Head First Android Development: A Brain-Friendly Guide 1st Edition

by Dawn Griffiths (Author), David Griffiths (Author)

138 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1449362188

ISBN-10: 1449362184

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Head First Android Development: A Learner's Guide to Building Android Apps with Kotlin
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What will you learn from this book?

If you have an idea for a killer Android app, this book will help you build your first working application in a jiffy. You’ll learn hands-on how to structure your app, design interfaces, create a database, make your app work on various smartphones and tablets, and much more. It’s like having an experienced Android developer sitting right next to you! All you need is some Java know-how to get started.

Why does this book look so different?

Based on the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory, Head First Android Development uses a visually rich format to engage your mind, rather than a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. Why waste your time struggling with new concepts? This multi-sensory learning experience is designed for the way your brain really works.

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From the Publisher

Telling a story with pictures

In Head First books, we know that pictures and diagrams help make concepts easier to understand and remember. Just about every single page contains illustrations to help explain core Android concepts.

New to Android Development?

Even if you've never written a single line of Android code before, you'll be creating apps in no time with 'Head First Android Development'. All you need is some Java knowledge, and you're good to go.

Really learn Android

When you're done reading 'Head First Android Development', we want you to deeply understand Android, not just be able to follow some recipes to do a few things. We don't shy away from the difficult topics, so you don't have to either. Our goal is for you to discover that you can learn Android in a way you can apply to every app you create.

About the Author

Dawn Griffiths started life as a mathematician at a top UK university where she was awarded a First-Class Honours degree in Mathematics. She went on to pursue a career in software development, and has over 15 years experience working in the IT industry. Dawn has written several books, including Head First C, Head First Statistics and Head First 2D Geometry.

David Griffiths began programming at age 12, after being inspired by a documentary on the work of Seymour Papert. At age 15 he wrote an implementation of Papert's computer language LOGO. After studying Pure Mathematics at University, he began writing code for computers and magazine articles for humans and he is currently an agile coach with Exoftware in the UK, helping people to create simpler, more valuable software. He spends his free time traveling and time with his lovely wife, Dawn.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (July 3, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 734 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1449362184
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1449362188
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,111,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #621 in Mobile App Development & Programming
- #654 in Java Programming
- #2,949 in Computer Programming Languages

Customer Reviews:
138 ratings

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Dawn Griffiths
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David Griffiths
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David Griffiths began programming at age 12, when he saw a documentary on the work of Seymour Papert. At age 15, he wrote an implementation of Papert's computer language LOGO. After studying Pure Mathematics at University, he began writing code for computers and magazine articles for humans. He's worked as an agile coach, a developer, and a garage attendant, but not in that order. He can write code in over 10 languages and prose in just one, and when not writing, coding, or coaching, he spends much of his spare time travelling with his lovely wife and co-author Dawn.
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Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		16%
3 star		11%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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J. L.

Decent book, but has errors - hold out for the new edition coming out summer of 2017!

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2017

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I followed this book all the way through, from start to finish, as an independent study for college. The book is laid out in a way that's supposed to be fun and engaging, but I found it to look a little chaotic and it was distracting - just personal preference, and I did not deduct stars for that! If you have used other Head First books and liked them, then you will probably be just fine with this one, as it's in keeping with the others.

What I did deduct stars for is the fact that there are errors in this book that will result in your code not running. If it had not been for the author putting code up on their GitHub page, it would have been a real headache! I understand there's a new edition coming out in summer of 2017, so I would recommend anyone wanting to purchase it hold out for the new version, and hopefully the errors will have been fixed!

12 people found this helpful

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JohnL

Mixed feelings

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2017

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Mostly clearly written and light-hearted (perhaps a little too much so for some), but tends to be somewhat repetitive. I found some of the "arrange the magnets" "tests" rather childish (and skipped most of them). On the whole, the information contained could have been provided in much less space. I had the Kindle edition, which as Kindle editions of this sort of material go, was generally pretty good. I have programming experience in several languages and found the switch to Java fairly straightforward. The difficult part is getting familiar with the Java and Android APIs, which are both HUGE.

5 people found this helpful

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Archangel

An excellent book for novices!!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2016

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This book is excellent to learn Android Programming if you are a novice with Android Programming. There is plenty lab work where you actually learn how to write Android Programs. Doing the lab work is critical to learning the programming. Don't avoid it. This book is well organized and well written. For the next book after reading this, try "Android Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide 2nd edition" You won't be sorry. I signed up for Lynda.com courses in Android programming. They were good. But both these books are better.

7 people found this helpful

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Mark Baer

Best Android book for me so far...

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2015

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Really like the HF books and this one is no different. My only complaint so far is in the chapter on fragments, the onAttach override has been deprecated and I'm not sure what to use instead of that. I was hoping this book would have an update in the near future as I am afraid it is getting outdated as Google makes changes...Other than that, I really like the book and their style of teaching...

6 people found this helpful

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E_Rock

Great book so far for beginners

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great book so far!!! I was looking for a good android development book for beginners. I tried a couple other books but this book is fun to read with a lot of fun examples and antidotes. The book has several projects that you build and learn using Android Studio. I was concerned that this book may be dated and not usable with the current Android Studio but it has worked out fine. I have gone through the first 4 chapters and I already have a better understanding of Android programming and has started on my own simple app. I only gave it four stars because I have not completed the book.

