Navigation Patterns in Android

Navigation guides users between different parts of your app.

There are many ways to navigate around apps, each of which is best suited to the type of data that is being presented to the user. As you view more apps, you’ll notice some common navigation patterns.

The “master detail layout” consists of a master list of data. When you click one of those items of data, a detailed view of that item appears. You can easily adapt this layout to larger screen devices. When there is more screen real estate (meaning, more space on the screen) available, then we can view the master list of data alongside the detailed view of an item, at the same time.

Selecting an item from the Master Screen opens up more Details

Another way to view your data is to use a “Navigation Drawer” pattern. If an app has many screens that are "siblings" to each other, then the different screens can be listed in a "Drawer" that pulls out from the left side of the screen. In the Google News & Weather app, the navigation drawer provides links to different categories of news.

Example of Navigation Drawer that comes in from the left side of the screen

Another pattern that you’ll see is “swipeable tabs.” You can swipe horizontally left and right between different screens, or you can tap one of the tabs across the top of the screen. There’s a section on tabs in the Design spec. Here’s an example of the YouTube app, which uses icons for each tab:

This app contains 3 tabs that users can swipe through

There are many other types of navigation. For example, the Google Calendar app has a scrolling agenda view, but you can jump to specific days by using the calendar month view. Or you can view different lengths of time like the week view. These interactions are specific to a calendar-based app.

Google Calendar app contains a variety of user navigation patterns

As you build your own app, you can learn more about how to structure your app in both the navigation section of the Google Material Design spec and this guide on designing effective navigation. Keep in mind that your app will need to adapt to devices with a variety of screen sizes. This is known as responsive design, which we first talked about in the last course. Android apps must work across phones, tablets, and TVs, as well as watches and cars!