Principles of Design:
Things that look more aesthetically pleasing are perceived as easier to use
This is called the ‘Aesthetic-Usability Effect’. Actually, the research evidence for this is mixed, but given how biased we seem towards beauty, and how forgiving we are of flaws in things we consider attractive, I would be more surprised if this is not true.
Note that this rule is about perception, not reality. There are plenty of apps, including some of the ones pictured below, that are beautiful but have a steep learning curve or have some other aspects of their design that may not make them enjoyable to use, despite how pretty they are. Speaking personally, though, I tend to want to use apps I find aesthetically pleasing much much more than apps I find ugly.
There are definitely people who care about beauty less than others, and that is fine. These people are actually lucky, in many ways! But if I find an app is ugly, I need a very compelling reason to keep using it if there are alternatives I could use instead.
These are a few UIs of iOS music production apps that I personally like a lot - this list is by no means exhaustive, these are just a few of my top picks! Names here, photos below.
Audulus
Audio Damage Other Desert Cities
Art Kerns midiLFOs
AudioThing Lines
Bleass Motion FX
BeepStreet Combustor
Bram Bos Fluss
John Howes Strokes
Michael Tyson Loopy Pro
Corne DriesProng Cykle
FabFilter Saturn2
sqsl Circle
PS: See my tweet from yesterday for a giveaway of 10 monthly subs for the Transcriptionist app by Wooji Juice!
#design #app #UI