6 ms·

Might just be a matter of personal taste, but I like it. I think the web model of design works fine. Survival of the fittest has done pretty well in history. Cr

Might just be a matter of personal taste, but I like it. I think the web model of design works fine. Survival of the fittest has done pretty well in history. Cream will rise to the top (MySpace vs. Facebook), standards will populate, and the experimentation allowed without a HIG leads to a more interesting, and over time, better experience. Even right now, I don't use a single ugly Android app. Sure, the average app may look like a car wreck, but 90% of everything is crud. I'd rather have the ones with talent experiment so the best get better than enforce guidelines so everything is mediocre.

recoiledsnake 15y ago
That still doesn't explain why Android apps are overall not as good as compared to other platforms. The same common apps made by the same companies look very different on iOS, Android and WP7. And frequently, they look the worst on Android. This partly could be because they may not invest as much on Android versions as on iOS or just make quick ports but the platform design tools and the expectations of potential customers also come into play. Since iOS and WP7 provide a built-in look and feel and UI philosopy, developers on a budget can still produce decent looking and behaving apps whereas in Android, it results in a functional but bare looking UI. Case in point, a summer intern at work was tasked with making a basic notes mobile app. He picked Android because that's the phone his dad had and because the company wasn't really interested in the app except as a learning experience for the intern so they weren't interested in buying Mac hardware and developer license(a point in Android's favor). The final app lacked sorely in both design and functionality (more because he wasn't really experienced in coding). I asked him during the demo if he could use some of the Android API transitions and animations between the screens to jazz it up quicky (those make a big difference when presenting to non-technical folks). The reply was that there were none(I am just reporting what he said, I haven't taken a look at the APIs). I do know that iOS and WP7 provide built-in animations and transitions. The point is that you have to go out of your way to make mediocre looking apps in iOS/WP7 and good looking apps in Android. Add to that the fact that Android didn't even have GPU acceleration for the UI till Honeycomb(a tablet only release). http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 Some companies prefer to roll their own custom look and feel (like the web.) But there's nothing in iOS and WP7 which prevents you from doing exactly that if you so wish, you're not beholden to the UI philosophy of the OS and can possibly make any design that you can in Android.
- mdwrigh2 15y ago
  There are Android animations [1][2], not sure how they compare to WP7 or iOS though. [1]: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/view-animation.html http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/view-anim... [2]: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-in-honeycomb.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-in-...
- sebbi 15y ago
  There is nothing in Android to prevent you from making great apps either. And regarding the default design ... there are themes everyone can use in their app and it will look good enough. But like in iOS, the standard look quickly becomes ugly if EVERY single app uses it (blue bar at the top with some buttons left and right, a list in the center and some tabs with icons below that, everything in the same color) :/ There are even design guidelines for android and very good examples from google how to do stuff. But some people are just bad at designing or maybe just bad at using examples and reading the documentation to find out what is possible ....
fleitz 15y ago
As far as I know Apple plays pretty fast and loose with the HIG if you aren't using their UI elements. Where Apple will bust you is if you use their UI elements to do something that's a big stretch for the HIG. I don't play much with Android but is there anything that even approaches Flipboard? You can certainly build ugly UIs on the iPhone and get them accepted.
- sebbi 15y ago
  Pulse comes close to what Flipboard tries to do
isleyaardvark 15y ago
That works at the high level only, though. In fact your analogy of MySpace vs. Facebook is incredibly apt. If you go to a page on Facebook (fan page, etc.), you're going to see a certain fairly consistent Facebook look. Whereas MySpace's philosophy was to allow users to customize everything resulting in inconsistent eyesores. Android seems to be subscribing to the MySpace design philosophy.

recoiledsnake 15y ago

That still doesn't explain why Android apps are overall not as good as compared to other platforms. The same common apps made by the same companies look very different on iOS, Android and WP7. And frequently, they look the worst on Android. This partly could be because they may not invest as much on Android versions as on iOS or just make quick ports but the platform design tools and the expectations of potential customers also come into play. Since iOS and WP7 provide a built-in look and feel and UI philosopy, developers on a budget can still produce decent looking and behaving apps whereas in Android, it results in a functional but bare looking UI. Case in point, a summer intern at work was tasked with making a basic notes mobile app. He picked Android because that's the phone his dad had and because the company wasn't really interested in the app except as a learning experience for the intern so they weren't interested in buying Mac hardware and developer license(a point in Android's favor). The final app lacked sorely in both design and functionality (more because he wasn't really experienced in coding). I asked him during the demo if he could use some of the Android API transitions and animations between the screens to jazz it up quicky (those make a big difference when presenting to non-technical folks). The reply was that there were none(I am just reporting what he said, I haven't taken a look at the APIs). I do know that iOS and WP7 provide built-in animations and transitions. The point is that you have to go out of your way to make mediocre looking apps in iOS/WP7 and good looking apps in Android. Add to that the fact that Android didn't even have GPU acceleration for the UI till Honeycomb(a tablet only release). http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=6914 Some companies prefer to roll their own custom look and feel (like the web.) But there's nothing in iOS and WP7 which prevents you from doing exactly that if you so wish, you're not beholden to the UI philosophy of the OS and can possibly make any design that you can in Android.

mdwrigh2 15y ago
There are Android animations [1][2], not sure how they compare to WP7 or iOS though. [1]: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/view-animation.html http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/graphics/view-anim... [2]: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-in-honeycomb.html http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/02/animation-in-...
sebbi 15y ago
There is nothing in Android to prevent you from making great apps either. And regarding the default design ... there are themes everyone can use in their app and it will look good enough. But like in iOS, the standard look quickly becomes ugly if EVERY single app uses it (blue bar at the top with some buttons left and right, a list in the center and some tabs with icons below that, everything in the same color) :/ There are even design guidelines for android and very good examples from google how to do stuff. But some people are just bad at designing or maybe just bad at using examples and reading the documentation to find out what is possible ....

fleitz 15y ago

As far as I know Apple plays pretty fast and loose with the HIG if you aren't using their UI elements. Where Apple will bust you is if you use their UI elements to do something that's a big stretch for the HIG. I don't play much with Android but is there anything that even approaches Flipboard? You can certainly build ugly UIs on the iPhone and get them accepted.

sebbi 15y ago
Pulse comes close to what Flipboard tries to do

isleyaardvark 15y ago

That works at the high level only, though. In fact your analogy of MySpace vs. Facebook is incredibly apt. If you go to a page on Facebook (fan page, etc.), you're going to see a certain fairly consistent Facebook look. Whereas MySpace's philosophy was to allow users to customize everything resulting in inconsistent eyesores. Android seems to be subscribing to the MySpace design philosophy.