0:00:00Hello and welcome to Developing Perspective. Developing Perspective is a podcast discussing
0:00:05news of note and iOS development, Apple and the like. I'm your host, David Smith. I'm
0:00:09an independent iOS and Mac developer based in Herne, Virginia. This is show number 106,
0:00:14and today is Tuesday, January 29th. Developing Perspective is never longer than 15 minutes,
0:00:19so let's get started. The topic I wanted to talk about today is essentially the role that
0:00:23fashion plays in the creation of applications. And by fashion, I'm mostly talking about the
0:00:29visual appearance of applications and the way they look and the way they, to some degree,
0:00:33the way they behave and so are they gestural, are they non gestural. And I wanted to emphasize
0:00:38here, the role at which this is very much a fashion oriented activity, and how that
0:00:44should impact or influence how you develop things. And so to start off, I wanted to talk
0:00:49about how this sort of this ongoing, the end of discussion that seems to just be constantly
0:00:55circulating around the iOS development community, the press and people about it. And this is
0:01:00this whole sort of, I don't need the splits between skeuomorphic applications and non
0:01:04skeuomorphic or flat applications between gesture based and non gesture based, and how
0:01:10it's sort of this pendulum that swings back and forth between these two. And it's an interesting
0:01:14thing because in reality, the way I look at it, there's a discussion not necessarily about
0:01:20one being better than the other, or about one being gender universally more appropriate
0:01:27or whatever. It's a discussion about fashion. And fashion is a funny thing, because as they
0:01:32say, it's like, if you don't like, if you don't like, if you don't like the current
0:01:35fashions, just wait six months, you'll have something new. And there's a very similar
0:01:38thing in iOS or with anything that there's what people are constantly trying to do is
0:01:43to create something that stands out. And in order for something to stand out, it has to
0:01:47to be different or more improved upon what its peers are, what
0:01:51are the applications that are launching at the time
0:01:54or whatever.
0:01:55So if everyone starts launching very skeuomorphic applications
0:01:58or very richly textured, whatever term
0:02:00you want to use for it, visually very rich and dense
0:02:02applications, at some point when that creates certain saturation
0:02:06there'll be a reaction against it
0:02:08and have very minimalist applications.
0:02:10And everyone will have minimalist applications.
0:02:12And then in order to stand out, you
0:02:13have to go back to richly textured and so on.
0:02:16there'll be this, you know, this fashionable part of going back and forth. And that's fine.
0:02:20That's just part of the process. And I think it's important, though, to take that step
0:02:24back and understand that that's what's going on, rather than trying to view these things
0:02:27in kind of a religious debate or a fundamentalist debate in terms of it's, you know, one is
0:02:32better than the other one is fundamentally more significant. It's like the goal for any
0:02:36software application, whether it's visually rich, or whether it's visually simple, is
0:02:40to accomplish a goal in or entertaining user, you know, you're trying to be useful, you're
0:02:45trying to be fun. And you can do both of those things fairly well, you know, in both styles
0:02:50visually. It's mostly a question of usability is fairly universal across all of these things.
0:02:56You know, whether an app is designed from user-oriented perspective and designed to
0:03:00minimize confusion, minimize number of clicks, those types of things is something that will
0:03:05almost always be the same, irrespective of how it looks. You can take a poorly designed
0:03:09app and gussy it up however much as you want.
0:03:13And on the flip side, if you take a visually well thought
0:03:19out, excellently from the usability side app
0:03:22and put it into a very simple or basic UI,
0:03:26it'll still probably be a better app.
0:03:28And so just not focusing on those things in that way
0:03:32is probably worth having that mindset
0:03:35and thinking about it in that way.
0:03:37So then really, I guess the question becomes,
0:03:38like where does that leave us?
0:03:39if we understand that the way an app looks
0:03:42is a fashionable part of it.
0:03:43It's important.
0:03:44It's useful.
0:03:45It conveys information about the app and the usefulness of it
0:03:48and so on.
0:03:48But what does that mean in terms of as we're building it?
0:03:50And I think of apps that are good on both sides.
0:03:55And you can think of, for example, you take the app Paper,
0:03:58which is a drawing app for iPad that is very richly textured
0:04:03and it's aschomorphic, if you like that word.
0:04:05But it's a very rich user interface.
0:04:09And there, I think it works really well, because what they're doing is they're trying to create
0:04:14a sense of familiarity with a physical parallel.
0:04:18It's like you're drawing in a notebook.
