UI Design Using Layouts

Abstract

A layout is a container for controls, images, text, and other layouts. Central to the creation of the mobile UIs, layouts help us to design our pages by using the placement of views and nested layouts (for more views). If you’ve worked with HTML <div>, <table>, or <form> elements, then layouts should feel familiar to you. The purpose of a layout is to indicate the location and size of each of its child elements. This is typically done in three ways: relative to the individual controls in the layout, relative to the origin of the layout, or using an overlaid structure such as a grid. Each layout type has a mechanism for placing child views within it, specifying the size and location of each view, and creating space between and around the views.