Comment by K0nserv | Hacker News Reader

Comment by K0nserv | Hacker News Reader

I think it's really interesting to compare the web to apps in this regard. In fact I wrote a blog post about this as a response to "The Great Divide"[0] a few years ago.

The core thesis of mine is that on the app side of things we've always had fairly thick clients where a lot of the "backend" complexity lives in the client. This has always worked, i.e. iOS developers are responsbile for and comfortable with both the UI/UX aspect of their job and the backend aspects. I don't really understand why the web would be different from iOS and Android in this regard. I suppose one stark difference is that both iOS and Android always had a turing complete programming language at the core of development, it simply isn't possible to learn "only" layout with iOS and Android. Although, storyboard and XML views are somewhat similar to CSS + HTML I guess.

0: https://hugotunius.se/2019/06/26/on-being-a-front-end-engine...

Wouldn't the main difference be that iOS and Android come with a very complete and high quality default UI toolkit? It's easy to build a decent app using just the system libraries, whereas on the web you're pushed to reinvent the wheel from the very start (how do I load my CSS?). Technology churn is also minimal in comparison.

Anecdotally, my impression is that mobile-focused designers are much more attuned to interaction design than their web counterparts; much easier to build nice UIs when they have been fully thought out.

You're right; the medium definitely shaped the message here. I've worked with and near many native and web teams, and have observed the engineering conversations of the folks from entry level to senior level. The difference in perspective and execution is notable each time. More interestingly, a transition transition from one side to another also changes perspective and conversation.

The community culture obviously also influences these discourse, but a surprisingly large chunk of the regard or disregard for UI/UX comes from using the tools you're provided by the platform, so much that unfortunately (or fortunately, if you've chosen the right platform), these factors influence one's learning and result much more so than even hard work and talent. A change of perspective is worth 80 IQ points, like Alan Kay said.

client server web apps are a distributed system

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