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

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

#71

Post by trythis »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #29
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…

Actually, there are quite a lot of standard UIKit objects used in the iPhone version, so it definitely isn't written from scratch. Granted, it doesn't explain why the Android version makes such a poor showing, since I'm pretty sure Android has equivalents for a lot of those elements.

There are, however, so many possible reasons why Android versions get the shaft that it's nearly impossible to say why any given pair of apps are so different in quality. It could be that it's easier to find iOS devs that really care about UX and polish (lots of self-selection going on here, similar to Mac/Windows third-party devs). It could be that a company asks their iOS dev to knock out an Android version, when they're not competent at developing for the platform. It could be that the folks in charge of getting mobile apps made for their company just like iPhones more (not a stretch, given demographic differences) or see them as more hip or marketable and funnel more money that way. Or, it could be that, after spending lavish amounts of money on the iPhone app and seeing it not set the world on fire, they scale back to merely "establishing a presence" on Android instead of making the same effort.

A lot of these behaviors wouldn't surprise me, particularly from companies whose primary business is not creating software.

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

#72

Post by Derbasti »

actf wrote: post #63
redthrowaway wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android has more market share than iOS, which would seem to suggest it's moved far beyond the "technical, geeky" crowd. My hunch is that we're starting to see a Windows/Mac differentiation here, with Android emerging as the clear winner of mobile and iOS being reserved for the trendy/artistic/quality crowd. That carries over into the apps themselves, with Android apps (like their windows counterparts) being clean and…

I've never really understood the Windows/Mac analogy here. I think the main reason many people end up using Windows over OSX, or any other OS, has always been the availability of software. People use Windows because there is a lot of really good software that just isn't available on other platforms. Granted this is slowly becoming less of an issue now that OSX is gaining some ground, but it is still an issue for a lo…

Do you really think that? I used to be a Windows user, then switched to Mac by way of Linux a few years ago. Now I have to use Windows at work and I have a really hard time finding good Windows programs besides Office.

The Mac selection frankly feels way better and bigger to me. I would go even further and claim that the main advantage of OSX over Windows is the app selection in both quality and quantity!

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

#74

Post by wladimir »

jrockway wrote: post #49

Because Android users don't care. To make the app look nice, you would need to pay for 100 hours of a designer and 400 hours of programming. If it looks like crap, you only have to pay for 400 hours of programming. Android users don't care, so you make more return on your investment by neglecting design. Apple users all have blogs about the virtues of serif fonts versus sans-serif fonts, so you are not going to sell…

I'm not so sure why this got voted down. You might not agree, but he does have a somewhat convincing argument.

Android users, on average, might well be somewhat more pragmatic than "design-addicted" Apple users, and settle with something that works instead of looks nice. They buy a phone to do their jobs, or communicate with their friends, but not (as much) to show off or worship it.

After all, they buy a (usually) cheaper phone.

Apple users all have blogs about the virtues of serif fonts versus sans-serif fonts

That made me laugh :)

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

#75

Post by grandalf »

orangecat wrote: post #68
grandalf wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a fairly optimistic view. My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. Whether it's because of battery life, lousy app selection, annoying add-ons by the carrier, or clunky app design. Sure, slimy salespeople hired by the carriers are pushing Android phones and probably lying about features and quality just as they lie about plan details, etc. Yes they'…

My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. From last September, 65% of Android users are "very satisfied": http://www.therealmacgenius.com/2010/10/iphone-os-or-android... . That's less than the iPhone's 74%, but a far cry from the fanboy fantasy of Android being abandoned in droves.

I'm far from a fanboy... I got an Evo 4G and was so appalled by the battery life -- clearly nobody in their right mind would ship the product knowing how poor the battery life is -- that I did a double take and sold the 4G and bought an iPhone 4.

I'm actually rooting for Google. I'd just like to see them take the overall usability and build quality a lot more seriously than they appear to be taking it. It's completely absurd that carriers are installing things like a clock with hands which prevent the phones from being instantly upgradeable when a new version of Android is released.

Android gives carriers a lot of perverse incentives, most of which they appear to be following quite religiously.

