5 ms·

Android has completely leapfrogged iOS in every way...including design.

by ChikkaChiChi 12y ago

eliben 12y ago
Competition is healthy and users are the biggest winner :)
afro88 12y ago
This is the first version that's made me reconsider iOS's dominance when it comes to design and usability. Wow.
- ulyssesgrant 12y ago
  A lot of these design cues are already present in iOS, especially the importance of depth on emphasizing content and interactive elements
- xienze 12y ago
  The problem is, it'll take years before more than Google apps and high-profile apps make use of this new design. It's sort of like the story today... there's still a good number of apps sporting the 2.3 look. So when this new release comes out you can look forward to a couple apps having the new look and feel, most apps having the 4.0 look and feel, and a decent number having the 2.3 look and feel.
  - dublinben 12y ago
    That's not Google's fault though. That falls to the lazy 3rd party developers who can't be bothered to follow the OS design guidelines in any timely manner.
    - xienze 12y ago
      It is Google's fault! They've completely revamped their UI what, three times by now? And that's not even considering the minor tweaks, like 2.3 going to a black and green scheme. Couple that with the fact that it takes a good two years before the latest Android version is on a majority of devices and it's no wonder why devs throw their hands up when faced with having to support potentially three sets of UI look and feel guidelines at any given time.
      - techwizrd 12y ago
        The biggest revamp was from Gingerbread's UI to the new Holo interface style introduced in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Since then, there haven't been any major changes. Everything has just been incrementally refined each year. Most of the new changes from 4.0 to 4.4.4 (the latest release on my Nexus 5) have been added support for more animation and some apps have been redesigned. Apps are moving away from clunky tabbed interfaces and navigation bar dropdowns and have mostly moved to slide out navigation. According to the Android Platform Version Dashboard[0], 84.3% of Android users are running Android 4.0+ and Google has been adding support for many of their new APIs and design functionality to their support libraries. It's safe to say that the only applications on the Play Store that still use the Gingerbread buttons or odd custom widgets/widgets copied from iOS are lazy developers. There simply is no excuse for ignoring the style guidelines anymore. [0]: https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
        xienze 12y ago
        > The biggest revamp was from Gingerbread's UI to the new Holo interface style introduced in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Uh, and this one they're talking about now. > 84.3% of Android users are running Android 4.0+ And it only took nearly 3 years to pull that off... > There simply is no excuse for ignoring the style guidelines anymore. Yes there is: the fact that at any point in time you have to follow two or more style guidelines. Let's say I want to make a new app today targeting the new UI look and feel Google has just released. Since only a tiny fraction of Android devices are going to be running that latest version I need to target the current UI look and feel and the previous one. Bits and pieces can be bridged with the compatibility library but now that means you're saddled with programming against the compatibility library for several years. Every UI refresh brings along with it extra technical debt that developers are burdened with -- even small ones like notification bar icon changes (which happened in 2.2 -> 2.3). Take a look at last year's Google I/O app. This is the asset management required to create a "best of breed" Android app that targets as many devices as possible: https://github.com/google/iosched/tree/master/android/src/main/res https://github.com/google/iosched/tree/master/android/src/ma... Ho-lee shit, what a nightmare. Can you blame developers for being lazy? It's hard enough just knowing what's expected of you to make an application that can a) run on a majority of devices, b) look good on said devices, and c) make use of new APIs.
    - melling 12y ago
      It doesn't matter whose fault it is. It really hurts Android. I think phones are replaced often enough that the old OS will be replaced. However, people keep tablets for much longer.
arrrg 12y ago
Design is irrelevant if OEMs vomit their bullshit all over it on all the devices that are actually interesting. (Yes, I tried rooting. Yes, it was a horrific warranty-removing potentially bricking experience. Even Jailbreaking feels saver.) It looks super-awesome, though. I want it on interesting devices. I won’t be able to get it, though.
- dublinben 12y ago
  If you don't want a bastardized experience, don't buy a phone from crappy OEM. Get a Nexus device (pure Google experience), a Google Play Edition device (pure Google experience), or a Motorola device (close to stock, easily rootable Dev Eds).
  - ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
    Unfortunately that may no longer be an option.
    - MaxDPS 12y ago
      Why not?
      - ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
        At the same time Motorola Mobility was sold, Google announced the Android Silver program which seemed to confirm rumors that Nexus devices were being sunsetted. I really hope its not true. I love my Nexus devices.
- samstave 12y ago
  And carriers -- I got an HTC One M8, and about two weeks after I got it, it auto-updated and installed (without my consent) a bunch of Sprint bloatware apps that I cannot delete. So, because of this - I've decided ill root it.
ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
A shame that people downvote because they disagree with an opinion.
- nicholassmith 12y ago
  You didn't really phrase it as an opinion, more as a statement of fact.
- berberous 12y ago
  If you elaborated with examples or something insightful, you wouldn't get downvoted. There are plenty of people with the opposite opinion as yours. When you phrase it like you did, it becomes a pointless flame war: "Android is the best in every way!" "No, Apple is, you Google fanboy!"
rimantas 12y ago
Including speed of adoption?
wwwwwwwwww 12y ago
you really shouldnt mock apple products on HN

