A summary of key design changes included with Android 4.4 (aka Kitkat) of interest to IBM XPages developers.

1. Modern Domino
Android 4.4 (Kit Kat)
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2. KitKat
• Android 4.4 (code-name KitKat)
was released on October 31.
• The android market has often
suffered from fragmentation as
each vendor was left to implement
its own skin for Android. With
KitKat we are perhaps seeing the
start of a core set of UI guidelines
for the mobile OS.
• The following is a summary of
some of the key design changes
introduced with KitKat that should
be considered when designing
modern Domino applications.
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3. Android Market Share
• Strategy Analytics estimates that in
the 3rd quarter of 2013 Android
devices accounted for 81% of
global shipments for smart phones.
• While
200
million
devices
upgraded to iOS 7 in the first 5
days, KitKat is likely to see a much
slower
uptake
with
initial
availability limited to the Google’s
own Nexus 5.
• Clearly we need to keep a close eye
on everything that Android does as
it slowly takes a stranglehold on
the smart phone market and its
users set expectations for mobile
application design.
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Windows
4%
BB
1%
iOS
13%
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Android
82%

4. Branding Color
• As with iOS7, we see a move from the
familiar blue of the Android holo color
scheme to a more neutral grey.
• This change is designed to allow
applications a greater choice of color
schemes that will not clash with the
entire screen content
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• Also gone is the use of the blue accent
color to denote the touching of
hotspots on the screen. Now when
something is touched its background
color slightly darkens or lightens.
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5. Icons
• When building applications for
Andorid devices care must be
taken to ensure icons are
consistent with the core icon set.
• A number of companies such as
Spiderfly Studios have published
icon fonts for the core Android
icons.
• Icons can either be branded in the
color of the application or use a
neutral
grey
palette.
The
designated color for the grey is
#33333 with an opacity of 60% for
enabled and 30% for disabled.
• Launcher icons are now 25% larger
with a recommended size of 60dp.
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6. Full Screen
• Android KitKat has improved
support for letting applications
use the entire screen.
• The Lean Back approach is used
when the user will have minimal
interaction with the content. A
simple touch anywhere on the
content will cause the bars to
reappear.
• A new Immersive approach is
used when a higher level of
interaction is expected. A swipe
from the edge will cause a bar
in that location to reappear.
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7. Translucent Bars
• Similar to iOS 7 we see a move
to continuously display more
content from the application
through the use of translucent
system, action, and navigation
bars.
• Note: The use of translucent
bars are an option for
applications, not a requirement.
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8. Gestures
• The double touch gesture has
now been formally defined to
scale up the targeted area to fill
the screen.
• A new double touch drag
gesture operates similar to
pinch zoom gestures. Dragging
up will decrease the content
scale while dragging down will
increase the content scale.
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9. New Sensors
• KitKat introduces platform support
for two new composite sensors – a
step detector and a step counter.
• A growing number of mobile
device are expected to enable this
capability allowing applications to
take advantage of this data.
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