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You might think app design is app design, whether the software is being developed for iOS or Android. But, in fact, creating highly polished, elegant-looking apps is simply easier to do when developing for iOS. That’s the prevailing conventional wisdom among developers who code for both platforms.
Hipmunk UI/UX designer and iOS developer Danilo Campos explains it succinctly: “The very simple short answer is it’s easier to make a good-looking, attractive iOS app compared to making an Android app.”
Design is built into Apple’s DNA. Google’s legacy, on the other hand, is search. So it’s not too difficult to guess which platform places a higher premium on app U.I. and aesthetics — and which platform makes it easier to create beautiful software.
Now settle down, Android loyalists. Before you get your trousers in a wad, take a look at the factors that contribute to Google’s second-class status.
In Hipmunk’s iOS app, left, pop-overs have rounded corners, something that’s more challenging on Android.
First, there’s fragmentation: When coding for iOS, developers deal with a very limited number of screen resolutions and hardware profiles. But when coding for Android, developers have to resolve a virtually limitless set of device parameters.
“Android devices come in different shapes and sizes, different screen resolutions, different device speeds — and that’s actually a huge hurdle,” Karma app co-founder Lee Linden told Wired. “You need to be testing out something like 20 different phones with different resolutions and different processors, and that definitely makes development slower.”
Campos said an accent like a simple one-pixel stroke may look terrific on Android devices with a high resolution, “then we pull out a handful of older devices and it just looks bad.” In these situations, the developer has to rethink the design element and account for different cases in the app’s code.
Another example: For images, Hipmunk generates its Android assets at three resolutions: 1x for older devices, 2x for high-resolution devices, and an awkward 1.5x resolution for other devices — a necessity to avoid “weird artifacting” as Campos puts it. But some developers may skip this high level of support for outlier devices, leading to blurry, jaggy visuals for an unlucky few.
Indeed, mobile development must move at lightning speed by necessity, and app teams are often small and strapped for cash. If excessive time is spent perfecting a simple design element, it means less time will be devoted to innovating in other ways. As a result, Android app developers often settle on a less detailed aesthetic.
Developer tools and documentation are also less robust in the Android space. While Apple has had 20 years to perfect the art of developer support — refining its approach to SDKs and building well-defined human interface guidelines — Google is essentially starting from scratch with Android.
The upshot is that iOS developers simply have more tools to implement intriguing, unique design. “It feels like you’ve got more documentation, both officially sanctioned and third-party, so that makes things smoother,” Campos said of iOS development. And this isn’t the case with Android.
Trulia’s iOS app, left, employs tabs to move between Details, Photos and Map — a feature missing from the Android version on the right.
“One of the hangups [with Android] is so much of the stuff doesn’t feel fully documented,” Campos said. “Ryan, our Android guy, has to go digging around in the source code to figure out some XML formatting piece that isn’t made clear. That’s been painful for him.”
And some detailed design features are easier to implement in iOS because of the wide variety of APIs and libraries available. “It’s harder on Android to do nice design touches such as transitions or rounded corners,” Steven Yarger, mobile product manager at Trulia said.
Linden echoed that sentiment: “iOS definitely makes transitions a lot easier. Whether it’s U.I. elements fading in and out, or sliding, those things can be used and you have a good sense that it’ll consistently look good across iOS devices. On Android, there are different frameworks, but the problem is you don’t know what’s consistently going to work across devices.”
Despite all these Android hurdles, Google seems to be turning the tide in Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Google now offers an Android developer Google+ page and Android training classes. And now there’s a solid set of design guidelines, which makes it easier to implement platform-consistent design. That said, the fragmentation issue continues to rear its ugly head: Less than 3 per cent of Android devices currently run Ice Cream Sandwich.
Karma’s iOS app, left, and Android app, right, look very similar, but that’s very time consuming to accomplish.
But not everything’s rosy in the iOS camp, either. Although iOS makes it easier to implement highly detailed app design, Android offers more freedom with what you can do.
“On Android, you can do whatever you want, if you really want to dig in there to minute details,” Yarger said. “With Apple, you’re more constrained. But the tradeoff is because you’re constrained, you’re given tools that make the apps look nicer.”
Yarger summed up the general sentiment of the platform app design wars: “If you just want a good-looking app with a single pass, it’s easier to design on iOS. Apple just set up their ecosystem to do that.”
Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired
IOS Apps look Superior to Android…. Nothing new here
“Android Users Need To Stop Getting Pants in a Wad”…. Nothing new here either
Taf creaming his pants about Apple products……… Nothing new lol
I think you have me confused with those Android people creaming early in anticipation of the Galaxy S3!
You realise you cant use this argument against Android people when this is exactly what millions of Apple people every year before the new iPhone release.
To level things out I can use this Arguement! If it’s good to use when apple fan’s are waiting for a device to be released its also good when a big Android phone is to be announced. We can’t adopt double standards now can we, people who dish it should also be able to take it!
Taf, we all watched you embarrass yourself when the new iPad came out.
You were like a cat in heat, furiously wanking over minutiae, goading everyone, and posting about 100 comments a minute that nobody wanted to read.
