Why iOS apps are better than Android apps

Computer store news Most users may think that the design of smartphone apps is simple, it has nothing to do with the platform, whether on iOS or Android. it's the same. But in fact, in the eyes of developers who run both platforms, it is easier to design a beautifully designed application on iOS. American online travel company Hipmunk UI designer, iOS developer Danilo · Danilo Campos summarized us: "The simplest answer is: make a nice and attractive application on iOS It's a lot easier than on Android. & rdquo;

First look at the reasons for his conclusion.

First of all, the "fragmentation" of Android devices is a big problem. When writing code on the iOS platform, developers only need to deal with very limited screen resolution parameters and hardware configuration. After all, the iPhone and iPad are just a few models; and now the Android models on the market are probably no one can count. This leads developers to take into account a large number of device parameters. “Android devices come in a variety of shapes, sizes, screen resolutions and processing speeds —— which creates great difficulties for us,” said Karma App’s co-founder Lee · Lee Linden told "Connected" website, "We need to test almost 20 models with different resolutions and CPUs, which will really slow down the development process." "

Campos said: "On those high-resolution Android devices, the pattern looks great, but we tested it on some old models, but the results were terrible. ” In this case, developers can only rethink the design elements and consider changing the program code.

As another example, Hipmunk must prepare three solutions when designing patterns for the desk: the old model is double the size; the new high resolution model is twice the size; There is a strange 1.5-fold size pattern for other devices. However, some developers will give up designing patterns for those special models. The consequence is that users of those models do not have a good user experience.

Indeed, mobile application development must be carried out at an extremely fast rate. Those application development teams are often small and underfunded. If you spend extra time on each design element, it means Other areas of innovation time are reduced. All of the above reasons have caused Android app developers to create apps that are less aesthetically pleasing.

In addition, the development tools and development documentation in the Android field are also slightly insufficient. Apple has been improving developer support for more than 20 years, almost perfect in software development kits and user interface guidelines, and Google is just getting started in this regard. Therefore, compared to Android, developers of the iOS platform have more tools to make interesting and unique designs.

“If I have more official and third-party technical documentation on hand, it will be smoother when developing. & rdquo; Campos describes his own iOS development work. But on the development of the Android platform, things are not that simple. “It’s very annoying to know that there are a lot of things that are not clearly stated during development,” Campos said. “Our Android developer Ryan must go deeper into the source code to understand some unmarked The XML formatting part, which makes him die. ”

Some well-designed product features are also easier to apply to iOS apps because iOS has a variety of API interfaces and libraries. “It’s hard to implement some good-looking touch actions on the Android platform, such as transitions and rounded corners. "Trulia's product manager Steve · Steve Yarger said.

Linden also agrees with this: “The iOS platform does make gesture transitions easier to implement, and the emulation, fading, and sliding of elements in the UI are open to developers, and These actions are consistent on every iOS device. But there are many different frameworks on the Android platform, which makes it impossible to know what can be used for all devices. ”

Of course, Google will not ignore this situation. After the launch of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Google built an Android developer page on Google+ and opened Android training. classroom. Now Google has also established a complete Android design guide, which makes it easier for developers to carry out the entire design work. However, the "fragmentation" of Android devices is still unresolved, and currently less than 3% of Android devices are running 4.0.

But it's not a good thing on the iOS platform. Although iOS makes high-precision design easier, Android gives developers more freedom. “On Android, as long as you are willing to spend time, you can do everything you want,” Jacob said. “Apple has a lot of constraints on developers, but this is trading, with less development freedom. In exchange for development tools that make the app look better. ”

Jacob summed it up for us: “If you just want to design a good-looking and qualified app, it’s much simpler on the iOS platform; Apple has created the ‘ecosystem’ To do this kind of work. & rdquo;

The picture on the left is Hipmunk's iOS app. The function buttons in the interface can be placed on the corner of the screen, but it is difficult to put them in the Android app on the right. Go to the right place.

On the left is the iOS app for real estate search engine Trulia, which has details, photos, maps, etc., but there is no such clear classification on the Android app on the right.

Karma's iOS app (left) and Android app (right) look similar, but the latter takes much more time to develop.