So the problem with the Apple Review process is that Apple is making the decisions on what constitutes good or bad UI.

The Google Play store (and others) already give you feedback - customers give ratings and can provide a comment. This is much better than a central authority dictating what is good and what is bad.

There are many apls that have no need for a great UI - that a perhaps more functional in nature than aesthetic.

The beautiful thing about an open policy like the Google Play store is that you can not just get actual customer (Apple reviewers are probably not your customers) feedback and actually REACT to the feedback by uploading a new version right away... While on Apple Store users have to wait 7-10 days for the App to be "approved" - and if it gets rejected you have to wait another 7-10 days.

One of the things that always bugged me about programmer interfaces is the poor choices made.

For example in the interface from this article; Why did he pick a marble background for the buttons? Why that weird font? Why those bezels?

He could just as easily have picked Helvetica (or any other sans serif font really), and some flat colour and gotten a distant but not obnoxious facsimile to the iOS/android designs.

This is really a pet peeve of mine when I see this stuff from my colleagues. It doesn't even have to look great, but your stylistic choices shouldn't be worse than of you had made no choice at all.

The other thing (although not present here) is when programmers pick eye blasting 0xff red and 0xff green for text on a white bg. Just type 0x7f instead and it reads so much better!

What's funny is that ugly apps actually do alright on Android. I don't know how many times I've seen an app have 5 stars and hundreds of thousands of downloads, only to install it and find out the UI is horrendous.

This seems to reinforce a pervasive stereotype that Android users are utilitarian while iOS users are much more concerned with aesthetics and form.

I think developers should consider spending $1-$10 on graphics from sites such as graphicriver to spruce up the design of their apps.

I for one am happy Apple rejects ugly applications. There is no place for them on my phone

Don't know if the author is on here, but please use a modified framework (or the default UI elements) when you develop your app. Also, you can throw in some pre-baked icons (I dunno if font-awesome is usable on iphone, there's gotta be something similar out there)

You can create a pretty good (albeit default) looking app by just using the default elements, outside of the actual view that handles the game.

You shouldn't have needed Apple to tell you that looked bad. Games don't have to have fancy UX, it's all about what the game is going to do, look at some other games and see how they do it

I appreciate what Apple is doing, and holy crap it was indeed ugly. Still I'd rather let the market decide. A better approach would be for Apple to tell you that your app was approved but it would be harder to find (like you'd have to scroll/click/etc a bit deeper) until you prettied it up (or until it got a bunch of good ratings despite its appearance).

Since Apple has the dominant appstore, they can afford to be choosier, which, at least in this instance, helped a developer improve his app.

Over at BlackBerry, "OMG somebody wants to publish an App!!"

Relying on App Store reviewers for feedback is a bad idea. The whole process is capricious. It's likely had he submitted at a different time and gotten a different reviewer, the app would have been approved.

Of course there's no consistent standard here, so it's a completely arbitrary decision by the reviewer. On another day, the first version could have passed.

(The iOS HIG is supposed to be the standard, but strict adherence requirements would remove 98% of the apps on Apple's store.)

It's always good before starting do design for any Apple product to have a quick look at their Human Interface Guideline (HIG) https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userex....

They have HIG for almost everything.

I also read that a lot of apps are developed on iOS first http://www.businessinsider.com.au/app-design-company-directo.... I wonder if there's any truth to that.

But saying that I know that Google is pressing their Material Design http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introducti... quite hard lately. Would really love to hear what Android devs think of the Material Design. Are they going to port their current app design to it?

To those suggesting it's better to rely on customer feedback and reviews to know how to improve the design/UI of your app, what would you find more useful:

1) A 1-star review from a random user, with a comment saying the app looks ugly.

2) A detailed report with screenshots and a list of places where your app fails to meet basic UI/design principles, made by someone whose job it is to give you feedback so that you can improve your app.

I'll take option 2 every time, and most users from option 1 aren't going to even bother to complain - they'll just not use your app.

As someone who is more engineer than designer and can recognize good/great design, but cannot necessarily produce one myself, I feel that this type of feedback is great. If I look at a design or user interface interaction and say "I could had done that," I feel that it isn't that good. Higher standards will push you to better results

He could have asked for a second opinion elsewhere. The feedback would have been the same as Apples.

Going through 15-60 day review process for that is ridiculous, just like the post in question.

Does it matter at all? It has nothing to do with the experience of the actual game. Apple wasted your time on a pointless detail and you thanked them for it.

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Was this supposed to be sarcastic? Because the app is still ugly.