Why do Android apps look visually unappealing

[jamex]

Why do Android apps look so visually unappealing compared to the same app on Webos which was my previous phone and even the Iphone OS? Is it the polished theme these phones use or is it poorly designed apps for Android?

Is it a technical limitation? Is the OS limited to such grainy colors or is it lazy developers? I am leaning towards a technical limitation.

Is it a good / bad thing that Android has uglier apps? I'm not sure yet,good to focus on content I guess, but presentation should count for something.

 

[frunkiss]

I believe it's because the newer android phones have higher resolution and the developers haven't optimized them for larger and higher res screens.
AND many developers are coders are not graphic designers.
It would be nice to see some better looking apps.

 

[jamex]

I don't think that's the problem. I am looking at the same apps from major developers and the Android app look like a sticker on a paper. Colors look washed out like everything is rendered in 16bit or 8bit color. It's like looking at Windows 3.1.

I think it has something to do with the UI unpolished theme.

 

[capnhowdy18]

It has to do with the way they are designed. Apple has a more graphical approach to the ui design. However even the simplest of apps are a couple megs big. For instance, aim on iphone is 5.7mb where it is only .66m on android.

This is because the graphics are usually baked into the program as screens. I believe the screens are pre-rendered, to a degree, on the iphone os.

The android ones are based on java and designed to be much more lightweight. The screens are simple xml files and rendered on the fly through the android os.

 

[jamex]

Thank you for that explanation but isn't WebOS very similiar to Android with the Linux kernel and java. WebOS has a much more polished UI compared to Android and the Apps look so much better. I would actually prefer a few more megs for a better presentation than what I am looking at. It reminds me so much of Windows Mobile and that was so many years ago. This is 2010 but Android has a dated look to it.

 

[wayne]

i agree i had a palm pre and the apps look so much better but at the end of the day i guess as long as it works am cool

 

[frunkiss]

Android has grown at a rate much faster than other os. It's more difficult to keep up

 

[melwan]

It's definitely the devs fault, not the OS. Look at TweetDeck beta and u will see that android has no issue rendering graphics.

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk

 

[FuManChuu]

Webos has a ton of built in ui Widgets... so developers can just drop in a button, a banner, blah blah and it all looks native. Android however has far less presupplied for developers visually. Another huge hurdle with android is resolution, where all ios can be hard coded

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[jamex]

Webos has a ton of built in ui Widgets... so developers can just drop in a button, a banner, blah blah and it all looks native. Android however has far less presupplied for developers visually. Another huge hurdle with android is resolution, where all ios can be hard coded

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

I think that explains it.