Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) has made great strides in bringing the look of Android into a more consistent, cohesive form. Google’s apps all look and behave very similarly, but now third-party app developers need to adapt. Luckily, Google is providing a map.
As of today, app developers can click on over to Android Design and pick up all of the tips and tricks for making their apps look and work great with Ice Cream Sandwich. It’s the baby of Matias Duarte, the man who is reshaping Android’s user experience and making things, well, way better to use. And this is no half-arsed PDF; Matias views this as an integral part of Android’s future. In an interview with Wired (which you should read), he said:
This is the second part of our Ice Cream Sandwich launch. As this site goes up, I can feel like it’s finished. Like ICS is truly complete.
Them’s no small potatoes. Indeed an OS is only as strong as its ecosystem. You can have a beautiful hill, but if all the trees on it are gnarled, the hill looks gnarled, too. This guide should provide everything needed for apps to blend in nicely with the landscape, while still maintaining their own personalities. As Android evolves, so will the guide. It can’t be easy for developers to keep their apps playing nicely with an OS that averages two major updates a year (effectively twice as many as iOS). Hopefully, this will make things a bit easier on them, and on our eyes and fingers. [Android Design via Wired]