows and at a higher level - how to create beautiful and flexible layouts for different screen sizes. So let's get started.
For the start let's make sure we have everything we need for our little journey into programming.
Software Installation and set up for Android Development
(find step by step instructions on http://chicago-gtug.com supported by ChicagoAndroid.com)
- Install a development environment. On the Android platform most of the native apps are developed in Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers.
- In order to be able to import projects from the team's repository and to be able to share your changes in the code you need to install Install SVN plugin - Subclipse. (video by Uki D. Lucas http://youtu.be/pVBXfjc7QV4)
- install Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin. (video by Uki D. Lucas http://youtu.be/0JhkL8QhWBU)
- install Android SDK.
- Android SDK and AVD Manager - updates - as for updates, you will see plenty, you will never go wrong by installing all of them
- Create a virtual device - AVD - the virtual devices are very annoying and they load forever but they are very useful especially for testing your designs on various screen sizes.
