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Hey, author here. Yeah you make a really good point, if I had to start an app today where the visual design was pretty close to the default iOS and Android styl

Hey, author here. Yeah you make a really good point, if I had to start an app today where the visual design was pretty close to the default iOS and Android styles that would definitely be a factor. Funnily enough though (and this might just be my lack of skill in iOS development) I always find the UIKit components surprisingly tough to customize.

jen20 4y ago
> I always find the UIKit components surprisingly tough to customize. Good - apps should look and feel like the platform.
- jeroenhd 4y ago
  Not if you're trying to make a playful app design like the author is doing. This design is halfway between a normal application and a game. I would do silly things like clickable image views to get the style right if buttons don't provide the necessary customisability, were I in the author's position. I don't think anyone would be happy with that. I'm all for platform consistency, which there is very little of these days, but for every API you restrict someone will find a good reason to work around it and that's where the ugly hacks come in.
- sofixa 4y ago
  Really disagree with this. Apps are rarely unique to a platform, and most users aren't on a single platform. I want Google Maps to look the same on the web regardless if I'm on macOS, Linux or Windows, and on my Android phone.
  - jen20 4y ago
    On the web that is fine. As a native app, it should fit in with the platform. On iPhone Google use the Android design language, and it produces apps which simply do not meet expectations.
hnaccount_rng 4y ago
I would bet the last thing is intentional. iOS has a reasonably high level of consistency over all apps. Mostly because it’s hard to customize UI elements. And that’s what at least I like about it most
brundolf 4y ago
Yeah. And then there are also varying levels of in-between options: React Native lets you write and share JS code but delegates to native UI components on each separate platform, while I believe Ionic actually offers a set of UI components that are web-based, but are designed to adopt the look and feel of each platform as needed. Each of course comes with its own set of trade-offs This was still a great case-study though! It’s good to have concrete evidence that the performance side of things isn’t an issue

jen20 4y ago

> I always find the UIKit components surprisingly tough to customize. Good - apps should look and feel like the platform.

jeroenhd 4y ago
Not if you're trying to make a playful app design like the author is doing. This design is halfway between a normal application and a game. I would do silly things like clickable image views to get the style right if buttons don't provide the necessary customisability, were I in the author's position. I don't think anyone would be happy with that. I'm all for platform consistency, which there is very little of these days, but for every API you restrict someone will find a good reason to work around it and that's where the ugly hacks come in.
sofixa 4y ago
Really disagree with this. Apps are rarely unique to a platform, and most users aren't on a single platform. I want Google Maps to look the same on the web regardless if I'm on macOS, Linux or Windows, and on my Android phone.
- jen20 4y ago
  On the web that is fine. As a native app, it should fit in with the platform. On iPhone Google use the Android design language, and it produces apps which simply do not meet expectations.

hnaccount_rng 4y ago

I would bet the last thing is intentional. iOS has a reasonably high level of consistency over all apps. Mostly because it’s hard to customize UI elements. And that’s what at least I like about it most

brundolf 4y ago

Yeah. And then there are also varying levels of in-between options: React Native lets you write and share JS code but delegates to native UI components on each separate platform, while I believe Ionic actually offers a set of UI components that are web-based, but are designed to adopt the look and feel of each platform as needed. Each of course comes with its own set of trade-offs This was still a great case-study though! It’s good to have concrete evidence that the performance side of things isn’t an issue