User interface master detail pattern on Android

Nguyen, Thanh-Diane [UCL] Vanderdonckt, Jean [UCL]

The purpose of this work is to understand some existing user interface patterns and to adapt them to the constraints of mobile devices running on the Android system. We focus mainly on the Master/Detail pattern and on the surrounding patterns. The contributions are multiple: our background study consists of a brief recall of the principles of some existing user interface patterns. Based on it, we provide an adapted version of each pattern targeted to mobile phones through a framework called MandroiD. We will also present a basic case study application that takes advantage of the framework. This application is developed with Android guidelines in mind. Indeed, one of our goals is to provide the reader with some knowledge about Android applications development. Limitations of general mobile devices (e.g., the small screen) require of "reducing" homogeneous elements. MandroiD overcome theses constraints. A statistical analysis is conducted on the developed mini-application. Evaluation of it shows a general satisfaction concerning the ergonomy of the application by various users.