Question

I like to start developing android app in Eclipse, but feeling it’s not much friendly to design UI. Is there any other editor that is more efficient than Eclipse?

Answer 1

Eclipse – Android layout editor is the best as per my experience. If you learn the different types of layouts and their attributes perfectly then you are able to design any flexible layout (flexible in the sense it can be view from any screen resolution).

Yes, DroidDraw is useful for the beginner, but let me be frank i have started layout with this design tool but later on i just had started with the native android layout editor and now i am having enough practice, so i suggest you to learn android layouts and their attributes. First concentrate on RelativeLayout because it is mostly used layout in most of the apps.

And yes, i would also like to tell you that there are mainly 2 design patterns we follow:

1. TabBar design pattern (As per my experience, don’t do this any how, because there may be a requirement that you have to convert any iOS app to android app, so you have to have tabbar design pattern in your android app and you will have to manage activities through ActivityGroup and its not that much easy task as DashBoard design pattern.
2. DashBoard Design pattern (As per my experience, you should go with this design pattern, because most of the successful android apps have been implemented this design pattern, for example, evernote, facebook, stackanywhere, google docs and many more).

=> For detailed information about DashBoard Design pattern, go through this article: Implementing Dashboard and Action Bar

=> To Learn about the types of different android layouts with output snaps, here is the best article as far as i know: Android Layouts tutorial

=> To make android app with more stylish, go through articles on this site: Styling Android