The benefits of darker in-app colour schemes are clear

Google has finally confirmed what many have suspected, there are clear benefits to offering darker in-app colour schemes.

During its Android Dev Summit this week, Google displayed several comparisons of the power drain while displays show different colours.

As suspected, black is the most power-efficient. White, on the other hand, is by far and large the most power-hungry – consuming over six times as much juice.

While all displays consume less power...

9 November 2018 | Android

Opinion: Poor user experience is the enemy of customer loyalty

It used to be the case that people bought a product, used it until it wore out, and then replaced it. If it had worked well, they went back to the same manufacturer. Today, the separation of product and service means that purchase decisions are much more frequent and that ongoing loyalty is based much more on the user experience.

App performance, therefore, has a huge impact on whether consumers continue to subscribe to connected services such as Facebook or Netflix. It is also...

4 October 2018 | UX/Design

Google sets Android P guidelines for ‘notch’-featuring devices

Android P is nearing release and so Google has set out its guidelines for how the ‘notch’ found on many new devices should be accommodated.

Love it or hate it, the notch has become mainstream. First marketed by the first ‘Essential’ smartphone and quickly followed by other Android manufacturers to maximise the screen-to-device ratio, even Apple has adopted it with the iPhone X.

On the Android Developers blog, Google wrote:

31 July 2018 | Android

The 10 best fonts for programming: A guide

Here, we'll look at ten fonts favoured by programmers, including some of the latest typefaces and some retro classics. Let's get right into it. Fira Code Fira Code is one of the most popular fonts for developers, having been developed with special programming ligatures from Mozilla's Fira Mono typeface. You can see these used in the Sublime Text 3.1 screenshot above, with the != and <= operators being represented via a single glyph to aid readability. It also appears a little softer than...

16 May 2018 | Development Tools

Agile initiatives expanding in the enterprise – but lots more work to be done

Agile is expanding within the enterprise – but there is plenty more that can be done to improve organisational initiatives. That’s the key finding from enterprise software development firm CollabNet. In the company’s latest State of Agile report – the 12th iteration – which collected almost 1,500 responses from various industries in software development, 97% of respondents’ organisations practiced agile development methods. Of that number, 52% said that more than half of their...

16 April 2018 | Approaches

WordPress powers three in 10 sites on the web, W3Techs finds

WordPress now powers 30% of all sites on the web, according to the latest figures from web survey provider W3Techs.

According to the most recent numbers, for the end of February 2018, WordPress is at 30.0% for absolute percentage of websites, giving it a 60.2% market share for all content management systems. It’s worth noting that just over half (50.2%) of sites analysed by W3Techs do not use a CMS monitored by the company, or are built from scratch. The figures arrive from...

6 March 2018 | UX/Design

Turn doodles into apps with Microsoft’s Ink to Code

Microsoft’s latest Garage project, Ink to Code, can turn your new app doodles into a working project.

Some of the world’s greatest ideas started as a doodle on a napkin or piece of paper. The Gettysburg Address, the poem that gave way to the U.S. National Anthem, and the premise of the Harry Potter series — all were reportedly started on a simple piece of scrap paper.

Ink to Code wants to ensure an idea for what could become the next big thing doesn’t...

26 January 2018 | Android

Google explains how to design optimal VR/AR experiences

As Google's UX engineer working on Daydream and Tango, Mary Cassin knows a thing or two about what makes the optimal VR/AR experience.

With VR adoption growing, we're learning new things every day about what makes a great and comfortable user experience. Google has vast resources to learn from its users and afford the odd pitfall along the way – but few of us have such a luxury.

Over the coming years, best practices are sure to adapt, but Cassin has shared her...

13 April 2017 | Gaming

Google takes its Optimize tools for website A/B testing out of beta

Google has removed the beta tag from its Optimize tools for A/B website testing as part of today’s global launch.

Optimize and Optimize 360 first came on the scene back in 2015 when a limited beta was launched to offer a lucky few additional help with their websites. Running on top of Google Analytics, the Google Optimize tool allows developers to see which versions of their website receive the best reception based on a set objective.

“We love the fact that Optimize...

31 March 2017 | Development Tools

Google wants developers to update their apps to support 18:9 aspect ratio

Android phones appear to be moving towards a new aspect ratio, and Google is politely reminding developers to update their apps or users will suffer.

When LG launched the G6 they made a big deal about its 18:9 aspect ratio display, and for good reason. The ratio allows two squares to be displayed next to each other and opens up a range of new possibilities – in particular for VR. Samsung has since followed suit with a similar ratio screen in the Galaxy S8; albeit marginally...

30 March 2017 | Android