GUI Redesign request (Discussion)

[aha999]

I think that the AndrOBD is awesome by being open source and supporting all the elm327, but the GUI doesn't look too good/convenient or modern at the moment and i hope that there are contributors who are willing to help.

This issue can serve as a discussion for GUI redesign among contributors / devs (if you don't close it).

What is your standpoint, main dev @fr3ts0n ?

[fr3ts0n]

Yes, it is quite obvious that GUI design of AndrOBD is not my strong spot.

However, I have always been kind of proud to deliver a functional OBD app in <500KB size.
I tried to keep functionality before "fancyness" and eliminated all redundant resources.
I still want to keep AndrOBD to be a lean app, but totally agree that the UI has quite some potential of improvements.

I would appreciate to get some helping hands on improvements of the GUI.

[aha999]

I looked for some obd apps examples with a nice GUI, so we can learn from best practices. You can search for similar apps on google play by searching "OBD", i looked at some and selected the better looking ones:
First app, second app, third app, fourth app, fifth app, sixth app, seventh app, eighth app

This might help:

• https://material.io/
• https://developer.android.com/design
• https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui

[brunozaranza]

I'm android developer and I'd happy to help about this, cuz I'dont able to understand how use this app. BTW, how to do anything after connecting the OBD? The screen is blank.

[aha999]

@brunozaranza After Connecting the OBD (or opening demo mode), you can access info by pressing two options in the top bar in the app, which will open drop down menus.

[fr3ts0n]

Dear potential contributors,

Thank you very much for your interest in re-freshing the AndrOBD GUI design.

There have been several questions concerning the used programming language of Java.
The AndrOBD project also supports implentations in Kotlin as well, so this is also a valid option to be agreed on.
See FAQ

However, there are a few steps we should agree on, before someone takes off and silently spends much effort to create a new GUI.

• It would make a lot of sense if you could provide an early, rough draft design of your GUI ideas before spending much effort in implementations.
  • This could just even be some paper drafts on screen layouts.
• We could then do some review discussions of your ideas, and find agreements on open questions.
  • I would very well appreciate to have @aha999 join these reviews, since I think that he has a rather good knowledge & feel for usability.
  • I also would like to encourage additional, interested attendants to these review sessions.
    • but I understand if you prefer to review your ideas in a smaller round only.
• With the current interface I frequently did use resources from the Android system, rather than adding some custom ones, to keep the implementation as lean as possible.
  • This might be just a personal preference, but I hate apps which use up many megabytes of memory just to look fancy without any functional purpose.
  • It makes me kind of proud to fit all of AndrOBD's functionality into a 1.4MB app.
• Let's try to join our forces to create one good compromise of functional, well usable, fancy looking but reasonable lean GUI.

Challenge accepted?

Then let's go for it ...

I'm looking forward to hear/read your design ideas 👍

[GiovanniOliveira75]

Hi everyone. @fr3ts0n I am a software engineer and UX/UI designer and I would like to contribute with designs to this project. I was looking for an OBD solution a couple of months ago and this project is the best so far. Can I prepare something to show you?

[fr3ts0n]

Hi @GiovanniOliveira75 ,
You are very welcome to prepare some proposal.
I am looking forward to see your ideas.

[Gamesnic]

Hey there,

Can you only make use of actual code to put into the app or also prototype/concept of how it could look?

[pratikraman-dev]

I'm android developer and I'd happy to help @fr3ts0n !

[fr3ts0n]

Hi @pratikraman-dev ,
Thanks for your offer to help.

We are very keen on your initial drafts...

[peterleequigley]

Hey guys,

Looks like you've had a few takers in the past few months. Are you still looking for interface redesign? Looks like you provide a real, singular useful service right now, and I definitely have bandwidth to contribute to a GUI redesign.

I have a bunch of questions though. Is there a way to connect for kind of a groundwork conversation? Feel free to email me at peterleequigley@gmail.com, or message me on Discord at Kirin#6171. Thanks!

[GiovanniOliveira75]

Hey guys,

Looks like you've had a few takers in the past few months. Are you still looking for interface redesign? Looks like you provide a real, singular useful service right now, and I definitely have bandwidth to contribute to a GUI redesign.

I have a bunch of questions though. Is there a way to connect for kind of a groundwork conversation? Feel free to email me at peterleequigley@gmail.com, or message me on Discord at Kirin#6171. Thanks!

Hey Peter. I would like to connect on Discord. To be honest, I wanted to understand more what are the project features to start to think about wireframes and screens. @fr3ts0n What do you think to create a channel on Discord?

[peterleequigley]

@fr3ts0n I just saw the Discord invite, looks like a good start! I'll copy this post over to there as well.

Couple things I'd like to do to get started:

• Get familiar with AndrOBD. It'd be helpful to see a demo of AndrOBD, since I don't have as much of the context. (I tried downloading it myself via F-Droid, but I don't think it's supported on newer Androids?) This will also give a chance to get basic questions out of the way and make sure I don't go off and design something that doesn't align properly with the app.

Following that, I can start researching and developing some early designs. I'll want to try and talk with some users of the app at that point to find out what their main priorities are, too.

If that all sounds good to you, feel free to email me (peterleequigley@gmail.com), or just respond here or in Discord. Thanks!

[fr3ts0n]

Current Versions of Android should definitely be supported.

Demo Mode will be started If you do NOT allow the App to connect to BT.
See: https://github.com/fr3ts0n/AndrOBD/wiki/Frequently-asked-questions#activation-of-androbd-demo-mode

[peterleequigley]

Yup, it definitely works! (My device had been blocking F-Droid downloads)

I could probably put together an improved UI based on the app and the content I see on the website, but it might suffer because I don't know much about OBD scanning or car diagnostics. I could get much farther if I were able to talk to some actual users, or people that are super familiar with the domain that can clue me in.

We would also need a front-end developer to actually apply any designs we end up with. It could also be possible to just put together some designs now, and convert the task to an unassigned Github task for a front-end developer. Let me know your thoughts.

[aha999]

@peterleequigley you can take a look at some of the alternative apps, to get the idea of the content that is important.

Discord group is now available at AndrOBD - Discord.

[kaustavr19]

I am a Product Designer and would love to redesign the application for you. If you are okay with that, kindly let me know how to get started. Thanks.

[fr3ts0n]

Hi @kaustavr19 ,

Thank you for your offer.
Yes, you are very welcome to provide ideas for this redesign.
But just to make it clear up front, unfortunately AndrOBD can not pay you anything for this, since it is a NON profit OSS project.

As mentioned in my earlier post it would be helpful to discuss early drafts before implementation.

If that is OK with you, I would suggest you can provide your draft changes with a pull request, and we can start discussions there.

Looking forward to see your ideas ...