Please, oh please won’t you start putting some more time into the UI and UX design on your apps and games. I’m begging you.
I’ve been using Android on the HTC Desire now for little over 2 months and although I love this phone more than any man should ever love a piece of technology, my experience is constantly being ruined by the sloppy, slap-dash, minimum thought interfaces your apps carry.
Now I know you haven’t got the same hoops to jump through as those poor guys over in the iPhone app department and I know its easy to get carried away with those rounded corners and shiny gradients when you have no conventions to follow or snazzy design templates to download (hell, even the place you’re given to sell your apps looks like utter shit).
But please. Take some time out between writing the code and throwing it into the market place, to think about visual design and functionality of your product. Think about how people will use it and the frustration it will cause them if it just doesn’t work. Think about the fact that these people chose Android as the alternative and remember that they could have chosen iPhone OS.
It really is OK to make your buttons look the same as everyone elses, don’t reinvent the wheel, and its fine to make the interactions big enough for people to actually interact with. Its fine to help me out every now and again with a little bit direction on ‘what I need to do next’ or ‘where I need to go now’ after all I’m not stupid but sometimes your apps are!
You’re competing with Apple now, and you’re competing for their customers. Their users are use to things that look nice and work well, they like their apps sharp and well thought out. They won’t put up with anything less (so why are you making us).
Go on give it ago. If it doesn’t work out, then hey at least you tried. You could always give the Ovi Store as go.
Yours sincerely,
Lee Simpson