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

#76

Post by wvenable »

MichaelApproved wrote: post #29
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…

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

The difference is possibly talent. They likely outsource the development to different companies; one who develops exclusively for the iPhone and the other for Android. Different teams of developers producing vastly different results. The iPhone ecosystem is more mature (and more picky) which could easily explain the differences.

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

#77

Post by orangecat »

grandalf wrote: post #75
orangecat wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My take is that most purchasers of Android phones are probably quite disappointed with the experience. From last September, 65% of Android users are "very satisfied": http://www.therealmacgenius.com/2010/10/iphone-os-or-android... . That's less than the iPhone's 74%, but a far cry from the fanboy fantasy of Android being abandoned in droves.

I'm far from a fanboy... I got an Evo 4G and was so appalled by the battery life -- clearly nobody in their right mind would ship the product knowing how poor the battery life is -- that I did a double take and sold the 4G and bought an iPhone 4. I'm actually rooting for Google. I'd just like to see them take the overall usability and build quality a lot more seriously than they appear to be taking it. It's completel…

Fair enough. I also had an Evo and the battery life wasn't great, but I didn't take that as an indictment of the entire Android ecosystem. (My Nexus S can last for 3 days with moderate use). I ended up giving it to a nontechnical friend, whose immediate reactions were that the screen is gorgeous, and that Swype and the universal text-to-speech are great.

It's completely absurd that carriers are installing things like a clock with hands which prevent the phones from being instantly upgradeable when a new version of Android is released.

No question that the carriers are doing significant damage to Android's perception. I don't think the skins are a huge contributor to update delays, for example the G2 runs stock Android but still won't get a Gingerbread update until some vague future date. You're absolutely right about the incentive problem; as long as customers are locked into contracts via phone subsidies, there's little motivation to keep them satisfied.

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

#78

Post by karolist »

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…

Building a nice looking app for android is really tough, as you say - there's no nice looking builtin widgets and even if they were you couldn't use them to get a consistent experience because of the theming support - your app might still look ugly green on some phones and not others. You have to build lots of stuff from scratch, but paring this with generally poor view drawing performance of the java platform and bugs that are still there - many simply do not bother enough.

I've spent way more time than I've expected to get the tabs working the way I want in my test app on android, effects framework is nice but performance on my 1ghz Desire HD was suboptimal when doing some transitions on top of custom backgrounds.

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

#79

Post by blub »

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…

"The apps that Google built for Android (Maps in particular) are very clean and elegant but I would hesitate to call them beautiful or extremely polished. Google's design aesthetic typically eschews gradients, sheen, highlights and shadows in favor of a flatter, cleaner look and feel. "

Your post is very confusing.

At first you seem to imply that good design is tied to the amount of shadows, gradients or highlights and that a "clean, elegant" design is somehow worse. Yet later you say that Google's apps are well-designed...

Why not use accurate design concepts if you claim that you are a designer? Say exactly what's wrong with the design by pointing out which design rules were broken.

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

#80

Post by lloeki »

Derbasti wrote: post #72
actf wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never really understood the Windows/Mac analogy here. I think the main reason many people end up using Windows over OSX, or any other OS, has always been the availability of software. People use Windows because there is a lot of really good software that just isn't available on other platforms. Granted this is slowly becoming less of an issue now that OSX is gaining some ground, but it is still an issue for a lo…

Do you really think that? I used to be a Windows user, then switched to Mac by way of Linux a few years ago. Now I have to use Windows at work and I have a really hard time finding good Windows programs besides Office. The Mac selection frankly feels way better and bigger to me. I would go even further and claim that the main advantage of OSX over Windows is the app selection in both quality and quantity!

By citing the parent comment and modifying the emphasized part I can correct it:

"I think the main reason many people end up using Windows over OSX, or any other OS, has always been the knowledge of software."

Like how to do X in software Y, or what software can one obtain to do task Z.

Probably the Mac App Store changes that, and certainly the perception of it. Also even timid users are much more inclined to go and ask stuff on the Internet, and not solely rely on their inner circle.

Canonical knew that even before the App Store singularity and tried to design a simple user-centric application finder in Ubuntu, alongside the very technical Synaptics package manager. Also they tried to push users to ask questions on forums on the very first page Firefox displays.

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