Animal Age Converter

Overview

This is my very first time developing for Android, and I really enjoyed it! For this age converter, I wanted to display the information in a visually pleasing and clean manner. I opted to use a card layout because it adheres to Google's material design, and it looks pretty great. I also made heavy use of images to visually display the animals being converted.

I actually spent a long time deciding on the design for this application. Even though the idea is really simple, I had never really thought how to design an converter app so that it's easy and convenient to use.

How it works

Using my age converter is pretty simple. Once you open the application, you get a view like this:

The first card is the one to "convert from", and the second card displays the result. There's an arrow to visually delineate the conversion process. Additionally, the text field to convert from is empty, signifying that the user has to input something there.

As you type the input age, the result field automatically updates to reflect your changes. The images on the right also make it very clear which animals you've chosen, in case the animal name is too small. And of course, you can choose from a list of different animals to convert to. The image will update as you choose your animal!

Finally, if you input an age that converts to an age above 71, the app will show a message in the results card telling you that unfortunately, you'd be dead. I chose to display this message in a red color to call out message - I think it's pretty important to know whether!

My app also prevents the user from entering an absurdly large month count. The month input field caps at 12 months. For example, if the user puts a number like '200' into the month input, the application will use '12' instead in the conversion. However, I have to communicate this better to the use, such as displaying a dialog or an error message. Right now, it's not clear that this occurs, so this may be confusing to many users. If I have time, I will add this in!

Conclusion

• Android is pretty easy to learn
  
• Designing even the most simple apps takes a lot of thought
• I have to communicate my application's 'behavior' clearly. For example, the month conversion that I talked about might be confusing to users
• This is pretty fun!
• Thanks for reading.