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

[@seanallen]

Want to learn to build iOS Apps in Swift? Check out my iOS Dev courses - seanallen.teachable.com

[@ammarahmad9004]

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.

[@seanallen]

This was the journey I went on as well. Early in my career I wanted to have the unique "cool" design. As I gained more experience I learned that sticking with Apple's design language was a far better way to go.

[@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.

[@seanallen]

I think you summed it up nicely at the end. Make sure you're putting the time and effort into what matters most to your users.

[@christostsangaris4785]

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!

[@seanallen]

Good caveat. If it's a hobby project and you're having fun... by all means, create that custom UI. But if you're trying to build a product that earns serious income, then it's likely not the best use of your time.

[@christostsangaris4785]

@@seanallen but those Dribbble mockups 🥹🥹🥹

[@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 KZbin 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.

[@seanallen]

🙌

[@thelambsauce2015]

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!

[@seanallen]

This is how I thought early in my career too. It took time and experience to evolve to my current opinion.

[@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!

[@seanallen]

Happy to hear that!

[@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.

[@KioCoan]

*Flashbacks from having to add a custom navigation component in a banking app triggering*

[@richardwinters4114]

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.

[@nishaykumar6690]

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.

[@seanallen]

Glad it was helpful, Nishay.

[@WestCoastAce27]

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.

[@seanallen]

Well said.

[@bitwisedevs469]

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.

[@seanallen]

Good point about future maintainability. Your future self will thank you for using native components.

[@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.

[@seanallen]

I see this too. There is a lot of custom ui and animations out there that look great. But at the end of the day, I always end up saying to myself "Yeah, but why?" when I see those.

[@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

[@mjohnson510]

React Native Engineer here, I agree. I never really realized how simple it was to Development an app in Swift.

[@lahirudx]

@@mjohnson510 Can't we expect React Native to deliver a native appearance and experience by default?

[@aether-quinque]

@@lahirudx RN provides you with only basic components like text / view and button, and all of them are without any style, so you as developer have to do it by yourself

[@omarradcliffe2144]

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..

[@seanallen]

Exactly. Most developers aren't good at it (even if they think they are). You save so much time, money and effort just using Apple's default stuff.

[@GreenDevBabe]

I like to make custom design but with original SwiftUI elements.

[@miodragradosavljevic8517]

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.

[@ferocious_lad2031]

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

[@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?

[@SHOLINGER]

needed this clarity , thanks for the upload .

[@seanallen]

Glad you liked it!

[@streetchronicles5693]

Techlead said you should remember that social medias are the new app stores

[@obvinpro]

Every app must not look the same, otherwise there will be no innovation in app designs and interactions. Let indie dev cook!

[@seanallen]

There's certainly a time and place for it. But if you're a solo dev and you're trying to earn serious revenue from your app (it's not just a hobby project), then it's most likely not the best use of your time.

[@chrispy104k]

Well said Sean. The KISS principle is the way to go.

[@seanallen]

👍

[@mohamethseck]

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

[@seanallen]

Welcome back!

[@bruhmoment3731]

Thanks Apple for SwiftUI!

[@seanallen]

It's awesome...

[@ArjunSingh-td5gw]

This gives me a right direction Sean, much appreciated. Love from 🇮🇳

[@seanallen]

Happy to help, Arjun 👍

[@SeriousCat5000]

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.

[@seanallen]

I'm also not a game developer, but in my opinion this advice does not apply to games. Custom UI is part of making a game.

[@ArjunSingh-td5gw]

What are the steps to create a profitable app? I'm looking for advice on how to build an app that can generate real revenue. Thanks in Advance Sean.

[@seanallen]

Looks like you discovered my podcast that's all about this topic :)

[@rmcf3972]

I lost my job as a java dev, my contract ends. How is it being an ios app dev? I want to try freelancing. Do you have tasks you can outsource to me? Thanks.

[@paulhenrythegreat]

Yeah so I actually emailed you about this the day this video came out ha! Let me know what you think?

[@jihedbouchnak]

throw learning IOS there is so much restriction i guess witch made this kind of UI hard to make compared to flutter that could resolve this kind of problems; some clients are hard to convince that some design may take a lot of time and effort in native so may be mixing native with flutter may be the solution there are tools after all and swiftUI is getting better

[@NIM20000]

Hi Sean, excuse my message but I'm wondering if you were in Prague last week or if I'm watching so many videos of you and starting to hallucinate lol.

[@seanallen]

Lol, nope. I was not.

[@phongho.design]

thanks Allen

[@seanallen]

Happy to help.

[@hereyr]

Have you just issued content which was already on your channel?..

[@seanallen]

This is a short clip from my long-form podcast. I release a couple clips from each episode because a lot of people don't have time to sit through the full episode (42 minutes). It also helps with discoverability as new viewers discover my podcast by these clips popping up on their feeds.

[@RobertLoyale]

🫵🏻 You know Steve Jobs would’ve said be creative lol

[@seanallen]

Steve Jobs wasn't an indie dev tho. This advice is for those one-person shops trying to get a product off the ground. The advice is different if you have a team and resources.

[@remy-]

Agree 100%

[@yuandongzhong]

One of best ideas ever!

[@seanallen]

Glad you liked it, Patrick!

[@AgentZeroNine1]

Apple design language is ONLY for iOS exclusive products, and leaving out Android is not a smart business move.

[@masterman9876543]

Sean Allen the custom font h8er. Jk, nice video though

[@seanallen]

🤣 It's just not worth the effort (most of the time)

[@JustinWellsDev]

Professional and indie dev here, I work for Bayer Pharmaceuticals and started designing an app from the ground up for them. This exact approach is how I made a well designed and super scalable application in no time. This keeps overhead so much lower, more time to focus on actually making the app better. I did, however, recently have to make my own custom alert against my best judgement due to management but the rest is built in! Lol

[@programming5523]

I read as INDIA Developers

[@seanallen]

😂

[@stevepottz111]

Bars!

[@seanallen]

Glad you think so!

[@novinfard]

Quite honest video

[@seanallen]

I do my best :)

[@responsibleali5490]

We indians earn in rupees, but mostly courses are available in $. Wants to purchase courses but its hard to invest on courses

[@seanallen]

I offer discounts for countries who's currencies are struggling vs. the dollar. Reach out to me via email or Twitter DM and we'll work something out.

[@flow5718]

@@seanallen Perhaps you could do PPP adjusted pricing based on their country?

[@chrispy104k]

@@flow5718 I think the right way to go about it is to contact Sean directly and let him sort something out on an individual basis.

[@flow5718]

​@@chrispy104k That's doesn't sound scalable.

[@responsibleali5490]

@@seanallen Noted

[@gdrop1774]

exactly my views

[@ColeDano]

100%

[@jameelshehadeh9011]

Gold 👍

[@muncho404]

💯agreed

[@youzuhair]

REACT NATIVE BRO