0:04:21And it works really well at conveying that and making you comfortable with it in a way
0:04:24that if it was very simple and sleek, you may not have that context.
0:04:27So it's good in that case.
0:04:28On the flip side, you could think of an app like Clear, which is a to-do list.
0:04:33And part of what its goal is, is to reduce the amount of sort of Chrome and feature set
0:04:42around by the use of gestural interfaces and things.
0:04:46And so it makes a lot of sense there that their app is very visually simple as well.
0:04:51It doesn't make sense if you're trying to eliminate, you know, interface Chrome by the
0:04:55use of gestures to then have a very complicated and overwrought interface potentially because
0:05:01you're kind of sending mixed messages. So whichever side of that fashionable thing you're
0:05:05trying to be on, it's important that your app makes sense in that way. But all that
0:05:12being said, the thing that I wanted to emphasize, and this is something that I've done in a
0:05:15couple of my apps, and it's the importance and this relates directly back to fashion,
0:05:20it's the importance of what I would consider classic styles. And by that I mean, if you
0:05:25imagine in regular fashion, you know, just like normal, you know, Fifth Avenue fashion,
0:05:30There are certain looks and styles and things that you would consider classic, whether that
0:05:35is a men's suit, like a black suit with a white tie and a dark, a white shirt and a
0:05:42black tie is a very classic look.
0:05:45You can tweak and adjust it and so on, but it would have looked good today and it would
0:05:50have looked good 20 years ago, which makes it a classic thing.
0:05:53Or is it the classic, whatever, the little black dress
0:05:57for women, or jeans and a polo shirt, or something like that.
0:06:01There are a lot of looks that are just classic.
0:06:04And there are similar analogs when we're creating apps.
0:06:07And this is where often, while I end up building my applications,
0:06:10I often look for classic looks.
0:06:12And classic usually means whatever the native platform
0:06:16look and feel is.
0:06:17And I think of a lot of apps, that's
0:06:20actually a good way to go.
0:06:21And a lot of that is because it doesn't date itself at all.
0:06:26By the nature of being classic, if you
0:06:27build a classic interface, it'll look pretty good
0:06:31at any point in time.
0:06:32Even if it's in the context of a lot of rich apps,
0:06:35it'll look OK.
0:06:37If it's in a context of a lot of clean, simple apps,
0:06:39it'll still look OK.
0:06:40That's the nature of being classic.
0:06:42And so unless you have the design chops, the design
0:06:47budget and the desire to be updating the app as it goes, it's something that is often a
0:06:54great place to start, especially if you're a smaller or starting out independent. I'd
0:06:59strongly recommend hitting in that direction. It's one of those things that if you're going
0:07:03for a complicated or a non-classic user interface, you have to hit it. You have to really be
0:07:08able to pull it off. It's the same thing in the physical fashion world. Having an outrageous
0:07:13outfit works great if you can pull it off. If you can't, then it's worse than just having
0:07:18a normal outfit. You know, you really have to be able to invest fully into it and really
0:07:23kind of own it in order for it to work. And so kind of going halfway in between with that
0:07:27is just likely a dangerous thing. Some apps I think about that are good examples of this
0:07:33are the default mail app, for example, on iOS. Still basically the same as when it was
0:07:39first designed, I think it still works. It's visually, it's focused on content, gets out
0:07:44of your way, it's very easy to understand. It works. You look, think about the app, even
0:07:48like the original Tweedy or things that to do to list manager that are very native in
0:07:53their look and feel. They still look pretty near natural and at home on the platform.
0:07:58And also the advantage of native applications from a technical side is you get to take advantage
0:08:02of the improvements or tweaks and changes
0:08:05that the OS vendors are doing, essentially for free.
0:08:10I mean, as an example, I think about the on/off switch in iOS,
0:08:14where it used to be a square thing, and now it's rounded.
0:08:16And that was kind of a stylistic change and a thing,
0:08:18but that just came for free when you upgraded to iOS 5.
0:08:22All of a sudden, all your things look that way,
0:08:24and they kind of had that slightly--
0:08:26got a fresh coat of paint, essentially, for free.
0:08:29And so you get to take advantage of that.
0:08:31They've changed some of the gradients, some of the styles,
0:08:33some of the things in iOS 6.
0:08:35Your app can get to a fresher look
0:08:37that you didn't have to work for.
0:08:38Obviously, you need to make sure your app still works
0:08:40and looks good in that way.
