[Q] Words With Friends, theming? - Android Themes

So Words With Friends has finally made it to the Android scene. But to be quite honest, it is utterly hideous. I was wondering if anyone here would be able to asist in theming this app, because i have no idea how to do that. However, i do have skills in Photoshop and Illustrator, so if those are of any assistance i will of course be helping. I really would love just a standard android themed Words With Friends.

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PROJECT - Talented devs please Read

I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered. as a minimalist, i'm basically exactly the opposite. i like clean, concise, small and unobtrusive.
Anyway, if a dalented dev and I could hook up, I could design a very nice looking exterior for Android so long as he could code it all into place. I'd be wanting to skin basically every skinnable object within Android; I want a full UI overhaul. I also want it to be the best looking thing released for the OS.
To give myself a little bit of credibility, here's a mock-up I was messing around with to provide an idea of what I'd be talking about.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
is no one replying because it doesn't look good enough, or because no one is interested?
The design is very bland, more work on it would make it look pretty nice. I see you're aiming for a simple look yet, somewhat elegant.
looks very nice and clean but...
notification bar is half the size,dont know if it is possible to edit the size of it.
and it wouldnt be easy to acess the drop down menu.
Same goes to lockscreen,a lot to change...
Perhaps this are the reasons no dev is interested in this,but it is a nice concept...hope you can manage to get it done.
ZED_pt said:
looks very nice and clean but...
notification bar is half the size,dont know if it is possible to edit the size of it.
and it wouldnt be easy to acess the drop down menu.
Same goes to lockscreen,a lot to change...
Perhaps this are the reasons no dev is interested in this,but it is a nice concept...hope you can manage to get it done.
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You can change the status bar size from source: frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/dimens.xml and change the status bar dpi from 25 to "x"
that was just a mock-up. everything can/will be changed to meet the dimensions of the elements to the sizes needed for the phone. and yes, it'll looks a lot better after some more time is put into it. i posted just a barebones preview of what i hope to accomplish.
You came in here bashing many talented designers and then post that? Instead of 2004, you're going prior?
Good luck, and I hope your "new" idea (given that there are quite a few minimalist themes) turns out well.
how did i bash anyone? i mean sure my comment was a little snarky, but it wasn't meant to put anyone down.
i don't see how that's prior-2004 either way, though.
Instead of asking for "talented devs" to help you, it might work out better if you spend a little bit of time to get to know the roots of android theming, and hopefully get more going than a few minimalistic mockups. Read a few how-to guides to get things rolling and when you get to troublesome .9's and xml tweaks, that might be a better time to ask for help.
As much as all of us will be really excited to see what you come up with (I mean that seriously), I really think it would be better that you get some experience going on your own first. 'Employing' people to do the dirty work usually means the end result is nothing like what the concepts suggested (I think a lot of us remember a similar situation late last year).
Good luck, have fun. I'm looking forward to the results.
turn said:
I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is absolutely true, most of the themes would make my phone look like a cheap knockoff. However, I don't find yours the most appealing either. Minimalistic is good, very good, but add some more life to it (again, in a minimalistic and clean way)
It kinda reminds me of this here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=662721&highlight=xperia
turn said:
I want to create a theme, as no one here seems to have the same design sense as me; most are obsessed with trends from 2004 or something, and are fascinated by bright colors and the need for everything to be big and/or cluttered. as a minimalist, i'm basically exactly the opposite. i like clean, concise, small and unobtrusive.
