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But here's the thing, across operating systems the products should not be identical. When you get to the point that your have a significant enough number of us
by tcdent 6d ago
But here's the thing, across operating systems the products should not be identical.
When you get to the point that your have a significant enough number of users across multiple platforms, generalizing everything into a shared UX doesn't make sense; giving those classes of users the best experience requires embracing their platform.
A simple example: Android has a system-wide convention for a `back` button. iOS has no such standard. Users on each platform have different expectations for how to navigate an app fundamentally, and holding tightly onto the concept of identical gives both camps a compromised experience.
- thm76 6d agoI took "identical" as in feature wise. The user should be able to accomplish the same things, no matter what platform they're using. I do think that the way the features are implemented should be platform dependent, i.e. use common UX pattern on each platform, fit in with the UI, and be good platform citizens.
- nfw2 6d agoWhy does Shopify need to use Apple's or Google's branded design language in their app?
- sokoloff 6d agoBecause if I’m an iOS user and used to that and you give me a conventional Android app UX, I’m going to feel that as jank. Same as if I’m an Android user and you give me the conventional iOS experience. It’s like if I gave a swing or Gtk+ or Xwindows app experience on Windows 11 or MacOS. It would be usable, but feel conspicuously sub-standard.
- nfw2 6d agoWhat specifically are the ux differences?
- bluGill 6d agoI don't know iOS so I can't say, but a good UX does depend in part on platform expectations and every system historically been different. The compromises mean the each have good reason for what they do (sometimes anyway), but switching is hard.
- nfw2 6d agoI've used both in the past 2 years and can tell you these particular systems aren't meaningfully different in any way that affects third party apps.
- saagarjha 5d agoThat's because you must be using cross-platform apps.
- bluGill 5d agoIt shows the sad state of user experience that applications completely ignore how different platforms function. For websites, I would expect them to follow the web conventions of UX. However, as soon as you're in a "native" application, you need to function like the device you're running on wants to function. Otherwise, it's going to be a jarring user experience for everyone in there. The whole system becomes harder to use.
- sokoloff 6d agoI'm only familiar with iOS and this is the type of question that an LLM could answer better than this specific human.
- ethin 6d agoThe solution is to make the common features a part of a statically-linked library that you can pull into your apps. A web app is, IMO, never the answer when you want to address multiple audiences. It is bad for accessibility (because 99.999 percent of web app developers never consider accessibility) and it doesn't solve the problem that web apps are trying to solve (having 8 code bases all that have to remain in sync) because you will inevitably need your code to handle platform-specific differences, standards/conventions and whatnot.
- nfw2 6d agoThere is an implication here that the back button is a microcosm that represents the differences holistically but it's not. It's a small one-off exception that doesn't even affect the design choices made for the various apps. As I open up app over app on my Android (Audible, Spotify, ChatGPT, etc.), they all have clear in-app "back" functionality where needed. No apps I have installed rely on the Android back button exclusively. Also, none of these apps have any design elements that follow Android's design language.
- pmontra 6d agoThe back button works at its best when it closes an app and it restores the one that opened the previous one. There could be no in app back button to do that. However the back button used to be an always available hardware button or a touch one on the bottom bezel. It's optionally visible now (I'm on an old Android phone so I'm not up to date with the latest OS) or a gesture, right? So app designers must design as if it does not exist.
- nfw2 6d agoI agree. Design as if it doesn't exist incidentally is also how they design for iOS where it doesn't exist.
- tcoff91 6d agoAlso, the back 'button' is mostly a thing of the past in Android and it's more similar to iOS now with the predictive back gesture. The Android back button is legacy.
- kotaru 4d agoIt's literally still a back button, doesn't matter if it's a gesture, physical button or button on a bottom of the screen. The result is always the same action in the same place no matter the app used.