0:08:41But it's nice to be able to take advantage of that.
0:08:43If I had created a custom on/off switch prior to iOS 5,
0:08:47and the new one comes out, I'd have
0:08:48to go through and do that work to make that happen.
0:08:52So often, it makes sense to just start there.
0:08:55Also, one of the parts of this that I wanted to mention
0:08:57is I think starting with a classic design
0:09:00allows you to focus on the right things at the right time.
0:09:04Whenever I'm building an application to start out with,
0:09:06I almost always use just straight native regular controls
0:09:09to start.
0:09:10And then I'll gradually work to replace and build those
0:09:14and change and build those up over time.
0:09:16So if I'm building an application that
0:09:18has a fairly-- check the weather--
0:09:20is a fairly minimalist or simple interface,
0:09:22it started off in my early components,
0:09:25my early development.
0:09:26It was all very native looking and basic.
0:09:28And that allows me to focus on the things that matter.
0:09:30you know, the user interactivity, the, the overall usefulness and functionality, data
0:09:35flow, the functionality, performance, those kinds of things that aren't, have nothing
0:09:40to do with how it looks that have everything to do with how it feels and how it works.
0:09:45And so it's an important thing, I think, to start off that way, rather than allowing yourself
0:09:50to get too sucked into how it looks and making it visually very appealing. And instead, you
0:09:55just be able to say, you know what, I'm going to make it work correctly first, and then
0:10:01I'll make it look good after.
0:10:03And obviously I'm not talking about user interactivity as part of that.
0:10:06Obviously, having a well-designed app from a user flow usability perspective is a different
0:10:11thing than the pixels that you're pushing, which I think hopefully I've been clear on
0:10:15that.
0:10:16But that is something that I tend to do late.
0:10:18And also, if you take that approach and you work on a classic style first, if you decide
0:10:24for whatever reason that you don't have time or interest
0:10:26in expanding that or changing that to be fashionable,
0:10:28to be either a richly textured app
0:10:32or a reaction to that in a very simple way,
0:10:34you have the space and the latitude to do that.
0:10:37You have the ability to come in
0:10:38and to enhance or not enhance as makes sense.
0:10:42All right, and so that's it for today's show.
0:10:44Just something I wanted to talk about.
0:10:45It seems like there's constant back and forth about it,
0:10:47and it's just like, at the end of the day, it's just fashion.
0:10:50And, you know, whatever, right now we're heading
0:10:53in this path of simple and elegant and stripped down.
0:10:57I'm pretty sure if I'm still doing this podcast
0:10:59in a year or two, we'll be having the flip back.
0:11:02There'll be some marquee app that comes out
0:11:04with a deeply rich texture and skeuomorphic
0:11:08and all these types of things.
0:11:10And it'll be, oh wow, check this out,
0:11:12isn't that amazing?
0:11:13It's like, yep, that's the nature of fashion.
0:11:15And it happens back and forth all the time.
0:11:17And that's how I expect it to be
0:11:18and just like stop worrying about it.
0:11:20And I'm gonna keep generally building classic apps
0:11:22because it's easier, I'm not a pixel pusher in that way,
0:11:26and it gives me a lot of flexibility to focus
0:11:29on the things that I think are really important.
0:11:31So that's it for today's show.
0:11:32As always, if you have questions, comments, concerns,
0:11:35or complaints, I'm on Twitter @_davidsmith.
0:11:37I'm on AppNet @davidsmith.
0:11:39The email for the show, if you want to email me,
0:11:41is david@developingperspective.com.
0:11:43That's new.
0:11:44I set it up so it would probably be a little bit simpler
0:11:46if you wanted to give me feedback,
0:11:47follow up, those types of things.
0:11:49Again, I wanted to mention I'm going
0:11:50to be in Macworld starting tomorrow, Thursday,
0:11:52Friday.
0:11:52And so if you're a listener and want to meet me,
0:11:54just contact me in some way, and we'll try and work it out.
0:11:57At this point, I don't really know
0:11:59what that's going to look like.
0:12:00But just make yourself known, and I will do my best
0:12:03to meet up.
0:12:04And it's always fun to meet fans.
0:12:05Otherwise, we have a great week.
0:12:06I probably won't do a second show this week
0:12:08because of Macworld.
0:12:09So this will be it for the week.
0:12:10And I'll talk to you next week.
0:12:11Hope you have a great week.
0:12:12Happy coding.
0:12:13And I'll talk to you later.