Android has completely leapfrogged iOS in every way...including design.

eliben 12y ago

Competition is healthy and users are the biggest winner :)

afro88 12y ago

This is the first version that's made me reconsider iOS's dominance when it comes to design and usability. Wow.

ulyssesgrant 12y ago
A lot of these design cues are already present in iOS, especially the importance of depth on emphasizing content and interactive elements
xienze 12y ago
The problem is, it'll take years before more than Google apps and high-profile apps make use of this new design. It's sort of like the story today... there's still a good number of apps sporting the 2.3 look. So when this new release comes out you can look forward to a couple apps having the new look and feel, most apps having the 4.0 look and feel, and a decent number having the 2.3 look and feel.
- dublinben 12y ago
  That's not Google's fault though. That falls to the lazy 3rd party developers who can't be bothered to follow the OS design guidelines in any timely manner.
  - xienze 12y ago
    It is Google's fault! They've completely revamped their UI what, three times by now? And that's not even considering the minor tweaks, like 2.3 going to a black and green scheme. Couple that with the fact that it takes a good two years before the latest Android version is on a majority of devices and it's no wonder why devs throw their hands up when faced with having to support potentially three sets of UI look and feel guidelines at any given time.
    - techwizrd 12y ago
      The biggest revamp was from Gingerbread's UI to the new Holo interface style introduced in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Since then, there haven't been any major changes. Everything has just been incrementally refined each year. Most of the new changes from 4.0 to 4.4.4 (the latest release on my Nexus 5) have been added support for more animation and some apps have been redesigned. Apps are moving away from clunky tabbed interfaces and navigation bar dropdowns and have mostly moved to slide out navigation. According to the Android Platform Version Dashboard[0], 84.3% of Android users are running Android 4.0+ and Google has been adding support for many of their new APIs and design functionality to their support libraries. It's safe to say that the only applications on the Play Store that still use the Gingerbread buttons or odd custom widgets/widgets copied from iOS are lazy developers. There simply is no excuse for ignoring the style guidelines anymore. [0]: https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
      - xienze 12y ago
        > The biggest revamp was from Gingerbread's UI to the new Holo interface style introduced in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Uh, and this one they're talking about now. > 84.3% of Android users are running Android 4.0+ And it only took nearly 3 years to pull that off... > There simply is no excuse for ignoring the style guidelines anymore. Yes there is: the fact that at any point in time you have to follow two or more style guidelines. Let's say I want to make a new app today targeting the new UI look and feel Google has just released. Since only a tiny fraction of Android devices are going to be running that latest version I need to target the current UI look and feel and the previous one. Bits and pieces can be bridged with the compatibility library but now that means you're saddled with programming against the compatibility library for several years. Every UI refresh brings along with it extra technical debt that developers are burdened with -- even small ones like notification bar icon changes (which happened in 2.2 -> 2.3). Take a look at last year's Google I/O app. This is the asset management required to create a "best of breed" Android app that targets as many devices as possible: https://github.com/google/iosched/tree/master/android/src/main/res https://github.com/google/iosched/tree/master/android/src/ma... Ho-lee shit, what a nightmare. Can you blame developers for being lazy? It's hard enough just knowing what's expected of you to make an application that can a) run on a majority of devices, b) look good on said devices, and c) make use of new APIs.
  - melling 12y ago
    It doesn't matter whose fault it is. It really hurts Android. I think phones are replaced often enough that the old OS will be replaced. However, people keep tablets for much longer.

arrrg 12y ago

Design is irrelevant if OEMs vomit their bullshit all over it on all the devices that are actually interesting. (Yes, I tried rooting. Yes, it was a horrific warranty-removing potentially bricking experience. Even Jailbreaking feels saver.) It looks super-awesome, though. I want it on interesting devices. I won’t be able to get it, though.

dublinben 12y ago
If you don't want a bastardized experience, don't buy a phone from crappy OEM. Get a Nexus device (pure Google experience), a Google Play Edition device (pure Google experience), or a Motorola device (close to stock, easily rootable Dev Eds).
- ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
  Unfortunately that may no longer be an option.
  - MaxDPS 12y ago
    Why not?
    - ChikkaChiChi 12y ago
      At the same time Motorola Mobility was sold, Google announced the Android Silver program which seemed to confirm rumors that Nexus devices were being sunsetted. I really hope its not true. I love my Nexus devices.
samstave 12y ago
And carriers -- I got an HTC One M8, and about two weeks after I got it, it auto-updated and installed (without my consent) a bunch of Sprint bloatware apps that I cannot delete. So, because of this - I've decided ill root it.

ChikkaChiChi 12y ago

A shame that people downvote because they disagree with an opinion.

nicholassmith 12y ago
You didn't really phrase it as an opinion, more as a statement of fact.
berberous 12y ago
If you elaborated with examples or something insightful, you wouldn't get downvoted. There are plenty of people with the opposite opinion as yours. When you phrase it like you did, it becomes a pointless flame war: "Android is the best in every way!" "No, Apple is, you Google fanboy!"

rimantas 12y ago

Including speed of adoption?

wwwwwwwwww 12y ago

you really shouldnt mock apple products on HN