Anyway, if a dalented dev and I could hook up, I could design a very nice looking exterior for Android so long as he could code it all into place. I'd be wanting to skin basically every skinnable object within Android; I want a full UI overhaul. I also want it to be the best looking thing released for the OS.
To give myself a little bit of credibility, here's a mock-up I was messing around with to provide an idea of what I'd be talking about.
http://img811.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=homel.png
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do get where you're coming from and a lot of the themes posted aren't to my taste, but your design is weak. If you're going to make something so minimal that it's just a gradient fill and a font, the font needs to be something so special it can carry the whole design, and that really isn't... italics.. seriously..? It looks very dated. I think you've shown a lot of arrogance to come in here disrespecting the work put in by some very talented people, and then put forward your own amateurish design as an example of what they should be doing. You're not going to recruit anyone to help you that way.
Personally, I don't have the time or the motivation to work on full system themes without any kind of reward or pay. This is difficult, time consuming work, as you will soon find out if you make the effort to learn for yourself. I will however be leaning much more towards the minimal style in my future GDE themes, as it's my own personal preference.
Minimal is a very difficult look to pull off in an interface without looking bland, but there are some fine examples around here. Take a look at Elegance for a start. I respect that theme a lot.
Forget changing codes and such, just go to Sweeter Home and build it yourself. There are tons of themes there that look like your example.
http://www.sweeterhome.com/
Hey man, I just felt like I needed to give you some words of advice from an artistic standpoint.
I don't know your design capabilities, I don't claim this is your best, and I don't claim you are a world renown designer.
But every designer I do know deals with battling what other people say about their work.
We can choose to be offended, or we can choose to take it as a way of improving.
There are two words for this. One is greatly different from the other.
One is Criticism, and the other is constructive criticism.
Some of these posts I have seen are just pure criticism. (Perhaps this is why I see a whole page of posts gone but others I see here are constructively trying to criticize the work so that you may gain humility towards others works, and improve in your own.
This is a true barebone theme my friend, but I see potential in it. It doesn't matter what other's think, it matters what you think. If you ever need some help with this man, feel free to e-mail me. I am no dev, but I am a designer, and I would love to help you in the artistic aspects of this project, so that you can have something to be strongly proud of in the end of this. Let me know what's up. Shoot me a PM.
A loving word from one designer to another,
-VolcomDesigns
volcomdesigns said:
Hey man, I just felt like I needed to give you some words of advice from an artistic standpoint.
I don't know your design capabilities, I don't claim this is your best, and I don't claim you are a world renown designer.
But every designer I do know deals with battling what other people say about their work.
We can choose to be offended, or we can choose to take it as a way of improving.
There are two words for this. One is greatly different from the other.
One is Criticism, and the other is constructive criticism.
Some of these posts I have seen are just pure criticism. (Perhaps this is why I see a whole page of posts gone but others I see here are constructively trying to criticize the work so that you may gain humility towards others works, and improve in your own.
This is a true barebone theme my friend, but I see potential in it. It doesn't matter what other's think, it matters what you think. If you ever need some help with this man, feel free to e-mail me. I am no dev, but I am a designer, and I would love to help you in the artistic aspects of this project, so that you can have something to be strongly proud of in the end of this. Let me know what's up. Shoot me a PM.
A loving word from one designer to another,
-VolcomDesigns
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Click to collapse
*applause* well said!

