Android Studio Hub

UI Design in Android Studio

Master XML, Jetpack Compose, Material Design, and responsive layouts. Build beautiful, performant Android interfaces with modern tools and best practices.

UI Design in Android Studio

Master XML, Jetpack Compose, Material Design, and responsive layouts. Build beautiful, performant Android interfaces with modern tools and best practices.

XML Layouts

Drag‑and‑drop Layout Editor

Visual interface for building UIs

Constraint Layout

Flexible positioning system

Styles & themes

Centralized styling management

Pros

Visual editor available

Mature ecosystem

Extensive documentation

Cons

More boilerplate code

Slower development cycle

Less dynamic

Jetpack Compose

Declarative UI

Describe what you want, not how

Composables & modifiers

Reusable UI components

Material 3 support

Built-in modern design system

Pros

Less boilerplate

Faster development

Better animations

Cons

Steeper learning curve

Newer technology

Limited legacy support

Feature XML Layouts Jetpack Compose
Learning Curve
⭐⭐⭐ Moderate
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Steeper
Performance
⭐⭐⭐ Good
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent
Reusability
⭐⭐⭐ Moderate
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent
Animations
⭐⭐ Limited
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Powerful
Development Speed
⭐⭐⭐ Moderate
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fast

Master the visual layout editor and ConstraintLayout tools

Palette & Components

    Drag and drop UI components from the palette into your layout

Constraint Layout Tools

    Create flexible, responsive layouts with constraints and chains

Guidelines, Barriers, Chains

    Advanced positioning with guideline helpers and barriers

Device Previews

    Preview your layout across multiple devices and orientations

Accessibility Checks

    Built-in tools to ensure your UI is accessible to all users

Responsive Design

    Best practices for creating layouts that adapt to any screen

View A

Master the visual layout editor and ConstraintLayout tools

View B

View A (constrained to parent)

Views adapt to different screen sizes

View B (constrained to parent)

Learn UI Design

Explore Tutorials

Ensure all views have proper constraints on all sides. Use the Infer Constraints button or manually add constraints to parent or sibling views.
Guidelines are fixed reference lines at specific positions. Barriers are dynamic and position themselves based on multiple views.
Select multiple views, right-click, and choose "Center Horizontally" or "Center Vertically". Then adjust the chain style (spread, packed, or spread_inside).

Build modern Android UIs with declarative Kotlin code

Composable Functions

    Build UI with functions

Modifiers

    Style and position components

State & Recompositing

    Reactive UI updates

Material 3 Components

    Modern design system

Navigation

    Compose navigation library

Animations

    Smooth transitions
MainActivity.kt
Copy to clipboard
@Composable
fun Greeting(name: String) {
    Surface(
        color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.primary,
        modifier = Modifier.padding(16.dp)
    ) {
        Text(
            text = "Hello $name!",
            style = MaterialTheme.typography.headlineMedium,
            modifier = Modifier.padding(24.dp)
        )
    }
}

Material 3 Component Gallery

Button

Card

TextField

List

TopAppBar

FAB

Fade Animation

Smooth opacity transitions

Spring Animation

Physics-based motion

Rotation Animation

Continuous rotation

Implement Material 3 design system with dynamic colors and typography

Color System

Material 3 uses dynamic color schemes that adapt to user preferences

Primary

Secondary

Tertiary

Typography Scale

Consistent text styles across your application

Display Large

Aa

Headline Large

Aa

Title Large

Aa

Typography Scale

Consistent text styles across your application

Extra Small (4dp)

Medium (12dp)

Large (16dp)

