iPhone User Interface Design Projects (eBook)

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Dedication Page 4
Contents at a Glance 5
Table of Contents 6
Foreword 11
About the Technical Reviewer 12
Introduction 13
What’s in This Book 13
CHAPTER 1: App Cubby 17
From Fanboy to Developer 17
Learning from Apple 18
To Tap or Not to Tap? 24
Usability Testing on the Cheap 28
Finding Users 28
Testing Done Right 28
Walking Through a User’s Test 29
Learning from Usability Testing 31
Fit and Finish 32
Summary 34
CHAPTER 2: Yet Another Google Reader 37
Choosing to Develop a Newsreader 37
Identifying Pitfalls of Current Newsreaders 38
Exploring the Google Reader Experience 39
Lack of Overview and Cumbersome Navigation 43
Lack of Data Control 44
Improving the Newsreader Experience 45
Defining the Application Definition Statement 46
Making the Application Native 47
Making the Navigation More Effective 47
Giving a Better Overview 50
Studying the User’s Reading Pattern 51
Presenting the Information 51
Outlining the Next Steps 53
Summary 54
CHAPTER 3: Brightkite for the iPhone 57
Introducing the Brightkite Location-Aware Social Network 57
Introducing Double Encore 58
Moving From Web to Mobile 58
The Rise of Native Applications, to the Web’s Despair 60
IT’S ALL ABOUT LOCATION 61
A Creative Paradigm Shift 62
BRIGHTKITE SHARES 64
Designing for the First-Time User 65
Creating Virtually Infinite Drill-Down 68
BEST PRACTICES FOR ADDRESS BOOK INTEGRATION 70
Summary 71
CHAPTER 4: Outpost 74
Establishing Outpos 74
Wireframing Outpost 75
Designing Outpost 79
Two Screens, One Application 79
First Attempt 81
Second Attempt 81
Fitting In 83
Working in a Small Team 85
Designing with HTML 85
All That Glitters 86
Summary 88
CHAPTER 5: TanZen and Zentomino 91
Finding the Elusive Application Idea 91
Creating a Design Document 93
Diving into the Code 94
Creating the Piece UI 95
Pieces, Pieces Everywhere 96
Being Deceived by the Simulator 97
Playing to the Emotions of Your Customers 98
Words? We Don’t Need No Stinking Words! 99
How Many Buttons Does It Take? 100
When Is a Game Not a Game? 101
The Eureka Moment 101
I’m Not an Artist, But I Play One on the App Store 101
Vital, Yet Invisible 103
Racing to the Finish Line? 105
Building a Better Rotation 105
Finally Testing on a Device 108
Going Back to the Drawing Board 108
The Perils of Being 95 Percent Finished 110
The App Store Arrives 111
Recalling the First Days on the App Store 112
Responding to Rotation Issues 113
When to Say “Yes” and When to Say “Thanks, I’ll think about it.” 115
Surviving on the App Store 117
Creating a Second Game Without Starting Over 118
Repurposing a Popular Interface 119
Making Interface Modifications to Fit the New Game Rules 119
Designing Around Limitations in Screen Size 120
Colors, Colors Everywhere 120
Putting on the Finishing Touches 121
Summary 122
CHAPTER 6: Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab 125
Checking Out the Competition 126
Mental Model Inconsistency 128
Inappropriate Orientations 128
Small Buttons 129
Starting Development 130
Designing the Flashcards 133
Designing the Buttons 134
Testing the Application 136
Launching the Application 137
Summary 138
CHAPTER 7: Postage 141
Keeping the Application Focused 142
Selecting Font Styles 144
Selecting Font Colors 144
Using Image Effects 145
Setting Preferences and Configuring the Application 145
Separating Tasks 148
MODAL VS. MODELESS 151
Analyzing the Context 152
Considering Context in Postage 153
Facing Potential Problems with Context 155
Using Familiar Controls in Postage 156
Creating the Application Flow 158
Giving Hints About Flow 159
Showing Instead of Telling 160
Avoiding Icon Overload 162
Tuning Responsiveness and Feedback 163
Exploring the Postage Development Technique 164
Creating Prototypes and Mock-ups 164
Writing Specifications 166
Considering Art 169
Tuning the Touch 170
THE TOOLS 172
Summary 172
CHAPTER 8: Falling Balls and Gravity Pods 175
Creating Falling Balls 176
Building the Game 178
Adding the Game Controls 180
Creating Gravity Pods 183
Building the HUD 186
Summary 191
CHAPTER 9: FontShuffle 194
Introducing FontShuffle 194
Entering the World of Typefaces 195
Understanding Fonts 196
Characters and Glyphs 197
The Anatomy of Letters 198
OPTICAL SIZE AND READABILITY 200
Choosing the Right Typeface for Screens 201
DISTINCTIVE GLYPH FEATURES 202
Identifying Typefaces 203
Serif vs. Sans Serif 203
Explosion of Type Styles 204
Classification of Typefaces 205
Exploring FontBook and FontShuffle 206
FontShop’s Typeface Categorization 208
Classes and Orders of Typefaces 209
FontShuffle Step by Step 210
Getting Started: Search Level 1 211
Searching by Typeface Name: Search Level 1, version 1.1 212
Displaying Classes: Search Level 2 213
Displaying Families: Search Level 3 214
Shuffle or List View: Search Level 3, version 1.1 216
Displaying the Font: Search Level 4 217
Summary 219
CHAPTER 10: Snow Reports for the iPhone 222
So You Like to Design, Huh? 223
Why Design for the iPhone? 223
Isn’t Programming for Programmers? 224
Why Snow Reports? 225
Why Learn iPhone Programming? 226
My Design Process 227
Defining the Project 227
Acquiring Third-Party Resources 229
Finding a Good Data Provider 229
Creating a Flowchart 230
Creating Wireframes 232
Skinning the Design 233
Developing and Programming 234
Testing and Deploying 236
Beta Testing 236
Deploying Your Application 236
Details of the UI 236
The Shape of Things 237
Colors 237
Sign of the Times 237
Buttons 238
Typefaces 239
Loading vs. Splash Screen 240
Reporting the Day 241
Coming from a Web Design Background 241
Designing an Icon 242
Summary 244
Epilogue: Reactive Music and Invisible Interfaces 245
How we got here and why we're doing it 245
Using sensors as reactive music interfaces 247
Index 249