Advice needed : I want to study web design/ ui design

What can i study in order for me to work as a web designer/ ui designer? keep in mind that i don't wanna study engineering , i dont like all of those math courses, algebra, physics ... do they teach it in universities or do i have to sign up in an institute?
I dont think there's a career such as "ui design" but there must a "web design" right? there must a "branch" in graphic design, i dont think im right for grphic design since im terrible at drawing what do you guys think ?
It would be IT where I'm going to college. That would include html, mySQL, php, and some other happy fun stuff Possibly Javascript.
-How cruel is the golden rule, when the lives we live are all golden plated-
UI design is generally an overlap of developers and graphic designers. A graphic designer is needed to make it look good, but a developer is needed to make it practical. Between them both, you get a good UI. Well, that's the theory anyway.
If you want to do UI design then you need to decide whether you want to do it from the design point of view, or the development point of view. If you want to actually build websites, then go the development route. If you don't, graphic design is probably the best bet.
There's also games development and design, which does have a particular branch that involves GUI design, but that's usually part of a quite heavy games programming course.
I've personally never heard of a UI design course. I'm not saying that there isn't one, but after 15 years in the industry I've never heard of anyone doing it as a job, either, other than in games development.
johncmolyneux said:
UI design is generally an overlap of developers and graphic designers. A graphic designer is needed to make it look good, but a developer is needed to make it practical. Between them both, you get a good UI. Well, that's the theory anyway.
If you want to do UI design then you need to decide whether you want to do it from the design point of view, or the development point of view. If you want to actually build websites, then go the development route. If you don't, graphic design is probably the best bet.
There's also games development and design, which does have a particular branch that involves GUI design, but that's usually part of a quite heavy games programming course.
I've personally never heard of a UI design course. I'm not saying that there isn't one, but after 15 years in the industry I've never heard of anyone doing it as a job, either, other than in games development.
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Thank you, your reply was really helpful , i want to do it from the design point of view, something i've learned here in xda is that a programmer does not make a good designer and viceversa, sometimes people make great programs but they're hideous, with lack of good taste and too many things/colors going on for example
What about " web design" is there a actually a course for that?
Yup, i studied that. Okay, not web design, but that was included. I studied multimedia design. That included web design, 3D, photography, and film.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium
Chad_Petree said:
Thank you, your reply was really helpful , i want to do it from the design point of view, something i've learned here in xda is that a programmer does not make a good designer and viceversa, sometimes people make great programs but they're hideous, with lack of good taste and too many things/colors going on for example
What about " web design" is there a actually a course for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I attended a graphic design program (contuing education) at a college nearby. If you're looking to learn the basics (illustrator, PS, InDesign.. etc.) Then I was would start there. But if you're already familiar with image editing and want to learn how to apply it to mobile UI design you can start by looking here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916814. But like John mentioned, there are two types of designing regarding UI.. basic modifying of images in the system is quit simple and only requires image editing software and 7zip (might want to learn how to edit mode.9/9patch and m10 images correctly as well). But if you're looking to do some of the more advanced designing you will need to do a bit of reading/searching. Thankfully, you can find all the info here at XDA.
Sent from my HTC Flyer.
BazookaAce said:
Yup, i studied that. Okay, not web design, but that was included. I studied multimedia design. That included web design, 3D, photography, and film.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium
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Click to collapse
multimedia design ? sounds nice, for how long? 4 years?
I only studied for 1 year, but i did plan on 4 years with 3 of those in Australia, but i got bored and stopped after one. And it was pricey. 20K per year.
Scabes24 said:
I attended a graphic design program (contuing education) at a college nearby. If you're looking to learn the basics (illustrator, PS, InDesign.. etc.) Then I was would start there. But if you're already familiar with image editing and want to learn how to apply it to mobile UI design you can start by looking here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=916814. But like John mentioned, there are two types of designing regarding UI.. basic modifying of images in the system is quit simple and only requires image editing software and 7zip (might want to learn how to edit mode.9/9patch and m10 images correctly as well). But if you're looking to do some of the more advanced designing you will need to do a bit of reading/searching. Thankfully, you can find all the info here at XDA.
Sent from my HTC Flyer.
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Click to collapse
Did you have a degree before studing graphic design? I need to know basics , since i know nothing, i just have my highschool degree, i want to do this as my career, not just a hobby
I know you're not asking me, but i did not have a degree in "graphics" before i started. It was a private school, so if you show them some "dineros", you're in. But hey, you have to learn it from some place ney? It doesn't hurt knowing some basic stuff in PS or Illustrator though.
In fairness, there's a LOT of online tutorials for learning techniques in all the popular design/illustration apps. It certainly wouldn't do any harm to get a head start.
johncmolyneux said:
In fairness, there's a LOT of online tutorials for learning techniques in all the popular design/illustration apps. It certainly wouldn't do any harm to get a head start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course that's what i plan on doing , study by my own till i start the program
You do not need to excel at drawing to study graphic art. You just need an eye for design and color; the rest can be learned at school. Having said that, talent is extremely important to find success as a graphic artist/designer.
Web design courses are usually included in graphic arts program, but you may also find exclusive web design programs. There’s one web design and development program at California College San Diego that trains graduates in both front-end design and back-end development of websites. Find more details on the link below:
cc-sd.edu/graphic-arts/bachelors/web-design-and-development
ralphak said:
You do not need to excel at drawing to study graphic art. You just need an eye for design and color; the rest can be learned at school. Having said that, talent is extremely important to find success as a graphic artist/designer.
Web design courses are usually included in graphic arts program, but you may also find exclusive web design programs. There’s one web design and development program at California College San Diego that trains graduates in both front-end design and back-end development of websites. Find more details on the link below:
cc-sd.edu/graphic-arts/bachelors/web-design-and-development
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good one
Now THIS is the example of not trying to pass the 10 post limit by spamming... Get that Noobs?

