iPhone Design Award-Winning Projects

iPhone Design Award-Winning Projects

von: Chris Dannen

Apress, 2010

ISBN: 9781430272342 , 216 Seiten

Format: PDF, OL

Kopierschutz: DRM

Windows PC,Mac OSX für alle DRM-fähigen eReader Apple iPad, Android Tablet PC's Online-Lesen für: Windows PC,Mac OSX,Linux

Preis: 35,30 EUR

  • Fundamentals of Computerized Tomography - Image Reconstruction from Projections
    Et voilà i robot - Etica ed estetica nell'era delle macchine
    User-Centered Interaction Design Patterns for Interactive Digital Television Applications
    Pervasive Computing - Innovations in Intelligent Multimedia and Applications
    Multimedia Interaction and Intelligent User Interfaces - Principles, Methods and Applications
    Distributed Video Sensor Networks
  • Codes and turbo codes
    Grids, Clouds and Virtualization
    Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual
    Self-Service in the Internet Age - Expectations and Experiences
    Social Media on the Road - The Future of Car Based Computing
    Evaluating User Experience in Games - Concepts and Methods
 

Mehr zum Inhalt

iPhone Design Award-Winning Projects


 

Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Copyright Page

Contents at a Glance

3

Table of c

Table of c

4

4

About the Authors

6

About the Technical Reviewer

7

Acknowledgments

8

Introduction

9

Readme

9

Who is this book for?

9

How technical is it?

9

How were these interviewees chosen?

9

Part I Innovating Beyond Apple’s Design Standards, While Maintaining Apple’s Logic for Consistency, Clarity, and Usability

Part I Innovating Beyond Apple’s Design Standards, While Maintaining Apple’s Logic for Consistency, Clarity, and Usability

Chapter 1 Tweetie

Chapter 1 Tweetie

A Billion Bad Twitter Apps

13

The Minimalist Flourish

16

Tearing Down Tweetie

21

Organic Marketing

22

Tweetie 2

26

Market Share

29

Chapter 2 Facebook

Chapter 2 Facebook

How did you become the sole iPhone developer at Facebook?

32

Yet Facebook Touch looks much different than the iPhone app.

33

Why isn’t a static nav bar at the bottom of the screen useful for Facebook?

33

What was the thinking behind the grid interface?

33

You also use the top nav in an interesting way in this new version. Is the redesign a consequence of implementing the grid?

You also use the top nav in an interesting way in this new version. Is the redesign a consequence of implementing the grid?

What are the compromises involved in using the grid?

34

What went into creating Facebook’s view controllers?

34

Is it tempting to start playing with MapKit and add friend-mapping?

35

Is there a point where the Facebook app gets too big?

35

When the app gets memory warnings from the OS, how does it deal with them?

35

Otherwise, it all stays cached?

36

Why couldn’t Facebook for iPhone have kept growing in its old layout?

38

But how different can you make your UI without alienating people?

38

As the app grows, how will you handle preferences?

38

What’s going to be most enticing about future versions of the Facebook app?

39

How do you incentivize people to start caring about a feature?

39

Are the mobile versions of Facebook diverging from desktop Facebook?

39

Are there interesting ways you use Apple’s frameworks?

39

Are there any interesting ways your Three20 frameworks have been used by the open source community?

Are there any interesting ways your Three20 frameworks have been used by the open source community?

Why did you choose to make Three20 open source?

Why did you choose to make Three20 open source?

Part II Using App Connectivity with Core Location to Make Games Social

Part II Using App Connectivity with Core Location to Make Games Social

Chapter 3 Topple 2

Chapter 3 Topple 2

How to Do a Sequel: Conceptually

43

How to Do a Sequel: Technically

46

Designing Apps (and Companies) for the Mass Market

Designing Apps (and Companies) for the Mass Market

Managing a Universe

52

PVRTC-It

52

Fun, the Apple Way

54

Bureaucracy and Lightheartedness

56

Free vs. Paid

57

Chapter 4 Q&A: Foursquare

Chapter 4 Q&A: Foursquare

What was your plan for Foursquare for iPhone, and how did you divide the work?

60

Is there a governing aesthetic?

60

Do you each have varying ideas about what information the user should be presented with first?

Do you each have varying ideas about what information the user should be presented with first?

Your app relies heavily on tabs to sort information. Is this a good long-term solution?

Your app relies heavily on tabs to sort information. Is this a good long-term solution?

Did any apps serve as inspiration for Foursquare’s interaction design?

61

You use a lot of Apple’s frameworks. Why not source some of the work out to Apple’s built-in apps?

You use a lot of Apple’s frameworks. Why not source some of the work out to Apple’s built-in apps?

Now that you’ve cranked out your initial versions, how do you go about revising theinterface?

63

Is it better to have more tabs and a cleaner interface, or fewer tabs and a more crowded screen?

Is it better to have more tabs and a cleaner interface, or fewer tabs and a more crowded screen?

Foursquare seems to rely heavily on WebKit. Why?

63

Though Foursquare definitely has a unique visual design, Apple inspired some of the smaller details, didn’t it?

Though Foursquare definitely has a unique visual design, Apple inspired some of the smaller details, didn’t it?

Certain screens of your app contain “help” text. How do you decide where and when to include those instructions?

Certain screens of your app contain “help” text. How do you decide where and when to include those instructions?

Do you use any wider system for collecting feedback?

65

Did you assume that Foursquare for iPhone users had seen the Web service first?

