iPhone User Interface Design Projects

✍ Scribed by Joachim Bondo, David Barnard, Eddie Wilson, Keith Peters, Craig Kemper, Dan Burcaw, Tim Novikoff, Chris Parrish, Jurgen Siebert

• Publisher: Apress; Distributed by Springer-Verlag
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 274
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Apple's iPhone SDK/Cocoa Touch framework provides some very elegant UI widgets out of the box. It's a beautiful thing when you design your app's interface, and it comes great-looking already. However, us programmers tend to be lacking skills in interactive design and awesome usability. This book comes in for the rescue.

Authors of this book have been to the trenches, and they wrote their own experiences and their thought processes here in their chapters. It's amazing how a little app has so much design decisions involved.
Chapter 1 - How and why design apps that have similar look and feel like the default built-in Apple apps, and some tips on whether to tap or not, and usability testing.
Chapter 2 - The author takes on the Google news reader, and improves the navigation and re-structured his app design to be more efficient.
Chapter 3 - The author talks about the differences between web and native apps, and some best practices and tricks
Chapter 4 - The author shows how the design evolved along with design decisions and adjustments
Chapter 5 - This is my favorite chapter. The author discuss in depth of how to design UI interactions with iPhone's unique size and features. The discussion on rotations is especially thought-provoking!
Chapter 6 - This chapter shows that even designing a very simple and basic app, it still takes consideration on usability and appropriate user interactions.
Chapter 7 - This chapter is great in showing you many ways to tune your app details into great enhancements to your apps. Little details you would otherwise take for granted or ignored.
Chapter 8 - As a programmer, I'm happy to see some codes behind the app. This chapter shows you how to build a simple but interesting game, with the focus of how to receive user interactions with minimal efforts. Codes are provided so it's a great read!
Chapter 9 - The author talks about different font styles and typefaces.
Chapter 10 - The author shows us many tips and tricks during the entire app development life cycle.

Overall, this book shows us how iPhone apps are developed from a different angle. Many great tips/tricks and real-world experiences. It's a great read w/ about 240 pages. Any iPhone programmer would learn a thing or two from this book. My only complain is that some chapters are too short. Hopefully 2nd edition of this book can include additional iPhone app designers/developers :)

✦ Table of Contents

Prelim......Page 1
Contents at a Glance......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Foreword......Page 13
About the Technical Reviewer......Page 14
Introduction......Page 15
David Barnard......Page 17
From Fanboy to Developer......Page 19
To Tap or Not to Tap?......Page 26
Usability Testing on the Cheap......Page 30
Fit and Finish......Page 34
Learning from Apple......Page 20
Summary......Page 36
Joachim Bondo......Page 37
Choosing to Develop a Newsreader......Page 39
Identifying Pitfalls of Current Newsreaders......Page 40
Improving the Newsreader Experience......Page 47
Outlining the Next Steps......Page 55
Summary......Page 56
Dan Burcaw......Page 57
Introducing the Brightkite Location-Aware Social Network......Page 59
Moving From Web to Mobile......Page 60
Designing for the First-Time User......Page 67
Creating Virtually Infinite Drill-Down......Page 70
Summary......Page 73
David Kaneda......Page 75
Establishing Outpost......Page 77
Wireframing Outpost......Page 78
Designing Outpost......Page 82
Fitting In......Page 86
Designing with HTML......Page 88
All That Glitters. . .......Page 89
Summary......Page 91
Craig Kemper......Page 93
Finding the Elusive Application Idea......Page 95
Creating a Design Document......Page 97
Diving into the Code......Page 98
When Is a Game Not a Game?......Page 105
Finally Testing on a Device......Page 112
The App Store Arrives!......Page 115
Creating a Second Game Without Starting Over......Page 122
Summary......Page 126
Tim Novikoff......Page 127
Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab......Page 129
Checking Out the Competition......Page 130
Starting Development......Page 134
Designing the Flashcards......Page 137
Designing the Buttons......Page 138
Testing the Application......Page 140
Launching the Application......Page 141
Summary......Page 142
Chris Parrish and Brad Ellis......Page 143
Postage......Page 145
Keeping the Application Focused......Page 146
Analyzing the Context......Page 156
Creating the Application Flow......Page 162
Exploring the Postage Development Technique......Page 168
Summary......Page 176
Keith Peters......Page 177
Falling Balls and Gravity Pods......Page 179
Creating Falling Balls......Page 180
Creating Gravity Pods......Page 187
Summary......Page 195
Jürgen Siebert......Page 197
Introducing FontShuffle......Page 199
Entering the World of Typefaces......Page 200
Choosing the Right Typeface for Screens......Page 206
Identifying Typefaces......Page 208
Exploring FontBook and FontShuffle......Page 211
Summary......Page 224
Eddie Wilson......Page 225
Snow Reports for the iPhone......Page 227
Why Design for the iPhone?......Page 228
Isn’t Programming for Programmers?......Page 229
Why Snow Reports?......Page 230
Why Learn iPhone Programming?......Page 231
My Design Process......Page 232
Details of the UI......Page 241
Coming from a Web Design Background......Page 246
Designing an Icon......Page 247
Summary......Page 249
How we got here and why we're doing it......Page 251
Using sensors as reactive music interfaces......Page 253
Index......Page 255