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Creating Custom UIs for Wear Devices

Dependencies and Prerequisites

  • Android 4.4W (API level 20) or higher on the wearable device

User interfaces for wearable apps differ significantly from those built for handheld devices. Apps for wearables should follow the Android Wear design principles and implement the recommended UI patterns, which ensure a consistent user experience across apps that is optimized for wearables.

This class teaches you how to create custom UIs for your wearable apps and custom notifications that look good on any Android Wear device by implementing these UI patterns:

  • Cards
  • Countdowns and confirmations
  • Long press to dismiss
  • 2D Pickers
  • Selection lists

The Wearable UI Library, which is part of the Google Repository in the Android SDK, provides classes that help you implement these patterns and create layouts that work on both round and square Android Wear devices.

Note: We recommend using Android Studio for Android Wear development as it provides project setup, library inclusion, and packaging conveniences that aren't available in ADT. This training assumes you are using Android Studio.

Lessons

Defining Layouts
Learn how to create layouts that look good on round and square Android Wear devices.
Creating Cards
Learn how to create cards with custom layouts.
Creating Lists
Learn how to create lists that are optimized for wearable devices.
Creating a 2D Picker
Learn how to implement the 2D Picker UI pattern to navigate through pages of data.
Showing Confirmations
Learn how to display confirmation animations when users complete actions.
Exiting Full-Screen Activities
Learn how to implement the long-press-to-dismiss UI pattern to exit full-screen activities.