iPhone User Interface Design Projects

Introduction By the time you read this, the number applications on the App Store will have crossed the 100,000 mark. Chances are that if you come up with an idea for an app, it’s already on the Store and in abundance. In order to catch users’ interest, you’ll have to differentiate yours. Most developers seem to take the easy route by simply lowering their price. The problem is that it’s so easy to do that everybody can do it. And if they do, you’ve gained nothing. On the contrary, you’ve lost an income that could possibly motivate you to keep improving and updating your app and thereby sustain your name as a reliable developer users can trust their investment to. If you choose to take the difficult route, however, and differentiate on quality—the route that not everybody can take—you’ll not only become a better developer but also earn the respect from other developers and users who’ll be willing to spend real time and money on your app. The ten authors of this book have all released successful apps and can testify to how going that extra mile, or ten, has paid off in many aspects of their lives as iPhone developers. By reading their takes on how to make an app stand out from the rest, you’ll gain some of the inspiration and insight that could make your app the one in its category that users will want.

With over 100,000 iPhone applications and 125,000 registered iPhone developers, is it still possible to create a top-selling app that stands apart from the six-figure crowd? Of course, but you’ll need more than a great idea and flawless code—an eye-catching and functional user interface design is essential. With this book, you’ll get practical advice on user interface design from 10 innovative developers who, like you, have sat wondering how to best utilize the iPhone’s minimal screen real estate. Their stories illustrate precisely why, with more apps and more experienced, creative developers, no iPhone app can succeed without a great user interface. Whatever type of iPhone project you have in mind—social networking app, game, or reference tool—you’ll benefit from the information presented in this book. More than just tips and pointers, you’ll learn from the authors’ hands-on experiences, including: Dave Barnard of App Cubby on how to use Apple’s user interface conventions and test for usability to assure better results Joachim Bondo, creator of Deep Green Chess, beats a classic design problem of navigating large dataset results in the realm of the iPhone Former Apple employee Dan Burcaw tailors user interfaces and adds the power of CoreLocation, Address Book, and Camera to the social networking app, Brightkite David Kaneda takes his Basecamp project management client, Outpost, from a blank page (literally) to a model of dashboard clarity Craig Kemper focuses on the smallest details to create his award-winning puzzle games TanZen and Zentomino Tim Novikoff, a graduate student in applied math with no programming experience, reduces a complex problem to simplicity in Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab Long-time Mac developer Chris Parrish goes into detail on the creation of the digital postcard app, Postage, which won the 2009 Apple Design Award Flash developer Keith Peters provides solutions for bringing games that were designed for a desktop screen to the small, touch-sensitive world of the iPhone Jürgen Siebert, creator of FontShuffle, outlines the anatomy of letters and how to select the right fonts for maximum readability on the iPhone screen Eddie Wilson, an interactive designer, reveals the fine balance of excellent design and trial-by-fire programming used to create his successful app Snow Report Combined with Apress’ best-selling Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, you’ll be prepared to match great code with striking design and create the app that everyone is talking about.

1. App Cubby
2. Yet Another Google Reader
3. Brightkite for the iPhone
4. Outpost
5. TanZen and Zentomino
6. Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab
7. Postage
8. Falling Balls and Gravity Pods
9. FontShuffle
10. Snow Reports for the iPhone

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