Help with theme creation

The only experience I have with theme creation is on mobile iOS devices. I created several video game influence themes for iPods and iPhones. Since switching over to Android I've learned quite a bit and feel that I'm ready to bring my themes over to the Android scene. Unfortunately, I need someone to point me in the right direction. I'm looking at doing anything complex (coding, etc.) at the moment. I'll start of by simply changing icons, colors, and sounds.
This (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10661191) is what I have found thus far, haven't read it yet, but would like any sources the community may have.
That's a very good start...and there are quite a few theme guides in this forum...

Hi 👋

hello!
II's been a long journey , but I'm finally here! I've wanted to be here for quite a while, and I finally made the switch. I've got my first Android after owning a lot of phones, but all iPhones for the last 15 years. The first phone I owned was not an iPhone. It was a small phone that had snake and a space type game built in. I think it was a Nokia and it had an antennae on it. I had an awesome Samsung flip that played music unbelievably well. I had an HTC that came with a stylus. I had a sidekick and a rumour. Oh, but my first gadget was a palm pilot.
I'm here with a new zflip4. It's taking me some time getting used to it, but I'm learning. I love all the customization possible on an Android. I still don't know the difference between "themes" and "launchers" among other things, but I live that I can do so much more on an Android than an iPhone.
I posted question that I'm praying someone can answer. It involves an issue I'm having with settings-display- screensaver. I'm so confused!!
So, that's me, my phones, and why I'm here. I know I'm going to learn a lot here. Thank you for the chance to introduce myself and my zflip4 to all of you!
PS Help!!
musicbear said:
hello!
II's been a long journey , but I'm finally here! I've wanted to be here for quite a while, and I finally made the switch. I've got my first Android after owning a lot of phones, but all iPhones for the last 15 years. The first phone I owned was not an iPhone. It was a small phone that had snake and a space type game built in. I think it was a Nokia and it had an antennae on it. I had an awesome Samsung flip that played music unbelievably well. I had an HTC that came with a stylus. I had a sidekick and a rumour. Oh, but my first gadget was a palm pilot.
I'm here with a new zflip4. It's taking me some time getting used to it, but I'm learning. I love all the customization possible on an Android. I still don't know the difference between "themes" and "launchers" among other things, but I live that I can do so much more on an Android than an iPhone.
I posted question that I'm praying someone can answer. It involves an issue I'm having with settings-display- screensaver. I'm so confused!!
So, that's me, my phones, and why I'm here. I know I'm going to learn a lot here. Thank you for the chance to introduce myself and my zflip4 to all of you!
PS Help!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Themes are different looks of the device, it changes the icons, color, more.
Launchers are customized versions of the stock launcher with more features added.
musicbear said:
hello!
II's been a long journey , but I'm finally here! I've wanted to be here for quite a while, and I finally made the switch. I've got my first Android after owning a lot of phones, but all iPhones for the last 15 years. The first phone I owned was not an iPhone. It was a small phone that had snake and a space type game built in. I think it was a Nokia and it had an antennae on it. I had an awesome Samsung flip that played music unbelievably well. I had an HTC that came with a stylus. I had a sidekick and a rumour. Oh, but my first gadget was a palm pilot.
I'm here with a new zflip4. It's taking me some time getting used to it, but I'm learning. I love all the customization possible on an Android. I still don't know the difference between "themes" and "launchers" among other things, but I live that I can do so much more on an Android than an iPhone.
I posted question that I'm praying someone can answer. It involves an issue I'm having with settings-display- screensaver. I'm so confused!!
So, that's me, my phones, and why I'm here. I know I'm going to learn a lot here. Thank you for the chance to introduce myself and my zflip4 to all of you!
PS Help!!
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Click to collapse
Welcome to the xda family.
Cheers.

Greetings

Hi, I’m Dreagen. I’m a multidimensional artist who’s Idol is Elon Musk. Fascinated, by software & tech, I enjoy studing multimedia and electronic enterprising which brings me to to this world of ‘’software development.’’ Android is my favorite platform and I’m working on several apps. My hat would be gray if I knew programming better; however I’m no hacker… I’m excited and look forward to engaging with all you real programmers with hopes this experience lucrative.
Great to see new faces here, I'm not a developer, just a random guy who likes to mess up with devices, you'll see quite a lot going on here, I've seen impressive jobs done, hope you have a great time to enjoy here! Cheers!

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