The Art of User Guidance: A Guide to the Android Floating Action Button

Discover the secrets of effective app design with our latest blog post! Dive into the world of the Android Floating Action Button and learn how you can revolutionize user interaction with SnackBars. Get inspired and optimize your app user interface today!

What is the Android Floating Action Button?

The Android Floating Action Button is used to highlight key functions on the screen. It’s a stylish and effective method to draw users’ attention.

Overview of the Android Floating Action Button

To use Material Design widgets in our project, we need to add the following dependency in our build.gradle file:

 compile 'com.android.support:design:23.1.1'

The FloatingActionButton is defined in XML layout as follows:

<android.support.design.widget.FloatingActionButton
      android:id=”@+id/fab”
      android:layout_width=”wrap_content”
      android:layout_height=”wrap_content”
      android:src=”@android:drawable/ic_dialog_email”
      android:layout_gravity=”bottom|end”
      app:elevation=”6dp”
      app:pressedTranslationZ=”12dp”/>

Some observations from the above XML layout are:

• The FloatingActionButton extends the ImageView class, as evident by the android:src attribute.
• The elevation attribute in the above XML layout is used to cast a shadow over the button, and pressedTranslationZ causes the shadow to grow when pressed.

A FloatingActionButton is placed within a CoordinatorLayout. A CoordinatorLayout facilitates interactions between the contained views and is useful for animating the button based on scroll changes.

SnackBar: The Better Alternative to Toasts

SnackBar is an evolved widget compared to Toasts. A SnackBar is called as follows:

 Snackbar.make(view, "Replace this with your own action", Snackbar.LENGTH_LONG)
                        .setAction("Action", null).show();

Project Structure for the Android Floating Action Button Example

The default project structure includes a new XML layout file named content_main.xml, which corresponds to the previous activity_main.xml.

The new activity_main.xml by default includes a Toolbar as a replacement for an ActionBar. It’s added within an AppBarLayout, which is a direct child of the CoordinatorLayout. The AppBarLayout is used to achieve various scrolling behaviors like collapsing, flex space, and quick return.

Final Thoughts

The Android Floating Action Button is a powerful tool to enhance user experience in your apps. When combined with SnackBars, they provide an elegant way to highlight important functions and facilitate user interactions.