Comment by klabb3
1 month ago
> But it's still a flat design, and thus does not properly transport clickability.
And toggled / disabled states. With mobile’s lack of hover, it’s often a game of trial and error to figure out what’s even interactable.
> And their weird approach for the color schemes still leads to an ugly mess, pastel with weird contrasts and color combinations that just are ugly.
It looks like a poster for a party. To extrapolate, it feels like the lineage is digital marketing, especially video centric content on mobile-exclusive byte sized attention-scape. This style draws less attention to your options (what you can do), and more towards content (what’s provided for you). It’s reduced decision making, highlighting the happy/desired path even more. No wonder it scores higher in user testing - it requires less thinking IF you take the happy path.
I’d imagine it works great for simple commercial products with single call to actions. But for apps (not posters) it leaves a lot on the table.
> And toggled / disabled states. With mobile’s lack of hover, it’s often a game of trial and error to figure out what’s even interactable.
The toggle switch is one of the worst UI conventions to come out of mobile IMO and I get irrationally irate when I see it in desktop UIs with a mouse and keyboard.
A simple checkbox would have done just fine, we've those since forever, and they clearly convey either an on or off state.
Nope, not good enough, we need a toggle switch. Which color or direction is on or off? Who knows, because everyone implements it differently.
> A simple checkbox would have done just fine
Simple is in the eye of the beholder. Try asking a younger person which one is simpler. The checkbox is tied to a form, ticking it doesn’t do anything until you submit, whereas a toggle switch activates immediately.
> Which color or direction is on or off?
The colored state (green or blue) means enabled. The switch knob is always to the right. I have seen confusing designs too, but they are rare.
I get your point but they’re all the same: colored/saturated: on. White/grey: off
Material v2 massively desaturated all colors though. On my phone it's technically a little purple but essentially light gray is on and darker gray is off.
https://i.imgur.com/QiCEguh.png
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True enough, but there's still UX improvements to be made.
Most toggles you could fit the word "On" and "Off" within the blank area of the switch to have text that indicates its state as well. Or maybe even vertical toggles that mimic physical light switches.
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> This style draws less attention to your options (what you can do), and more towards content (what’s provided for you)
I see this is as a good thing, apps are finally being designed with the assumption that people will use them more than once. Previous design systems prioritize "first discovery" so much it gets in the way once you're a regular user. Once you know your way around the actual content of the app should be most of the screen.