Comparing iOS vs Android app user interface

While developing a mobile app for iOS or Android there are a few things to consider as to what are the best practices that would optimize your app performance and user experience. That’s what we call iOS and Android user interface. The smartphone market is separated between 2 main platforms: Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android with its own design style that defines how apps should work and look. Let us guide you through the key differences between iOS and Android.

iOS design vs Material Design

The design system for Android is called Material Design and it’s a standard for Android app design. Apple has ‚Human Interface Guidelines‘ with UI & UX details for iOS design. Material Design focuses on shadows and motions for elements to make navigation easy-to-use for users. Apple uses less shadowing elements but with vibrant colors to improve navigation. While iOS often centers the navigation bar titles Android aligns them to the left.

Navigation

On Android devices there are 3 bottom bar buttons (back, home and overview) which is the main part of Android’s navigation. After iPhone X Apple left the home button and replaced with a new gesture so designers have to ensure proper navigation in an iOS app.

Android user interface – Floating action button

One main difference between iOS and Android is the ‚FAB‘ button. This button has a higher priority and visibility than others. You can use this button for post, send, upload, etc .

Typography

Both systems have their own system font. Roboto, an open-source font for Android downloadable from Google Fonts. San Francisco has been designed only for Apple but it can be downloaded within Apple Human Interface Guideline for development use. The main difference is that Apple uses a font style hierarchy (vary with different font weights) while Android uses larger differences in font sizes.

Icons

Android mainly uses filled icons while iOS icons are lined style icons. But in this case there is overlap between the 2 systems. The icon style depends on the designer.

Menu

Traditionally Apple uses a bottom tab bar approach while on Android user interface we see the use of more hamburger menu in their interfaces. In a lot of use cases hamburger navigation is also preferred for iOS apps as well and it doesn’t cause confusion in users.

Development complexity

The difference between iOS and Android user interface in coding languages is not so complex in comparison. Both Apple and Android gears also have a wide range of different screen sizes. This should be taken into account when developing. The same thing is about the systems that operate on devices that should be considered while the mobile app creation.

Nowadays the boundaries between iOS and Android app design approach tend to be blurred. The reason is that the design of the interface should be user-centered design there is no wrong design guideline. The most important thing is to understand the needs of your user you are designing for. The interface should be easy-to-understand and it has to have a really clear navigation system.

Are you interested in developing your new app and want to know more about iOS and Android user interface options? Contact Swiss Tomato’s experts for further information!