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Comment by tux1968 | Hacker News Reader

tux1968

Would be nice to hear a practical example or two in order to understand from where your opinion springs.

I don't have much experience with iOS products, but I recall early in smartphone history being flabbergasted by the lack of basic affordances like a notification bar, or quick settings (eg to switch wifi on/off). I'd imagine both UIs are vastly different now, so I don't think that these examples are directly relevant. But I heard so much in those days about how iOS's UI was vastly superior and was so shocked by my first introduction to it, that I remain baseline skeptical of claims that it's objectively better than Android. People just seem too blinded to realize that their personal preference isn't a universal measure of quality. (This paragraph is mostly in response to the fact that the GP comment is so downvoted for saying "I prefer Android's UI")

As far as picking practical examples, my lack of familiarity with iOS means some of these may be obsolete, but some obvious ones that come to mind:

1) Is iOS multitasking still as poor as it used to be? Eg, are split-screen apps on the iPhone still impossible?

2) Are homescreen widgets still impossible on iOS?

3) Are you still forced to open (eg) app links with lower-quality off-brand apps like Apple Maps, or can you set your preferred app the first time you open a link of a certain type?

I'm not even going very far afield here, as I'm only picking things that a) I know iOS had a feature gap in at some point and b) I would trip over at least weekly were my OS to have these issues. I'd imagine that one could do a little research and come up with more such examples (as well as examples where iOS's UI is superior to Android's).

1) yes. but I think it's better for it and obviously plenty of others do too including apple

2) no, home screen widgets in iOS have been a feature for a while now

3) no, iOS asks me if I want to open in Apple Maps or Google Maps.

I think you're conflating features and design. Whether or not there's a particular feature (turn of WIFI), is not an attribute of the design. So you can fairly say the iOS feature set was too minimal, but you can't attribute that to UI design

> yes. but I think it's better for it and obviously plenty of others do too including apple

This is unfalsifiable, and the line of thinking that generates it is trivially rebutted with a quick look at recent history. All of the limitations I mentioned were lauded as not-actually-useful by Apple (and their partisans) until they launched me-too version, at which point everyone immediately flipped to excitement.

The parent comment said the Android UI was better; I took that straightforwardly to mean the UI in general. He does mention "since Material", so I can see how you interpreted it as a reference to design.

That just makes the downvotes more ridiculous! There's no accounting for taste, and it's easy to imagine someone liking any design over another.

To answer your questions:

1. Yeah, still not great. 2. No, homescreen widgets now exist in iOS 3. Short answer is "kind of". There's official support for setting default web & email clients, but many (most?) apps support setting a preference for e.g. mapping providers.

All that being said, I think you're coming at things mostly from a feature angle which is perhaps a different discussion.

From a pure aesthetic consistency, polish, and end-to-end visual experience perspective Apple still does a better job than Google.

Whether or not that extra dash of visual polish makes up for feature deficiencies or ecosystem limitations is a broader question of course.

This paragraph is mostly in response to the fact that the GP comment is so downvoted for saying "I prefer Android's UI" - heh. This is not the first time i am saying in this forum. But before ice cream sandwich Android UI was plain ugly. I am not talking about UX or other features. But with Material design they have a better UI and even better UX as well. Apple was always known for it UI but that not mean you take that as a fact instead of evaluating it as time goes by.

I think the android back button is a good example. Having that exposed at the OS level creates a smoother navigation experience across applications.

You’d be surprised how many Android developers never got the difference between the back button and “up” action. I think this created so much confusion and inconsistencies.

Last time I was an Android user (and, for quite a while and for a couple different spans, an Android developer), that button was a ton of fun for when I wanted to see what random-ass crap the OS or application would decide to do when I pressed it. It was a "press only if you can't find something better to press" button given prime real-estate.

[EDIT] I think the fundamental problem with it is that, if an app screen deliberately presents a back button, there's nearly a 100% chance the current application will handle it in some way that makes sense for the current screen. With an always-on back button, the user has no way of knowing which of three handlers will receive it: 1) The OS, 2) The application, but not handling it in some way that makes sense for the current screen, or 3) The application, handling it sensibly for the current screen. You're rolling the dice.

