Google unveils Android design guide (Digital Trends)

Digital Trends – Fans of Google’s Android platform like to extoll how “open” the Android software development world is, especially in comparison to the “curated” experience offered by Apple in its iTunes App Store. However, as many Android users can attest, that openness can generate a huge variation in the look, feel, behavior, and interfaces of Android applications. One Android app might handle content navigation a particular way, but another app may use the very same icons—and even icon placement—for entirely different purposes. Similarly, a gesture that does one thing in a broad range of Android apps might do something totally different in another app—perhaps because the developer was feeling “creative” or “innovative.”