Android stencil kit makes your apps look sharp

Android app developers looking for user interface inspiration now have something to help get the process going: a cold, sharp piece of laser cut metal that promises to speed up the design mock-up process.

Remember the super thin, laser-cut iPhone user interface design stencil kit from Seattle-based Design Commission? The group has just come out with a follow-up version for Android developers.

The new kit, which retails for $25 (plus $5 shipping), features 150 percent scale cut-outs of standard Google Android OS buttons and iconography, as well as a mechanical pencil and some stickers. Developers can use the stencil to very quickly put together a design mock-up of just about anything.

Design Commission speeds up the process on the other end by offering a free, printable paper Android device template that matches the scale of the buttons; the company is also likely to offer a preprinted pad of these, as it does for the iPhone, iPad, and Firefox Web browser.

Unlike when the company released a stencil kit for the iPhone though, there is some competition this time around. Google now offers app creators, both experienced an inexperienced, a rapid development and mock-up software kit called App Inventor that requires no coding knowledge.