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Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

android-gripes.tumblr.com

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Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#21

Post by guptaneil »

mgcross wrote: post #19

Economics? (investing more design/dev time in the [currently, at least] more profitable platform) Laziness/incompetence? (I don't know how many times I've downloaded an Android equivalent to an iOS app only to find re-purposed, screen captured iOS graphics with a non-native UI) Device fragmentation, no IB, perception that Android users don't appreciate polished UI/design - take your pick. Regardless of which excuse i…

I wouldn't say the blame lies with Android since at the end of the day, the responsibility lies with the designer, but I would say credit goes to iOS for making more aesthetically pleasing UI's easier to make than on Android.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#22

Post by trotsky »

Interesting blog, every entry appears to be a substantial jab at the platform itself... not really just "gripes" as I see them. I am impressed with how dedicated he is to the pursuit, not only does he have a blog solely for his android gripes, but he's also made an androidgripes gmail account as well as a twitter account and a facebook page to promote the blog. It doesn't seem to be possible to find the blogger's name, however, though as an anonymous figure he certainly is quite prolific [1].

I also note that the HN account that submitted this link was created immediately before submitting it, and that's their only activity.

I was considering responding to the flame bait in his closing paragraph ("Is it because iPhone developers are better at user interface design?" etc.) until I realized what I was looking seemed to have about a 99% chance of being corporate sponsored astroturfing. FTC disclosure, Apple?

[1] "Want to install "open" apps on Android? Think twice", "Is Samsung’s New Galaxy Tab Fibbing About Its Figure?", "J-P Teti: The iPad is 99% more open than any other computer", "'openness' considered harmful, said by Google on Honeycomb source code", "Everything that can go wrong with Motorola Android tablet does", "Android is sure a Wi-Fi connection dropper", etc.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#23

Post by d_r »

iOS comes with a handy set of UI controls that look decent even without customization. You can use the default UITableView, for instance (looking at the Meebo screenshot) and get the nice look-and-feel out of the box. This especially helps a low-budget dev like myself.

Apple showcase of the controls that come out-of-the box and various ways to tweak them: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userex...

Default Android controls for some reason sport a more "circa-1990 MS DOS" look. The developers need to actually invest time to re-skin the components or make their own to get a modern look. This is made slightly more difficult if you want to support multiple screen sizes/resolutions. As such, many Android apps sadly seem to end up with the default look.

(I have written apps for both platforms.)

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#24

Post by daniel_solano »

guelo wrote: post #7
stevenwei wrote: post #2

In my experience, the main reason is that you only need to design for one screen resolution on the iPhone (retina artwork doesn't really affect the screen layout). This makes it a lot easier to statically position elements and create pixel perfect effects. On the other hand, when you're dealing with dynamic layouts, you have to jump through a lot more hoops to make sure the app still looks good as the resolution is s…

I don't buy it. As an Android dev you normally just worry about one resolution, Android provides you with the tools (device independent pixels) to make other screens look the same. Just like the iphone, designers are encouraged to provide 2 sets of art assets, for medium and high resolution screens. The real reasons that apps looks worse on Android is that companies don't want to spend the time and money to get the a…

With respect to only having to "worry about one resolution", I disagree. Android does give you a set of tools for working with multiple screen types, but it's a bit more complicated than "2 sets of art assets". This only addresses one aspect of different screens: pixel density. This still leaves out different screen sizes. Even then, a "normal hdpi" screen can still be different from another "normal hdpi" screen.

It certainly does not help that Google's dashboard for screen and density figures has not been updated in over half a year.

As far as your second point goes, I think that companies' attitudes to Android development will change to reflect the evolving marketplace. A year or two ago, Android just did not have the market share to justify a lot of work. Now that Android is commanding significant market share, I think Android development will begin to be seen to be as important as iOS development.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#25

Post by rodh257 »

flyosity wrote: post #14

I think it's the standard that is set by the original creator of the UI widgets available on the platform, in this case, Apple vs. Google. I'm an iPhone UI designer/developer and you can make a really nice looking app without doing any custom design work just by using the widgets that Apple provides. A good example of an app that was nearly all stock is Tweetie 1 for iPhone and it won an Apple Design Award. Apple has…

In regards to the last paragraph, I agree, I think that you're more likely to see bad reviews for 'app is ugly' on the IOS app store than you are on Android. If the users really want applications to look good they need to negatively review poorly polished applications. Most of the time if the app functions correctly, reviews will be positive.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#26

Post by Zev »

flyosity wrote: post #14

I think it's the standard that is set by the original creator of the UI widgets available on the platform, in this case, Apple vs. Google. I'm an iPhone UI designer/developer and you can make a really nice looking app without doing any custom design work just by using the widgets that Apple provides. A good example of an app that was nearly all stock is Tweetie 1 for iPhone and it won an Apple Design Award. Apple has…

I mostly agree with you. The exception is the last paragraph.

To me, the last paragraph reads along the lines of "Silly person, engineers can't design. Only a designer can add polish to something. Go back to your coding hole and don't even bother trying." Which is bullshit.

// edit: To clarify, a good app should most definitely have a designer, and a UI framework on the scale of Android's should have many, for sure. I'm just objecting to how the tone of the last paragraph felt.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#27

Post by [deleted] »

d_r wrote: post #23

iOS comes with a handy set of UI controls that look decent even without customization. You can use the default UITableView, for instance (looking at the Meebo screenshot) and get the nice look-and-feel out of the box. This especially helps a low-budget dev like myself. Apple showcase of the controls that come out-of-the box and various ways to tweak them: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userex..…

[deleted]

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#28

Post by jackvalentine »

jarek wrote: post #16

Wow, the Android ones look much nicer. Oversized icons? Garish blue? Gimmicky graphics? Just focus on the content, please.

While I agree with his overall thought, he chose some terrible examples to illustrate it.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#29

Post by MichaelApproved »

flyosity wrote: post #14

I think it's the standard that is set by the original creator of the UI widgets available on the platform, in this case, Apple vs. Google. I'm an iPhone UI designer/developer and you can make a really nice looking app without doing any custom design work just by using the widgets that Apple provides. A good example of an app that was nearly all stock is Tweetie 1 for iPhone and it won an Apple Design Award. Apple has…

That doesn't excuse the apps that actually write an entire UI from scratch. As I mentioned before, the CNBC app is all custom UI, beautiful and mostly entirely self-contained. However, the android version is a POS thats essentially just a mobile webpage.

Built in OS UI is not a factor here. I suspect budget isn't either.

Edit: Here's the link to their Android app. The screen you see is basically the whole app. Click on anything and you're sent to their mobile web http://www.cnbc.com/id/37130092/

Here's the iPhone app http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cnbc-real-time/id334125582?mt... It's hard to believe the same company released both apps.

Even their official "Apps" page has little mention of the Android app http://www.cnbc.com/id/33077961 It's just a tiny link at the bottom that I didn't notice the first time.

Re: Why do apps from the same company look worse on Android than on iPhone?

#30

Post by mgcross »

ben1040 wrote: post #17
mgcross wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, I assume the FB app home page is half height to accommodate HVGA devices.

It's not shown in the example on the link, but the Android Facebook app's home screen uses the bottom half to show a stream of recently posted pictures from friends. I suppose the article's author must not have many friends who feel like sharing.

And that's also a pretty old version of Android FB. The current version includes Places, Chat and replaces Requests with Groups, creating a balanced 3x3 grid of icons.
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