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I created some apps in which I used DrawerLayout or MenuDrawer and trust me some android users don't even know about drawers.

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I need a reference of how to show them that they can swipe left or right to see the options that are hidden. Obviously HomeUp button doesn't give them a clue about sliding. I hope you understand my question.

Krylez
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Hisham Muneer
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3 Answers3

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A couple of ideas:

  1. You can either begin your first launch with the app drawer open. The user would then need to close it and would know of its existence.

  2. Again on first launch, you could animate a slight opening and closing, sort of a "jiggle" to hint that there's something there. Can I open the drawer layout with animation programmatically?

Community
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Alchete
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The official design guidelines suggest opening the drawer by default the first time the app is opened by the user. This is probably the least hostile option to users that are familiar with the drawer layout, which is going to be most of your users, but it still makes it obvious that there is a drawer and how it works.

Krylez
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It sounds like you want a reference for your users, to explain to the users how to get to these option pages. I've personally not had an issue with the drawer layout apps I've come in contact with, but I honestly can't remember if the first one might have had a little pop-up that explained "Swipe from the left edge for options, swipe from the right edge for tools" or some such.

But that is what I'd recommend: an FYI popup/alert with a "don't show this again" checkbox, runs once when the app opens unless they've checked the box.

Alderin
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  • This risks irritating everyone who is familiar with drawer navigation, which is most users. – Krylez Feb 27 '14 at 18:38
  • NO only the first time, not every time user opens the app. – Hisham Muneer Feb 27 '14 at 18:40
  • Right, but if every single app that uses drawer navigation has a popup on the first run, it would be irritating. – Krylez Feb 27 '14 at 18:42
  • Actually, I personally **expect** a little bit of tutorial from newly installed apps. First-run tutorials might be a tiny bit annoying to a handful of people, but I'm 100% positive they wouldn't be at the level of "screw this, I'm uninstalling it." Better to have a minor, easily fixed annoyance to savvy users than the _loss_ of tons of newbies because they didn't 'get' the interface. – Alderin Feb 28 '14 at 17:45