[nnq]

> Coherent UI is a very important point to users

Nah, it ain't. At all! I used to believe it did. That's what we geeks think. And on mobile it doesn't matters for us either - keybings working consistently doesn't matter you're only using touch...

Same thing with React Native, everyone thought it's awesome because native UI controls. But users never care about that. For touch UIs it's more user friendly to have you app be friendly by being unique. The thing that "users prefer native" was just because users like fast and responsive UIs, if Flutter can provide fast and responsive UIs, nobody cares if it isn't native.

Even on desktop, the best UIs I've ever seen (take the new Blender's 2.8 widely appreciated UI) just use OpenGL and draw their own widgets.

People say they care about "coherence" or "consistency" when they are too clueless to figure out what's actually broken about their UIs, so they assume this is the issue. An awesome UX/I is one that would keep being awesome even if each and every button would have a different and inconsistent style, what matters is higher level. Let us stop bitching about things being incoherent or inconsistent when the actual issue is the lack of ability to figure out what is so wrong with a UI that it hinders users!

(Oh, and everyone will always want custom branding and styles, whether we like it or not... We need technology that can embrace uniqueness and incoherence and inconsistency and make it work properly and shippable in time!)

[saagarjha]

> People say they care about "coherence" or "consistency" when they are too clueless to figure out what's actually broken about their UIs, so they assume this is the issue.

I see developers push for non-native UI all the time because they think their users are too stupid to tell the difference. They're not.

[nnq]

I guess you're right. Users do tell the difference! But they usually tell the difference between laggy (even 100ms IS noticeable!) and janky UI vs. snappy & smooth UI. It's not about the graphic styles and font widths and such. It's about being fast even on overloaded cheap devices in power saving mode, and don't doing anything too weird or non-sensical.

TBH I'm not sure Flutter can be fast and smooth enough for all... the market is full of crappy devices and even the good ones perform badly when their RAM is maxed out and CPU throttled bc of battery saving.

Maybe full native is the way to go. But not because of "perfect" shadows and font widths... Users care about consistency of stile inside one app, not app-style vs. system-style.

[cjaybo]

> Users care about consistency of stile inside one app, not app-style vs. system-style.

Do you have a source for this claim? This conflicts with the results of some UX studies I've seen.

[telotortium]

What studies have you seen?

[hitekker]

I've often encountered this sentiment as a rationalization: these developers know their product looks and feels inferior, but they've already invested (their egos) in the "amazing" and "magical" <insert framework/technology/approach here>. Eventually, the consequences of prioritizing their comfort over their customers emerge, and the developers either defend their tools to the death or slink away to the next "slick" solution.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

[s_y_n_t_a_x]

[citation needed]

All of my experience as a user and developer points me the other way, so I'll need some proof to be convinced.

[mstade]

Neither you nor the parent poster substantiate your assertions with sources, which made me curious of what research might have been done in this area. Some cursory searching lead me to this reasonably well sourced answer, which suggests the parent poster is right in this case: https://ux.stackexchange.com/a/39295

[nnq]

Sorry, but your linked source is off-topic, ancient (2013!), and compares the wrong things (native mobile apps vs. old-generation-hybrid-web-mobile apps).

The relevant comparison here would be between:

- (1) truly native uni-platform mobile apps (native Android and native iOS apps)

- (2) cross-platform mobile apps using native widgets (not sure if there's any alternative to React Native here)

- (3) cross-platform mobile apps that draw their own ui, but NOT using web technologies: Flutter is the only obvious example (there are older things like Kivy which uses Python and OpenGL but I think it was mostly used for games and kids app, not that popular)

Web-techs-based hybrid-mobile apps are a different thing (Cordova, Ionic etc.) and, yes, there everyone agreed they feel inferior to users, just as mobile optimized websites feel inferior.

Unfortunately this is the problem here, it's incredibly easy to compare apples to oranges here, I don't blame, just saying that all sources are misleading, probably it's better to play with few things and see the "gut feeling"... it's pretty obvious that underlying tech and whether the widgets are drawn natively or not is NEVER a differentiator between successful and unsuccessful apps, it's always all the other things :)

[twic]

> ancient (2013!)

Computer programming is a hell of a drug.

[karma_fountain]

I gather they are saying web apps you use on your mobile verses apps you download to your phone. That's not really native versus non-native.

[amw-zero]

I can’t agree with you. Inconsistent UI is not what users want at all. I hear them complain about it all the time.