Not original commenter, but some examples of Android's superior UI/UX: - "Back" action is consistent and not in a different spot in each app. - Notifications are more actionable, organized, and clear. - Actions tend to be more clear and discoverable. On ios apps you need to try swiping, clicking, holding, and pinching seemingly random elements to "discover" basic actions. I forgot which app, but one of Apples literally starts you on some screens scrolled a little...and you have to guess you can scroll UP to find extra info and options. - So many extra steps to do anything. E.g. you can turn on/off wifi in quick settings for both, but on Android you can get to your wifi settings by long pressing the quick settings button, but in ios you have to open and navigate through settings. - Can't arrange app icons as flexibly or have widgets on home screen. - ios notification panel has like 3 different modes all with different capabilities and purposes depending on how you open it. - The app settings are ridiculous to navigate in ios. Sometimes they're in app, sometimes in the settings app's app settings pages, and iirc, sometimes in separate settings app pages altogether (e.g. I think permissions or accessibility settings per-app have a whole 'nother place to find them. - Notification page search bar has really poor, irrelevant results that display above the web results you really want. - Scrolling on ios is slower and more jittery than Android these days which surprises me. - Apps look squished and busy with text with ios' UI. Not always clear what's a button, what's swipable, whether you're deeply nested in navigation or at the top, etc. - ios seems to skip loading indicators and just show empty screens, which is really frustrating. - Very subjective but ios emojis have a pseudo-realistic creepy vibe and icky feel to me.

Etc, etc, I have more but I'll stop there :-/ I love my MacBook and use ios for a few professional needs, but ios feels almost unusable in comparison as an everyday device to me.

> E.g. you can turn on/off wifi in quick settings for both, but on Android you can get to your wifi settings by long pressing the quick settings button, but in ios you have to open and navigate through settings.

This is false, you can do the same on iOS nowadays... Long press the WiFi icon from the tray (after expanding the WiFi/airplane mode/Bluetooth widget box) and you will get to the list of networks.

A bunch of other statements are also not completely true, such as the widgets on Home Screen (or are you talking about some specific type of widgeting feature that iOS doesn't have?).

> ios notification panel has like 3 different modes all with different capabilities and purposes depending on how you open it.

Can you show me this? Can't replicate that in any of my current iOS devices, not that notifications on iOS is good but this issue with Notification Centre has been fixed for a while.

> Scrolling on ios is slower and more jittery than Android these days which surprises me.

How did you measure this? I just went to try this out, scrolled through some browser pages and apps that have infinite scrolling my iPhone 12 Pro Max and my flatmate's OnePlus 9 Pro, no idea what you mean because the experience is, for me, very similar.

> Apps look squished and busy with text with ios' UI. Not always clear what's a button, what's swipable, whether you're deeply nested in navigation or at the top, etc.

This is due to you not using iOS perhaps, I have the same issue with Android after not using it at all for 6+ years, I don't understand the interface and what is interactive or not.

> ios seems to skip loading indicators and just show empty screens, which is really frustrating.

I don't experience this and it seems to be much more a critic of apps you've experienced it rather than iOS as an OS.

I am not an Apple fan, I just use their products because they suffice my use cases, but I feel you conflated some very different issues and subjective judgment stated as facts.

The general UI design is far simpler cleaner than iOS. iOS feels very dated. Notification dropdown is a big UI improvement. Navigation is better because of back button unlike the tiny back link in iOS. They did change the time picker which i had issues before because of the scroll picker(my hands are sweaty). These are wrt iPad, which i use mostly for testing iOS apps not a normal day to day use.

For better or for worse, being functional and having good (visual) design can often be measured distinctly. Ideally they go hand-in-hand (i.e., good visual design ought to positively serve functionality). Most of Android’s visual design, regardless of functional convenience and consistency, feels cobbled together by people who downloaded Inkscape. The typography, iconography, animation, etc. are, in my opinion, all off.

Its your opinion. As for me Android has a visual consistency which is not matched by iOS. As is said before iOS is dated. Though it has been dated fore few years. I still remember when i first got the iPad and saw the UI. I was like maybe i am on a older version. Nope latest version. Material design has been improving, need to see if this re-design is better than before.

Let me blow your mind:

If you swipe anywhere from the left edge of the display to the right, you can go to the previous screen, kind of like pages in a book.

(Doesn’t work on all apps, probably from developers than aren’t aware of the convention)

Let me blow your mind

My fellow developer did not know that you can long press on mac bottom bar like for years. He observed it when i did it. I think i even noticed it after many days. That's the problem with hidden gestures. Android the same issue when you hide the bottom bar. I just keep it on, swiping is anyway difficult when palms are sweaty.

> Would be nice to hear a practical example or two in order to understand from where your opinion springs.

Kinda amazing how all "practical examples" are being downvoted by Apple fans on this site :D

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