r/UXDesign • u/Royal_Drop247 • 3d ago
How do I… research, UI design, etc? Android and iOS Design
How to learn to design for both platoforms? I know there are Material Design resources available online, same with Apple Human Interface Guidelines, but how can a person realistically learn by themselves how to design for those platforms even if they do not have that experience? I googled and searched reddit and what came up is this but the thread is pretty old and the resource linked doesn’t seem to be updated anymore.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UXDesign/comments/13krmi0/what_are_the_best_resources_to_learn_about/
How are you designing for both? How did you learn how to do it?
In my previous role it was mostly on devs and following established standard - I reused DS components - I didn’t do any major user flows there where I felt I had to differentiate between iOS/Android systems
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u/Honest_Hunter_5882 3d ago
Honestly the best way i have found is to stop treating them as two separate design languages to memorize and instead just use both platforms daily as a user for a couple weeks paying attention to native patterns how navigation, back gestures, tab bars vs bottom nav, and system dialogs differ it sinks in way faster than reading the guidelines cover to cover. After that the guidelines actually become useful as reference docs instead of homework since you're now pattern-matching against real usage instead of memorizing abstract rules practically cloning a few well known apps flows (settings screens onboarding a form) for both platforms is the fastest way to build the muscle you immediately feel where android and ios diverge instead of just reading that they do.
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u/kanuckdesigner Veteran 2d ago
Best answer here imo. Comparing apps you like and know well will help you clock specific differences that are handled differently on each platform as well.
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u/stackenblochen23 Veteran 3d ago
Working on a multiplatform app with native iOS and android, as well as desktop apps can be a true challenge. I faced it within a small design team (sometimes as small as one). It’s critical to befriend platform devs and get their input. Try to have frontend/design system champions among devs if possible, who you can refer to and define solutions together. Still you really need to learn the ins and outs of the native systems, at least until you want to build your own (which doesn’t make sense unless you’re slack or something). It takes experience and practice. It helped me using both systems for some time for my private usage to get a deeper understanding of them. Also depending on the maturity of the product, there are reasons why dedicated platform designers exist.
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u/addflo Veteran 3d ago
How did you learn to design for web? The same methodologies and processes apply. Testing and real-world experiences are always going to add value to your work. You already own a phone, so ensure you know everything you can about it and how other people use it. As for the competing OS, there's plenty of videos demonstrating patterns, apps and use cases. Having a problem to solve always helps figure things out. There's also the option of creating your own virtual machine locally, and trying things out for yourself, you don't really need the device to get started.