[acchow]

Why do you think Microsoft invented flat UI design?

I for one will miss the current iOS design. I'm 1 year into Android and I'm still way faster on iOS. There is a clear distinction between what is interaction vs. what is not and my eye instantly maps out the interactive elements on the screen.

[da_n]

Each to their own, I am the complete opposite. I came from an iPhone and switched to Android. I am much faster on Android, task switching is worlds apart, animations are faster and smoother, the apps I use follow Holo design language (this is by choice) meaning the UI is consistent and beautiful. I'm not saying it's perfect, there are some things I miss from iOS like unread badges (easy to get back with Nova Launcher however) and I did like Airplay, Android certainly has plenty of room to refine and improve, but it would take some massive and fundamental changes for me to consider switching back to iOS.

[coldtea]

>animations are faster and smoother

This is incorrect, and cannot be so for technical reasons. Even the Android OS team agrees on that.

Perhaps you had the "new toy" effect?

[fpgeek]

Citation please? Cannot seems like an unreasonably strong claim.

Given the way older iOS devices are often sluggish on newer OS releases, it seems entirely possible that the animations on the switched-from device were slower and less smooth than the animations on the switched-to device.

[coldtea]

Citation? Here, both sides actually:

http://www.inspiredgeek.com/2011/12/07/why-android-graphics-...

https://plus.google.com/100838276097451809262/posts/VDkV9XaJ...

https://plus.google.com/105051985738280261832/posts/2FXDCz8x...

http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/12/android-lag-attributed-to...

[scott_karana]

The latest of those citations is December 2011. They may not reflect the current state of the Android OS.

Android 4.1 and 4.2, codenamed "Jelly Bean", have been released since that time, with a "Project Butter" specifically aiming at GUI smoothness.

I haven't had a chance to use anything newer than 4.0, myself, so I'm merely pointing this out. It could be the same for all I know.

[sbuk]

Project butter did nothing for the Nexus S, which in my experience has been mady worse with Jelly Bean.

[VeejayRampay]

I can see how my comment could be interpreted as hinting that Microsoft invented flat UI design, yet it wasn't the point I was trying to make as it is most likely untrue :)

What I was going for here is that even though they didn't CREATE the movement of flat UI design, they most certainly helped its most recent resurgence in the "collective mind" by placing it back on the map with their Metro interface (which I think is actually pretty sweet yet still bears the marks of the older OS UI designs of the XP/Vista/7 era).

And I somehow feel that there's a difference in treatment between Microsoft and Apple (case in point is Microsoft brilliant technology for on-the-fly translations in video conferences which blew my mind). Just to be clear about my intentions with this here comment, I dislike Windows as an OS, switched to Linux about 10 years ago and I am currently and happily running OS X, this is not fanboy-ism.

[drivebyacct2]

Using my Dad's iPhone tonight was absolutely infuriating. I finally gave it back and told him to figure it out himself. That interface, the lack of a back button, it's so damn frustrating.

The IM button with my old email address magically taking me to Facebook was one thing, still no freaking clue why it took me to Facebook. And then I couldn't go "Back", because there is no "Back". I tried the in-app back button - no, that was a huge mistake. So I double-tapped the home key and choose Phone or Contacts or whatever it is... and guess what? It was a completely different contact. What the hell? How am I supposed to get back to where I just was?

[acchow]

Don't even get me started on the Android "back button". I am still regularly baffled by its behaviour. Especially when combined with the "app within an app" you get when one app launches into another. Except not really.

Android Police has a great writeup on Android design weirdness with a section titled 'The Back Button - Let's Just Rename It "Shuffle" '

http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/02/04/stock-android-isnt-p...

[drivebyacct2]

It goes backward. It goes wherever you just were, unless it takes you up a level, and if you just press it again, it takes you back to the app you were in. It's really not hard.

Contact app -> app an email address -> Gmail Compose window -BACK-> Contact app on the contact you were just on.

It takes you backward, it is what makes intents and app interaction work. I can understand why its confusing to an Apple user because there is no equivalent functionality in iOS.

Here, pretend there is no back button, yay! Android works like iOS and I'd go freaking insane. It sure as hell beats what happened to me in iOS tonight, who on Earth finds that usable? Every time one app invokes another I'm expected to go back to the homescreen and drill back down into the original app? Just shoot me.

[cube13]

> It goes backward. It goes wherever you just were, unless it takes you up a level, and if you just press it again, it takes you back to the app you were in. It's really not hard.

And there's no way to tell if you're at the first "point" of the current application(in which case it will switch you to the previous one), or if it will go back to another place within the app.

And the Android OS doesn't determine what the back button does. Individual applications do. So you're dealing with an OS control button that's extremely context sensitive and application specific. You don't know what the button's going to do until you use it in any app.

[drivebyacct2]

That's not quite the whole story. Some apps can inject extra state - so when I get an email, pull down and click, read the email and hit "back" it takes me to the inbox. Back again takes me right back where I was.

I mean, come on, someone give me an example of going app->app and the back button not getting you back to where you came from.

[dfxm12]

I don't think this is exactly what you are referring to, but there are apps, like feedly, where the back button brings you back to the home screen, and not back one screen. I don't know if this is because these apps are "ports" from iOS, or the devs are ignoring Android specific features to make it easier for themselves, or something else.

It's not Android's fault but it does frustrate me that different apps treat the hard button differently. FWIW I would rather have it this way than the way Apple handles it.

[prof_hobart]

>Here, pretend there is no back button, yay! Android works like iOS and I'd go freaking insane.

That's not really true. The vast majority of iOS apps with nested pages will have breadcrumb navigation at the top, with a big button either saying "Back" or telling you exactly where you will be going back to.

When you launch from one app into another, that's a different matter. I agree that can be annoying/confusing. But no more annoying/confusing than I've found with Android, where I've had some apps go back to the calling app and others going back up their internal chain (to what would normally be the parent screen of the one that you've landed on).

[cremnob]

I don't think you have to worry about it. They aren't going to make radical changes for the sake of tech geeks who are bored if the rest of the customer base likes things the way they are.