Which is Better? Android vs iOS: Comparing UI Design
The smart phone application market is separated between two leading platform that currently set the trends in mobile App design. They are, of course, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, both consistently working on creating their own design style that defines all the aspects of how Apps should work and look.
I’d first like to point out some of the key UI differences between Android and iOS:
MATERIAL DESIGN Vs FLAT DESIGN
The design rules for Android is called Material Design language, while iOS has its Flat Design guidelines. Google released the material design a few years ago and has become a standard for Android app design. Unlike Google material design, the flat design released by Apple doesn’t have an official name (Human Interface guidelines). Material Design focuses a lot on shadows and motions for elements to make navigation easier for the users. On the other hand Apple guidelines mostly use flat design with less shadowing which gives elements a layer feeling on top of each other (thats why iOS design usually use more vibrant colors to make navigation easier). Also for Apple guidelines content comes first, content which help the users to navigate through the pages easily. One other key pattern difference is that iOS titles tend to be centered whereas Android titles are placed on the left.
Methods of Navigation
As Android devices have usually 3 buttons (back, home, and overview) which enable users to do most things on the phone, iPhones has no navigation button on their new generations (older generations use to have one home button). Lack of home button makes iOS designers to ensure a proper navigation within the design of the application. Because there is no back button on iPhones, Apple introduced a new gesture of swiping from left to right in apps to go back.
Floating Action Button (FAB)
One of the very distinct differences between the two systems is the FAB button, which is a highly recognizable component of Android. It is used to display the most commonly used options on the certain screens and thanks to its location, can be used in different parts of the interface. The equivalent of the FAB button for iOS is just another ‘Call To Action’ button which simply allows the user to take some action. Some of these buttons may have higher priority or visibility than others. Actions buttons like Tweet, Upload, Post update, etc.
Typography
Both systems recommend using their own system fonts, Roboto for Android and San Francisco for iOS. The basic sizes of the text are similar, but Material Design uses a larger difference in font sizes and their layout, while iOS builds the text hierarchy mainly by using bold type. Another characteristic of Android is also that in this platform more white space is used between texts.
Checkbox
One other elements that we see is different between the two platforms is the style of checkbox (in the image above you could see the the difference).
Icons
Both use 8 grid style, but Android uses filled icons, while iOS icons are created from a single line which are unfilled. Recent trends, however, show that these rules are often overlooked on both platforms.
Hamburger Menu Vs Bottom Tab Approach
Android design tend to use more Hamburger Menu in their interface design while iOS use Bottom Tab Approach (this difference is less seen recently both designers been using similar navigation elements to make the job for the users easier).
THE SIMPLE TRUTH
As I have in this article explained the key differences between User Interface of Android Vs iPhone. Nowadays with over 2 million apps to choose from in the apps store, you see less and less designers restricting themselves to specific guidelines. The simple truth is design of interface should be user-centered design there is no right or wrong design guidelines, you should always keep in mind the user you are designing for. Your users are in which industry, whats their education, whats their background and how you could make your interface easy to understand and simple to navigate for THEM!
