Widgets

Widgets could be understood as "mini apps".

• Widget types
  
  • Information widgets
    
    • To display a few crucial information elements that are important to a user and track how that information changes over time.
    • e.g. weather widgets, clock widgets or sports score trackers.
    • Interaction: touching information widgets launches the associated app and opens a detail view.
  • Collection widgets
    
    • To display multitude elements of the same type, which are collected from an app. Collection widgets can scroll vertically.
    • e.g. a collection of pictures, articles, emails/messages.
    • Interaction: browsing the collection, and opening an element of the collection to its detail view.
  • Control widgets (remote controls)
    
    • To display often used functions that the user can trigger right from the home screen.
    • e.g. music app widgets
    • Interaction: may or may not progress to an associated detail view depending on if the control widget's function generated a data set, such as in the case of a search widget.
  • Hybrid widgets
    
    • Many widgets in reality are hybrids that combine elements of different types.
    • e.g. A music player widget keeps the user informed about what track is currently playing. It essentially combines a control widget with elements of an information widget type.

• Widget limitations
  
  • Gestures
    
    • Touch
    • Vertical swipe
  • Some of the UI building blocks that rely on restricted gestures are not available for widgets.

• Design guideline
  
  • Widget content（內容）
    
    • The widget is the information "snack" while the app is the "meal."
    • As a bottom line, always make sure that your app shows more detail about an information item than what the widget already displays.
  • Widget navigation（導覽）
    
    • Besides the pure information content, providing navigation links to frequently used areas of your app.
    • Generate functions and open application at top level
  • Widget resizing（尺寸）
    
    • Planning a resize strategy for your widget depends on the type of widget you're creating.
    • List or grid-based collection widgets are usually straightforward while information widgets require hands-on planning to make all content fit within a given size.
  • Layout considerations（版面）
    
    • Be flexible and accommodated
    • Planning your widget resizing strategy across "size buckets" rather than variable grid dimensions.
  • Widget configuration（設置）
    
    • Keep the widget configuration light and don't present more than 2-3 configuration elements.
    • Use dialog-style instead of full-screen activities and retain the user's context of place.
    • Android widgets do not show a "Setup" or "Configuration" button.

Checklist

• Focus on small portions of glanceable information on your widget. Expand on the information in your app.
• Choose the right widget type for your purpose.
• For resizable widgets, plan how the content for your widget should adapt to different sizes.
• Make your widget orientation and device independent by ensuring that the layout is capable of stretching and contracting.