E-commerce apps: mistakes of design on Android

Living well isn't against the law. Apparently companies, which mimic iOS interfaces in their Android applications guide this phrase. Read in our article about what mistakes are most often encountered and why you do not need to make them.

In general, there is a special guideline for applications that are made on Android. However, they violate it. For example, Instagram and its lower tabbar. Moreover, Google’s applications also ignore them: Play Music and Play Books have placed the “Settings” button in the Navigation Drawer. Although six months before that, Android Design In Action banned this.

Is it correct? Yes and no.

So it’s impossible to retreat from the guideline at all?

Guidelines are needed not only for unification but also for the prevention of various errors. Therefore, the more deviations from the rules developers make, the higher the chance of a problematic operation of a future application. 

However, sometimes you can break the rules.

To do this, the specialist must be ... a specialist (incredible!).

And the concept as a whole is thought out and substantiated.

Creation does not tolerate the limits. But for creation, it is worth going through the stage of artisan. In other words, to be able to create a high-quality, error-free medium product. However, there are several points that you should not violate, even if you are Leonardo Da Vinci from the development. After all, it looks stupid and sometimes funny.

The cake is a lie

Do not stylize your interface under iOS (6, 7 or any other), as well as under Windows Phone. This applies to buttons, fields, etc. Everyone still understands that this is Android ... Why?

Do you think that no one does this? But no. Developers are asked to help and suggest to them how to do this. In addition, there are many launchers whose purpose is to make Android look like iOS visually. For example, iLauncher - OS or OS9 Launcher HD.

As for applications, this also occurs.

Let infrequently.

Tabbar at the bottom

Usually, this is due to the laziness of the developers. At least we want to believe that this is laziness. And not the hope of companies that there are those that use their product on both Android and iOS at the same time. Make 2 different designs, and do not copy the one that is already ready for a more profitable version.

In addition, in Android there is no such thing as a tabbar. There is only a tab. And the correct tabs in this OS are at the top. They also hide when a person goes to the internal screen. However, in the case of some applications, for example, Wildberries, for some reason this does not happen.

Problems with Navigation Drawer

Globally there are only two.

Excess on panel

Here, even Google’s opinion is in superposition. In general, the sidebar is for navigation only. But now there (below) sometimes there are also “Help”, “Leave feedback” and other buttons.

Companies mix the navigation bar with the action bar. However, this confuses the user, depriving the application of intuitiveness and predictability (predictability in a good way). Therefore, if you set the goal of “reaching a large audience”, do not do so.

Replacing strips on .. and for what? (and why)

 It looks strange and confusing users. Initially, the Navigation Drawer has three horizontal stripes. But some applications replace them with a back arrow, a circle, etc. There is no sense in this, no more effective and efficient.

Modal Download Dialogs

Must die. A healthy Android application displays a download indicator directly on the screen (and not on the background, in a separate plate). This looks better, more natural for this OS, and also requires less designer effort. Think about it.

And something else

The lack of horizontal (landscape) orientation upsets users. Especially motorists and tablet owners. Many Android applications do not have this layout, so it is far from always convenient to use them.

At the same time, they assure in Android Design In Action: you can fix the "problem" quickly enough. An ordinary developer will take no more than two weeks to do this.

Conclusion 

Listen to these recommendations, they will not repel those users that you have but will attract new ones. If it’s hard for you to fix everything yourself or you are going to create an application from scratch - write to us. We make IT products on both Android and iOS, but we never use the same templates. (;