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0 pointsbigyabai7mo ago0 comments

> You should make your applications good native citizens

It's time to retire this dead meme. The most successful SAASes in the world are just websites that people pay for hand-over-fist regardless of what OS they use. Netflix doesn't use Liquid Glass, Spotify doesn't bother. Google Docs isn't going to inherit it and probably neither will Office 365. Websites online by-and-large won't adopt this design either.

The ideal of everyone taking the time to make a sexy native UI is appealing. But it's never going to fully be realized, especially when OEMs resist basic A11Y obligations and insist on battery-draining eye candy.

0 comments

mckn1ght7mo ago

> taking the time to make a sexy native UI

It takes much more time to make your own custom UI, and then fix it every major update that breaks it somehow.

You can get a nice looking UI by just using stock components with minimal configuration and then you basically get platform UI refreshes for free.

bigyabaiOP7mo ago

If you're starting from the perspective of a native app developer, you're absolutely correct. However, most startups are going to be websites/Electron/CEF apps. It's much easier and cheaper to write-once-ship-everywhere with an ugly React UI than it is to jump through the hoops of writing special-snowflake versions for every OS under the sun.

It's basically negligent to insist on native apps, if profitability is your goal. I love native interfaces too, but the staunch belief in businesses being a "good native citizen" is a dead meme. It's cart-before-horse logic, we don't ever see anyone commit to the idea and reap real rewards. Native platforms punish you for playing by the rules.

eschaton7mo ago

It depends who your application is for. You obviously think building an application is about maximizing your profit, and your users are just a means to achieve that. If you were approaching your application from a “what’s best for my users” angle you might make different choices.

bicx7mo ago

If you are running a business with limited funding (which is most businesses), then your primary need is to seek profit in a world where profit is often never achieved at all. Otherwise, your business ceases to exist, along with your app. Sometimes that does mean emphasis on strong design, which I’d argue means delivering a great experience to your users rather than a native or non-native design choice. Other times, you’re serving a demographic that doesn’t care so much about that, and your focus is on functionality above all.

Zababa7mo ago

What's best for the users is often more "having the web app and app being the same" than "having it be different on every platform".

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