Indie Devs... Don't Fall Into This Trap

Indie app developers have to do it all. In this video I make the case for why a custom app design for iOS is not the best use of your time, money and resources. Most indie devs think they need a custom design to make their app unique and special, but this is not the case. Stop designing your apps and let Apple do the heavy lifting.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - No more custom designs
0:34 - Apple's design language
0:58 - Your design skills aren't great
1:24 - Nothing is absolute
1:46 - Apple evolves and so do you
2:30 - Use your time wisely

[sclausen]

Great take Sean! I agree with this, but as you said nothing is absolute. Here's a similar take, from a designers perspective: As a designer I've has been through so many buggy implementations of my customs/semi-custom designs. Using native components create a solid baseline that simply works, every time (almost). Over time I shifted my focus to customize very few things in the products I work on. But the things I do customize are central to the product.
Example: The play button in a podcast app, the input field in a money transfer app, the main status graph in a tracking app.

These elements almost serve like a second logo for products. With very little effort, you can still stand out in the sea of generic apps, and move way faster than the sea of overly designed apps.

Put your time and effort into what your users interact with the most, and stop reinventing lists, view transitions, navigation bars, tab bars and so on.

[ammarahmad]

I agree with you 100% because I spent a lot of time looking for UI & UX design resources and every time I found Apple did the best of them all especially when you want your app integrates with the Apple eco design system.

[TheBalkanSpy]

Agree 100%. I am just getting back into UX/UI design after 10 years in another industry and I feel like so many of these YouTube designers are wasting peoples time with these crazy designs and animations and what not. Don’t waste your time, focus on the basic/intermediate/advanced user NEEDS, those needs can be achieved by simple modern design and focused more on the actual features and ux flow of your product…

Don’t fall into the pig with lipstick trap that I see soo many trapped in with extreme focus on creating really nit picky custom designs and forgetting who their users are and that most of them might be too old/young or not so tech savvy to understand these designs and animations.

By all means, try your best to design a beautiful product, and take your time with selecting the most appropriate color palette for the brand and purpose, but beyond that put the most energy where it matters the most after design itself.

[christostsangaris]

As an indie dev who is building apps just as a hobby, i like the process of UI/UX a lot. But i have to agree with Sean: most of the times if you follow Apple’s guidelines you are golden. But if you build an app that accomplishes the same task as hundreds of other apps then maybe a custom UI/UX can help you float on top. Great advice as always by Sean!

[WestCoastAce]

Agree. Form follows Function. If you can quickly and easily add a few features that stand out, fine. Otherwise it’s all about delivering value.

[thelambsauce]

Never thought I'd need this. I always worried about my app not looking good and unique enough. (More than 2 years of experience). Thank you Sean!

[ferocious_lad]

Hey thnx for the advice mate. You don’t have any idea much time you saved me. I had earlier wasted 2 days just perfecting the login screen of my iOS app making it look professional but then I also need to make it work on all screen sizes which took lot of time and demotivated me for my idea

Truly, you advice brought me back to senses now I only focus on the core functionality of the App

[omarradcliffe]

Great advice, you have confirmed what I’ve always thought. I’m not good at designing and I use to struggle with storyboard/UIKit, SwiftUI is a game changer for me..

[cliftontv]

@Sean this video aged like wine. 11 months later and I believe you saved me a TON of design time. I think that was just another excuse for me to find something else to do it complete the project. “Oh, I gotta learn how to do design like they do over at Design+Code (Meng is great, by the way)”

Thanks again!

[KioCoan]

This is so true. Even for apps that have a really large user base.
I strongly believe that part of our work as iOS devs/engineers is to debate and recommend the usage of native Apple UI components.
I understand that as a designer you want the app that you are working look great and differentiate from others. But some times the trade-offs are just not worth it. Custom designs usually means given up of default behaviors that users are used to. And you are always hostage of some big iOS change breaking your component, or if Apple adds a new feature you will need to expend more time to add that to yours.
Again, I'm not against custom designs, but they have the correct time and place to be used.

[andrewshomemovies]

This is my first time seeing your indie dev content after your recent tweet about the dip and it's great dude. Definitely think you should throw your face on the thumbnail, but keep it coming. Another thought is that maybe people don't immediately recognize the term "indie dev." Maybe throw iOS into the title?

[vkratinov]

True, I just recently switched from UIKit and started to learn SwiftUI. There was almost no content about custom design on UIKit, which I cannot say about SwiftUI, - and every time I look at one of those designs - It looks shiny and fancy, but for some reason, there is no feeling that you want to use it from an end-user perspective. So maybe you're right on this point.

[SHOLINGER]

needed this clarity,


thanks for the upload .

[nishaykumar]

I am a student and I recently made a project using SwiftUI. After finishing the project I found out that I was not following any apple's design language and that's the reason I was taking a lot of time on my project.

Thank you for this video, Now I got a clear idea.

[bitwisedevs]

This is what happened to me in my early days as mobile app dev spending ridiculous amount of time like an obsession. Those flashy custom UI libraries that has awesome animation and style will be your enemy in the future specially during deprecation. It is always best to use the UI component provided by Apple or Google itself to avoid issue maintaining it. Unfortunately this custom UIs are very popular among UI/UX designer and crossplatform developer without thinking of the future maintainability.

[richardwinters]

Apple is making standards in UI/UX world. Avoiding their guidelines is a waste of time.
As an indie dev for last few years and about 10 App Store apps, my advice would be to focus on functionality and lunch a quality MVP of the app, you will have a time for improving UI later.

[SeriousCat]

Hi Sean, I agree about this for general purpose apps but what about if you're working on a game? I don't play a lot of games on iOS but from what I have played over the years I don't recall one that didn't use a custom UI for the games menus, labels, etc.

[miodragradosavljevic]

I cant find a video where you have 3 slides and you explain: core skills, extension skills and seven things: core skills, extension skills, common mistakes, learning sources, connecting to comunity, how long it will take, preapering to apply for job.

[mohamethseck]

I miss watching your videos. Just started getting back into iOS again so I'll be around lol

[aether-quinque]

Yes! And that’s why you should avoid cross platform frameworks, because they just do not provide ready to use components, especially React Native