Nobody wanted to read but you couldn’t get enough right? You read all my comments don’t you kauzion? You always reply! so what’s up? You some kind if a fukin weirdo or what?
You Get the Kleenex ready for tommorow why don’t you! Loser!
Yes. I’m replying to your comment because I’m weird. (???)
Or maybe it’s because it’s the top comment, the only troll comment on this article, and the most hypocritical comment. As usual, you’re slagging off anyone with a piqued interest in the Galaxy S3, which is mighty grand since nobody on this blog cares half as much about any product or brand than you do about Apple.
Hence my comment about your iPad self-fellatio comment spree, which seemed relevant given your “I think you have me confused with those Android people creaming early in anticipation of the Galaxy S3″ comment. Who’s that again then?
I certainly didn’t read all of your comments during your sad fanaticism-induced comment binge, but I did notice there were about 100 of them and they were all largely provocative, offensive, and most of all pathetic.
Pretty much sums up you then – provocative, offensive, and pathetic.
Yeah yeah watever, F U too! Your the little name calling bitch that can dish it out but can’t take it in return.. . loOoSer!
If you read the article it wasn’t me who made the original comment about Android users, it was part of the article content!
A highly intelligent and well written comment, as usual Taf. I especially liked the part where you called me “a little name calling bitch”.
I suppose they have yet to cover ‘irony’ in your English classes. Or much of anything, for that matter.
Unless I’m blind that picture looks like a dog to me! A female dog!
The popover with rounded corners example is a bit wrong.
Apple’s OS utilises rounded corners so in order to match, popovers need rounded corners.
Android however, has a cleaner straight edge/sharp corner aesthetic which is matched in its implementation of the app.
Bad design would be having rounded corner popovers in an Android app that is following the design principles of the OS.
So what your saying is that this article is cherry picking it’s arguments to back up it’s viewpoint? surely not
As for the whole “iOS App just look better” I present exhibit A for the counterargument http://s3.amazonaws.com/madebymany.com/uploads/pictures/375/fmf_content.png?1319461582
Making apps look like stitched leather is “better” than the clean lines of ICS. Yeah right
Skeuomorphism has its pros and cons. I agree that this is a rather hideous bit of design but it is certainly memorable as evidenced by the fact that it sprang to your mind as an example of bad design. There are two apps included on iOS with broadly similar functions to Find My Friends: maps and contacts. By radically changing the visual language you’re more likely to remember which is which.
So you’re throwing out consistency of look and feel, one of the major plus points of design (and one of the things that has been said to be lacking in Android Apps in the past). As for it being memorable, the time in my long distant childhood when I stood in a huge pile of cowshit was also memorable, but neither the event nor the memory of it are.
I agree that aesthetically it’s a disaster but, for navigation, having spaces that “look” different can be really helpful, especially to less experienced computer users. Windows 8 has taken an anti-skeuomorphic design language to its logical conclusion with its “authentically digital” efforts but it’s a complete disaster to navigate, even for someone like myself who’s been using windows for 20 years, because there are no visual clues.
If that had been me who had stood in cow shit you would have remembered!
Did you not play “shit shoe”! When you were young, on the way home from school, nothing to worry about if you could run fast!
Get shit on your shoe, try not to let on, wipe it down the back leg of someone else’s trousers, thats “shit shoe”.
Nothing ugly about that
Whatever you say cowboy.:-)
I agree Alex. It’s not ugly. It’s GOD DAMN ugly.
So for iOS you have 4 resolutions: QVGA, DVGA, XGA and QXGA.
Apart from a few devices, WVGA, QHD, WXGA, HD and FHD cover pretty much every Android device on the market.
Not exactly a massive difference…
iOS is the best because it was made to be the best. android is inferior because it was made for you to decide how good it is. end of debate, i’ve solved it, let’s all go home
I honestly don’t care how hard it is for a developer to make an app. And I also don’t care if the app looks better on iOS since I would never know. I just need it to do what it’s supposed to do.
Who would have thought that applications would look different on different OS…
My Choc ice from Sainsbury has a nicer looking wrapper than my choc ice from tesco!
Its the same.. who gives a fuck?.. enjoy what it does.
say WHAT? no rounded corners is an argument AGAINST android? welcome to 2012, we left the faux-chrome behind in the naughties and that’s where it’d stay if iOS were ever bold enough to update their tacky design aesthetic.
scoffscoff.
This article is an interesting read as to why rounded rectangles are more than just some silly tacky design aesthetic
http://uxmovement.com/thinking/why-rounded-corners-are-easier-on-the-eyes/
I think for the sake of an extra millisecond to decipher a button, the clean-edge aesthetic of ICS is for more pleasant.
Arbitrary and subjective list is arbitrary and subjective.
Article should be:
“Why some journalists get more pageviews than other journalists”
(Answer – by manipulating reality to goad readers)
While it’s true that I always thought iOS apps look good by default, I never thought Android apps look bad… Just different.
So the person who wrote this article has no interest in reading about Google’s design guidelines for Ice Cream Sandwhich then?
Apps designed to follow those new guidelines look good and have great user experience.
But we should blame Google because some developers suck? Blah blah.