Primary

#6750A4

#7F67BE

#9A82DB

Secondary

#625B71

#7A7289

#958DA5

Tertiary

#7D5260

#986977

#B58392

Error

#B3261E

#DC362E

#F2B8B5

Surface

#FFFBFE

#F7F2FA

#E8DEF8

Light Theme

High contrast, clean backgrounds

Surface content on light backgrounds

Dark Theme

Reduced eye strain, OLED-friendly

Surface content on dark backgrounds

Build interfaces that work seamlessly across phones, tablets, and foldables

Build interfaces that work seamlessly across phones, tablets, and foldables

Compact

Phone in portrait

Width < 600dp

Single column layout

Bottom navigation

Full-width cards

Medium

Tablet, phone landscape

600dp - 840dp

Two column layout

Navigation rail

Flexible grids

Expanded

Tablet landscape, foldable

Width > 840dp

Multi-column layout

Permanent drawer

Master-detail views

List-Detail Pattern

Compact (Phone)

Tap to see details

Expanded (Tablet)

Detail view shown simultaneously

Supporting Panel Pattern

Compact

Panel hidden in drawer

Expanded

Supporting panel always visible

DO

1. Use WindowSizeClass for adaptive layouts

2. Test on multiple screen sizes and densities

3. Provide appropriate touch targets (48dp minimum)

4. Use scalable units (dp, sp) instead of pixels

DON'T

1. Hard-code dimensions in pixels

2. Assume specific device sizes

3. Create separate layouts for each device

4. Ignore landscape orientation

All Articles about UI Design

These articles cover a wide range of topics from fundamental principles to advanced techniques, helping you stay informed and inspired in your design journey.

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Powerful tools to identify and fix UI issues quickly

Layout Inspector

View the UI hierarchy and properties of views in real-time

3D view rotation

Property inspection

Live updates

Compose Inspector

Debug Jetpack Compose layouts and recomposition

Composable tree

Recomposition counts

State tracking

Accessibility Scanner

Identify and fix accessibility issues automatically

Content labels

Touch targets

Color contrast

GPU Rendering

Profile rendering performance and identify bottlenecks

Frame timing

Overdraw detection

Performance metrics

Layout Validation

Catch layout issues before they reach production

Constraint errors

View bounds

Missing attributes

Database Inspector

Query and modify your app's databases in real-time

Live queries

Data editing

Schema inspection

Overdraw

Cause:

Multiple overlapping UI elements

Solution:

Remove unnecessary backgrounds, flatten view hierarchy

Slow Recomposition

Cause:

Expensive operations in Composables

Solution:

Use remember, derivedStateOf, and move expensive operations out

Layout Thrashing

Cause:

Nested layouts with multiple measure passes

Solution:

Use ConstraintLayout, avoid nested LinearLayouts

Memory Leaks

Cause:

Retained references to Views or Context

Solution:

Use WeakReferences, clean up listeners in onDestroy

If you're starting fresh, learn Jetpack Compose. It's the modern approach and Google's recommended way forward. However, if you're working with legacy codebases, understanding XML layouts is still valuable. Many projects use both, so familiarity with both approaches is beneficial.
Overlapping usually happens when views don't have proper constraints on all sides. Make sure each view has constraints connecting it to the parent or other views on all four sides (top, bottom, left, right). Use the "Infer Constraints" button in the Layout Editor or manually add constraints in the Attributes panel.
Excessive recomposition can slow down your UI. Use remember{} to cache values that don't need to change, derivedStateOf{} for calculated values, and key{} for stable identities in lists. Move expensive operations outside of composables. Use the Compose Layout Inspector to identify which composables are recomposing unnecessarily.
 
In Compose, wrap your content in MaterialTheme and provide a colorScheme. Use MaterialTheme.colorScheme.primary for colors and MaterialTheme.typography for text styles. For XML, define themes in themes.xml extending Theme.Material3.* and apply them in your AndroidManifest.xml or to individual activities.
Use Layout Inspector for real-time view hierarchy inspection, enable "Profile GPU Rendering" in Developer Options, check for overdraw with "Debug GPU Overdraw", and use the Profiler in Android Studio. For Compose, use the Compose Layout Inspector to track recompositions and identify performance bottlenecks.
dp (density-independent pixels) scales with screen density - use for layouts and views. sp (scale-independent pixels) scales with both density and user font size preference - use for text. px (pixels) are absolute and don't scale - avoid using them directly. Always use dp for layouts and sp for text sizes.