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Android can be beautiful

androidniceties.tumblr.com

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Re: Android can be beautiful

#44

Post by joeblau »

dpark wrote: post #14

These seem really inconsistent to me. Feedly looks almost like a metro (sorry, "Windows 8-style") app. doubleTwist looks like an iOS app, as do Square Card Reader and Tumblr. Reddit Sync Pro seems to fit in with Google+, so I assume that's what modern Android apps are supposed to look like. None of these general aesthetics are bad, but the inconsistency seems to be an issue. (Actually, a few of them do look bad to me…

I noticed that a lot of the UX designs have that flat UI/Metro style.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#45

Post by dpark »

KirinDave wrote: post #35
niho wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not (only) about the consistency of visual style. It's about the the consistency of interaction.

But this is not a problem Android has when apps target 4.0. The ActionBar has been a huge stabilizing influence on the Android interaction pattern; strongly enforcing backpaning, swipe-to-navigate, and consistent locations for navigation. I'm not sure why you'd say this. Android actually hasn't suffered from tactile UI fragmentation much more than iOS has.

> Android actually hasn't suffered from tactile UI fragmentation much more than iOS has.

If the apps on this page a representative, I'd say that Android has experienced a lot more UI fragmentation than iOS. These are being held up as examples of best Android interfaces, and they look very inconsistent to me.

In contrast, I just opened up a bunch of random apps on my phone's home screen, and they all look very much like "iOS style". Obviously the native apps match well, but so does OneBusAway, Wikipanion, Skype (though the UI is flatter than the rest), Google Voice, Amazon, OneNote, etc.

These all look like iOS apps to me.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/onebusaway/id329380089

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wikipanion/id288349436

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype/id304878510

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-voice/id318698524

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-mobile/id297606951

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-onenote/id410395246

Re: Android can be beautiful

#46

Post by bstar77 »

chrisrhoden wrote: post #39
bstar77 wrote: post #36

I agree that Android can look gorgeous, but that can only go so far. Android's problem is consistency. I've used every alternate android build I could find, and the custom (and default) themes and UI menu system lacked consistency. My favorite was MiUi and even that had terrible consistency issues. iOS, on the other hand, is supremely superior in this department. The cohesiveness of the experience is second to none.…

Have you installed any apps on your iOS device? Consistency is pretty hard to come by these days.

I find the iOS UI patterns to be consistent, but the "skins" on those UI elements tend to vary quite a bit. Now this is the case on the iPad, since I don't have an iPhone I cannot speak to that. Just getting a podcast program on android that had a consistent UI where things made sense was a fruitless effort. Streaming content is not consistent either, some apps stream really well (audio galaxy), while other stream terribly. These are the types of things that I found maddening.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#47

Post by cs702 »

Android is no longer an ugly-duckling platform trying to catch up with iOS, but a beautiful platform that truly rivals iOS in all important ways -- and now surpasses it in terms of market share. However, mobile app developers have only recently begun to transition from "we need an app for Android too, quick!" to "we need great apps for both Android and iOS," so it will take a little while for all those ugly, hastily-put-together Android apps to become a thing of the past.

UPDATE: koko775 raises a good point: the large installed base of pre-ICS Android versions may also be a factor. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4533819

Re: Android can be beautiful

#48

Post by koko775 »

untog wrote: post #19

Since ICS, Android is beautiful. Well, the OS core is, anyway. Widget makers and the like still don't seem to have got the design memo, but I suspect that's because design talents are so focused on iOS. We just need the app makers to catch up. Foursquare, for instance, has been redesigned and looks great. However, their widgets haven't been touched and look awful by comparison. Spotify has done a far better job of up…

It's not because design talents are focused on iOS, it's that design talents are focused on the Android users that are worth targeting. Namely, people on 2.1 or 2.2+.

Android generally monetizes/converts worse than iOS, so those who want a presence on Android can't afford to take advantage of any of the new stuff until old devices are retired sufficiently to make the tradeoff really worth it. It's been really tough to see all of the improvements, because Google is addressing user upgrades so poorly (even though the fault lies mostly with the manufacturers) that the upgrade problem is such a big deal for developers.

Re: Android can be beautiful

#49

Post by nuclear_eclipse »

angry-hacker wrote: post #41

I like the screenshots but I don't understand the navigation of the page and why would you hijack the default scrollbar of your browser? I'm surprised that so apps look WP metro style

By "hijack the default scrollbar", you mean "apply standard webkit scrollbar CSS properties"?

Re: Android can be beautiful

#50

Post by aschobel »

micheljansen wrote: post #2

Some of these are really nice. I'm curious how many of these are Android-specific though. Path looks pretty similar on iOS and so do FourSquare, Flipboard etc. Which of these are examples of good mobile design that holds itself on various platforms (iOS, Android etc.) and which are unique to Android?

Co-founder of Catch here, some context; we launched our first Android app in 2008 and have about 10x as many users on there as we do on iOS.

The issue we've seen is that people build an iOS app and then port it over to Android.

We designed Catch 5.0 apps for Android and iPhone in parallel. This let us keep consistency between the platforms when it made sense, but also let us tweak the design early on so it could take advantage things unique to the platform, e.g. Action Bar on Android.

The team is incredibly proud of this release, and it is nice to see folks taking notice. Both Google and Apple have also featured this release, everybody is beaming here. =)

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