One person found this helpful

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Ariel Eden

Good for the basics only.

Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2017

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This book is good for giving you the basics of working with android but no more. The clam that reading this book is like having an experience programmer beside you is very much exaggerated. Reading this book alone is not enough to get you started on serious apps, and a lot is left to the index at the back which manly sends you to read the google documentation and figure it out from there.

One person found this helpful

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David C.

Flows nicely, kindle reader screws up the pages with unfortunate page breaks.

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2016

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So far reads very easily when you read the book on a tablet alongside your PC running Android Studio... The only unfortunate issue is that with the Kindle version the pages are cutoff at unfortunate spots making it harder to digest code segments... The same book reads much easier using Safari Books Online using their Safari Queue reader if you have a membership to Safari Books. Unfortunately Safari doesn't have as good of sync capability as Kindle...

Would love to know if anyone knows how to make the kindle reader continuously scroll through pages of a chapter instead of turning pages where code segments get interrupted.

One person found this helpful

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Tank Z.

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2016

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Head First gets you passionate into the boring world of computer programing with graphical story telling. It atleast keeps you alert and interested in an otherwise abstract concepts. We are more visual than imaginative, I will hope you become more imaginative and as well visual to really benefit from this book. This book takes you one step at a time and walks you through the dark alleys of Android programing; explaining every step you take and why you took that step. It helps a great deal to have some Java knowledge as a pre-requisite. I love this book.

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Barlow

Not a bad starting point...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2016

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I'm writing a review after reading the book cover to cover, after which I am able to build Android applications and I have a beta of the app that I want to eventually release up and running (but with lots of work to do). The book does contain a lot of useful information, and yes, it's simple. The downside of this simplicity is that it doesn't cover nearly enough ground to give you the knowledge you need to be a competent app developer, and there are some gaping omissions, drawing graphics on a canvas and surface views are not even mentioned, and I've had to do my own research to get my app working with graphics. This may sound as if I'm asking a lot but on the cover of the book it says "Design Top Selling apps". Whilst this was always going to be hyperbolic, you're really going to be a long way from designing top selling apps after this book. You may be on the road to designing top selling apps, but there really is going to be a lot a work to do after reading the book. There are some real eccentricities to mention, such as placing tips for speeding up the emulator in the appendix. Why the appendix? Why not chapter one where I really need it? I'm not a professional software developer, I don't even work in IT, and my Java knowledge has not been used for about three years before starting the book (making me a bit rusty), so maybe these factors influence my experience of the book. It's definitely not a bad book, but I think it's not a great book either.

3 people found this helpful

Berious

Great for Android newbies who have a little Java knowledge already

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2015

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Went into this with some Java knowledge, enough to pass a 1st year CS uni course.

I built a very simple but genuinely useful app within a week of starting this book. I've read a lot of recommendations for Android books around the web. I've tried a couple of books often recommended to learners, Big Nerd Ranch & The Busy Coder's Guide. They looked a lot more in depth but I found them both quite hard going.

Head First holds your hand a lot more and keeps your attention with quizzes and exercises throughout. For a book about programming it's a pretty fun read! It doesn't throw tons of probably useful but not immediately essential background knowledge at you, just the basics to get your app working. It does assume some Java knowledge but assuming you've got that this book is a great place to start.

I'll probably burn through it fairly fast then be ready to move on to a more a comprehensive tome like The Busy Coder's Guide without feeling immediately bogged down.

7 people found this helpful

Ricci

The book everyone should start android with. Good exercises.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2017

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I'm 220 pages in and I can make simple apps in a breeze now after thinking it was a complex thing i'd never get my head around.

I choose to try and make silly apps just to strengthen my newly found knowledge.

One thing to mention there are a few grammar, spelling and duplication errors I've spotted so far the editors didn't notice.
Off the top a couple are (Forgetting the page numbers as I would)...

Component spelled as: Componont (In the handwriting typeface, early in the book)

Page: 217: Use the android:drawableBottom attribute... is seen twice when it was meant to refer to drawableTop=... the second time. Knowing that the author copied an pasted that sentence but forgot to change the text accordingly, something we all do when we program.

There is quite a few more but I didn't note them down.
Regardless the information in the book is invaluable.

Influenced

It is a FANTASTIC book! It explains everything

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2016

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Firstly, I am a C++ programmer so before I bought this book, I skimmed through a tutorial java playlist on youtube which really made this book completely stress free.
It is a FANTASTIC book! It explains everything, and in a way that is so comfortable. It speaks to the reader in a very casual manner and never takes itself too seriously which makes learning so easy. I am fed up of educational books that bore the heck out of me. This book wants you to keep learning and it does that by making sure you actually want to keep on reading,

Love it! I would recommend it to anybody that wants to make an app and has a bit of programming experience.

2 people found this helpful

Ian Spencer

As good a place to start as anywhere.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

Good first book for competent programmer. Combined with a ton of Google searches got me going enough to get a working prototype. Kindle is not the best way to use the book as difficult to flick through it to hit on example code.

Suspect that it will need a refresh as a few code examples are now using deprecated features.

The style is easy going and sensible, and I was able to use my existing skills to get going quickly.

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Head First Android Development: A Brain-Friendly Guide 1st Edition

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From the Publisher

Telling a story with pictures

New to Android Development?

Really learn Android

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About the Author

Product details

About the authors

Dawn Griffiths

David Griffiths

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