Improving Your Android User Interface Experience

The Android mobile operating system is an open-source technology, which gives individual manufacturers the liberty to modify the system and add their own applications. Most smartphone and tablet manufacturers provide certain inbuilt applications in the devices. One of the most important components that come built-in is the user interface. Although Google has its own set of design guidelines that is implemented in its Nexus series, other manufacturers pre-install their own UI software on top of the Android system. While Samsung is known for its TouchWiz UI, HTC phones have the Sense UI installed in all their devices. These components load your home-screen, help you navigate through a list of your apps, and also provide advanced features such as face-recognition, pattern-based locking and more.

However, the user is free to choose their own launcher and personalize their phones. Several individual app developers have released their own Android launchers on the Google Play store, which can be downloaded and used on top of your manufacturer’s UI. These launchers provide you with a home screen, navigation windows, and certain touch-based actions. In the last few months, a couple of interesting launcher apps has been launched that has taken the Android user experience to a whole new level.

a. Aviate: This launcher is still in the beta phase, but can be used on the basis of invitation codes only. Even in its beta phase, the look and feel of this app is extremely polished. The unique thing about this launcher is that it uses contextual information to redesign the home-screen with apps that users are most likely to need. Based on the location obtained from GPS sensors and some simple configurations done by the user, it can intelligently determine if the person is at work, home or out on a trip, and would likewise present the user with the apps for the purpose. Moreover, it categorizes the installed apps into different collections, thereby making it easier to find them in times of need.

b. Themer: Themer is not just a launcher, but allows the user to configure the complete theme of your phone. The power to configure even the minute details of the phone’s look is in the hands of the user through this app. There are several themes available in its own library, and users just need to apply one of these to enjoy a new look. All the available themes are equally impressive and cater to a large range of individual tastes. The home-screens itself provide a lot of important features that makes it redundant to navigate through the list of installed apps.