mrspeedmaster
Android Expert
I don't think he is talking about the look of the GUI. The iPhone's strength's is the over-all consistency of the user interface. Apple sweats the little details that makes a big difference. The beauty of the iPhone is not the black background/rows of the application apps. The beauty is in the over-all user experience. The experience and expectations as you click on actions and the 'softwares' response to it. These user-experience scenarios have been copied and copied blatantly. You may not notice it but many do. For example, hold-press was never done until 2007. You simply can't do hold touch until capacitive multi-touch made a precedent. Pinch-n-zoom web browsing didn't happen till early this year. Even small stuff are blatantly copied like the scroll-wheel in dates/numbers. Have you see the alarm clock in the HTC incredible and evo? Blatant, 100% copies.
Android as a platform needs to step-up in terms of user-experience. Having a fast phone can only do so much. The 3GS (despite it's slower, slower) cpu can still auto-orient faster than all 3 1ghz snap-dragon phones (Nexus/Incredible/Evo).
I can also be very specific when I make these claims that Android is not on the same level in terms of polish in the user-interface level. For example, my HTC Incredible uses SENSE UI. My Motorola uses Motoblur. Sense UI is horrible UI. It looks pretty; using a nice thin sans font, black liquid design elements but overall, it looks like it was designed by an amateur. Many people are impressed by the "gloss" but to someone who knows design, it looks half-ass. I notice the design faults easily and I can easily defend this position. Here are some examples of how horrible the designs are.
You can disagree with me all you want but I'll be specific:
1) Inconsistent font sizes in menus.
E.G. Compare the font size in the HTC Music Player listing for songs/genres. Then look at the font size in just the HTC Mail.
2) Inconsistent UI menus. OK, each menu is specific for each app. But why do some menus have as 3-d border on top and some don't (e.G. Mail/Photo has the 3/d border and HTC car panel/HTC SMS Message/ etc don't have them).
3) Over-all inconsistent user inputs. This is my biggest issue. For example, if you go to the Google Marketplace, type in anything in the search field, hit the search button on the bottom, it goes out and searches the Internet and NOT within the marketplace. Now, if you go to the mail app and do the same thing, the button DOES search within the mail app.
I'll give you another glaringly bad example. In the default Sense layout. Go to the favorite tab (swipe right home). See the "+" Add contacts. It is in 2 different places (again; showing the immaturity of the designer). Click on either one. Normal action dictates that if you hit a "plus, or add" the next action is to add the user to your favorites? Correct? No, you can't even add the phone book user to your favorites. You have to dig down to the menu item and add it after the 1st click.
4) Inconsistency across apps. In addition the fact some apps ignore the search button and some use it, we inconsistent request element. The deletion of mail is on the left of the subject in GMAIL and the deletion request input is to the right on the normal mail client. So google uses a different approach to HTC's approach yet both are shipped as default for the phone. As an Incredible user, I use what is given to me. One uses a check metaphor with a sliding modal and another uses a "x" metaphor but you need 3 clicks on the HTC to get the same action as the double click on the GMAIL app.
These are mostly Sense UI (HTC problems). I can go into Moto-blur and stock Android UI problems. The problem is that there are no over-all UI consistency guidelines. When I started learning to program with the Android SDK, Google set forth some bare-bone framework but NO one really follows it; including Google. E.G. the app icon, the use of menus, g-sensor orientation,etc. Take a look at the bazillion file browsers out there - Astro, Aexplorer. Sure you get choice, but they all go in their own direction (different icons/different menus) and it destroys the overall OS experience.
Then you have apps like handcent sms, doubletwist that tries so hard to emulate the iPhone. And those two apps happen to be very popular.
Overall, it is a total free-for-all. Even though the iPhone's UI doesn't glossy, it works. I'm the guy who prefers functionality over gloss. E.G. I don't use wall-papers on my computers because my eyes get distracted. HTC's use of Photoshop lens-flares in their icons may look cool to the un-informed, but it is a sign of a designer who can't formulate a coherent UI.
The Liquid gloss meme on the HTC phones may look pretty. I even think it is cute but it doesn't hide the glaring UI problems I just raised. It is like buying a luxury car that uses fake veneer wood and pleather if you want to use a car analogy.
