Sometimes you, the Android developer, will work with designers who have the time and knowledge to think of everything. They create complete, detailed designs for every screen and interaction. They cover both web, iOS and Android. They regularly use both Android and iOS themselves. They understand the strengths and conventions of each platform. These projects … Continue reading Android Friday: Help your designer bridge the app gap →

I am not the most experienced teacher in my circle, but I have taught some technical classes, courses and workshops in my day — some of them for pay. Here are some principles and techniques which have worked for me. Target audience Start with basic market research. Consider your intended audience: what are they likely to want … Continue reading Programmer Friday: How to teach a programming course →

Two weeks ago I wrote about tactics for estimating software projects. Let's apply that to native app projects. These are some techniques I have used to estimate Android work. Find your bearings The first steps are obvious, and similar to any other software project. Talk to involved stakeholders and designers. Become clear on who the … Continue reading Android Friday: Estimating app projects →

Opening screens from other screens in Android apps is straight forward: create an Intent object, stuff some parameters into it, use it to launch the other Activity, and dig out the passed parameters at the other end. Unfortunately, if you blindly follow Googles standard examples of how to do this, you will end up sprinkling … Continue reading Android Friday: Let Activities encapsulate their creation →