Apple iOS and Google Android user interface style comparison and technical summary

The apple ISO system and Google Android user interface are very simple and beautiful, but the style is still different. Personally, in the design style alone, most of the time, I seem to prefer Google's Android system, although I now use the 3GS, perhaps this is the reason, and then a good design to see how much will be some aesthetic fatigue.

In this article, I will intercept the same functional interface of iOS and Android, with a total of five parts: a lock screen interface, a dial-up interface, a browser interface, a keyboard interface, and other elements. I will make a comparison of them from the design style, extract the implementation of which you may be concerned about the technology, so that people from the design of ideas and techniques to understand the differences between them, through this comparative analysis to improve our own design level. In addition, I have collected the Apple iphone and the ipad iOS system and the Google Android system interface complete design PSD file here for you to download research.

Here we go.

One, the lock screen interface

It can be observed that the iphone's lock screen interface in the time and the lock has a transparent high light style background, the High light section has a very clear line, the edge of the 1-pixel high light is also very eye-catching, the overall feeling of the entire surface is very smooth, like a glass-like texture. Transparent use of the entire interface is not abruptly divided into three parts, but let the desktop image from the back through to expand the scope of sight, so that the entire interface feel more breathable. The slider button uses a gray gradient, but continues the style, and you can clearly see the line between the high light and the shaded part. In the overall color selection of different levels of gray, easy to match a variety of desktop pictures.

Here we take a look at the technology used for transparent, high light backgrounds. By looking at the source file, we can see that the most important part of it is actually the technical application of the gradient overlay in the layer style. The upper part of the high light applies a gray gradient from the top to the bottom, and the lower part is simply black. The following picture shows the specific color value, of course, this is not the only value, just let everyone do a reference. After you finish the gradient overlay, reduce the opacity of the gradient overlay to 55%, and then lower the layer's fill opacity to 0% on the layers panel.

This is the way I do it, and you can try it yourself.

Android looks softer than the iphone's interface because there is no significant difference between light and shadow on the surface of the element, but it is much more intense than the iphone to look at the shaded parts of the Android elements. If iOS designers prefer to use highlights, Android's designers may be more inclined to use shadows skillfully. You can see that a very significant shadow effect is used in the time text section, the Unlock button, and the Background section, the volume button, and the Background section. In addition, unlike iOS overall gray design, the Android interface in the gray with saturation and high brightness of the yellow green, so that the use of this color element is very eye-catching.

Here we focus on the Android system unlock button creation method, Volume button creation method is the same as the color is different. All of these effects are implemented using layer styles. First look at the gray background, where the shadow is achieved by the outer glow style, the element surface is a dark gray to dark gray faint gradient, bevel and Emboss style outlines the top of the high light and bottom of the shadow, and finally reduce the layer opacity to 85%. The green unlock key uses the inner shadow to make the high light, from top to bottom from black to white, blending mode for the progressive gradient to complete the inner shadow, which is the sunken effect. Specific parameter settings you can see through the PSD file.

Second, dial-up interface

The iphone's dial-up interface uses blue as a whole, but there is a difference in brightness and saturation, which is rich and harmonious. Web design is the same, although we may not use a lot of colors, but let them in the saturation and brightness of the difference, not only will not have a monotonous feeling, but will feel that the level is very rich. The only big difference in color is the green Dial out button, you can think about why the color is only used here and other parts of hue? Yes, just let it out, because it's functionally important, so give it another color. That's why the buttons on the Web page that are "login," "Register," "Download," and "buy" are big and eye-catching. In addition, you can see this glass-like texture of high light and shadow in the upper and lower parts of the interface. This style runs through the entire design of the iphone interface.

As with the above transparent background of the creation method, the Green Dial button on the glass texture is also used to achieve the gradient overlay. Here are the specific parameter settings that you can learn once again about how this glass texture button creates the technique.

The entire interface of Android is black, with gray in the upper and lower parts, and an important place to jump out with a high saturation of bright yellow green. As you can see, in the green background of dialing key 1, the same layer style applied with the inner glow adds an inner shadow to the key, maintaining a consistent style.

Third, the browser interface