66

Do you take user’s real-world behavior into account when you’re adding features?

66

Do you try to think one step ahead of Apple? Or take their iPhone OS revisions as they come?

Do you try to think one step ahead of Apple? Or take their iPhone OS revisions as they come?

What were some of the fights you had over user experience?

67

Part III

Part III

69

69

Chapter 5 AccuTerra

Chapter 5 AccuTerra

Building a Framework

72

Divide and Conquer

74

Building an In-App Store

76

PVRTC or Broke

78

Lazy Loading

79

Memory Diagnostics: Sample Project

80

Dealing with Low Memory Warnings

82

Building Forward

84

Chapter 6 Q&A: Exit Strategy NYC

Chapter 6 Q&A: Exit Strategy NYC

You had an app idea that demanded a big time investment, even before programming began. How did you know it’d be worth it?

You had an app idea that demanded a big time investment, even before programming began. How did you know it’d be worth it?

New York is a big city, but how did you know there'd be a market to sell to?

87

Why is this idea best suited for the iPhone?

87

How do you handle the database of stops and cars?

88

How did you ensure that all these images would load quickly?

89

How, if at all, can you make this a sustainable business?

89

How do you make your app useful to more people?

89

So the app will become something else entirely—a hyperlocal neighborhood transit map.

So the app will become something else entirely—a hyperlocal neighborhood transit map.

What about the 10MB download limit over 3G?

92

Version 1.0 didn’t cover every subway station in New York. Is it worth pursuing the “long-tail” customer who wants every corner of a map documented?

Version 1.0 didn’t cover every subway station in New York. Is it worth pursuing the “long-tail” customer who wants every corner of a map documented?

How deep should you drill into the NYC market before moving on to other cities or projects?

How deep should you drill into the NYC market before moving on to other cities or projects?

How do you handle an update that's so major?

93

Do you have an economic theory behind your pricing?

93

How did you get attention for your app?

94

You've chosen to go beyond the iPhone. Why?

95

What’s the most important thing you learned making version 1.0?

95

Part IV Creating a Beautiful App Without Falling Victim to Memory Issues—OpenGL, Skinning, Object Reuse, and Coding Efficiently

Part IV Creating a Beautiful App Without Falling Victim to Memory Issues—OpenGL, Skinning, Object Reuse, and Coding Efficiently

Chapter 7 Postage

Chapter 7 Postage

There Were Sheep

98

Is This One of Them Internets?

99

Coding for Fun

101

The Circling Shark

104

Homegrown Design

106

Building On Postage

111

Chapter 8 Q&A: Delicious Library

Chapter 8 Q&A: Delicious Library

What’s behind the theming?

114

Your plan was to get it looking right first and foremost?

114

Why were you so dead-set against animation?

115

So skinning was the healthy medium?

115

How did you achieve that speed?

116

How does that database work?

117

That’s a lot of data, isn’t it?

117

You didn’t, um, RTFM?

117

Did you consider making the app standalone?

118

Were you looking to imitate the desktop experience?

118

Delicious Library overlaps a little with iTunes. How did you deal with that paradigm?

Delicious Library overlaps a little with iTunes. How did you deal with that paradigm?

Other challenges we haven’t talked about?

120

Did you bring this up to engineers at Apple?

120

What would you tell someone starting app tomorrow?

120

What does it do to the logic of code to be so judicious about memory?

122

What’s good about this mode of developing?

123

Did designing the iPhone app change the way you view desktop UI?

123

Part V Fitting a Big Idea into a Small Space – Keeping the Feature List Focused, Simple, Refined, and Compelling

Part V Fitting a Big Idea into a Small Space – Keeping the Feature List Focused, Simple, Refined, and Compelling

Chapter 9 Wooden Labyrinth 3D

Chapter 9 Wooden Labyrinth 3D

The Dropout

128

The Challenge

130

Building the Labyrinth

132

The “Magic” Piece

133

Into the Fray

134

Chapter 10 Q&A: Prowl

Chapter 10 Q&A: Prowl

How did you get involved with the open source community?

137

What aspect of the project took the most time?

137

How did you first envision people using Prowl?

137

Why use Growl?

138

How does the plug-in work?

138

How do you hack it?

138

What’s unique about the way Prowl uses Push notifications?

139

What’s the ‘chain of command’ that a notification traverses to get to an iPhone?

139

Apple doesn’t let you relay a message from an application directly to its servers?

139

What’s particularly interesting about the way Prowl works?

139

What’s tricky about interacting with the Push server?

140

How many messages have gone through Prowl to date?

140

When building a utility, do you think about usability differently than you would for another kind of app?

When building a utility, do you think about usability differently than you would for another kind of app?

How can the open source community add to Prowl’s functionality?

141

What do you know now about working with Growl that you wish you knew at beginning?

What do you know now about working with Growl that you wish you knew at beginning?

Prowl doesn’t make use of most of the iPhone’s inputs. Is it tempting to add more features?

Prowl doesn’t make use of most of the iPhone’s inputs. Is it tempting to add more features?

What about genuinely useful stuff, like the Bluetooth proximity feature you mentioned?

What about genuinely useful stuff, like the Bluetooth proximity feature you mentioned?

How important is Prowl's Web interface?

143

How has the API changed the way you think about Prowl’s usability?

144

Has Prowl created a new usage scenario for the iPhone, or replaced an extant scenario that was too clunky?

Has Prowl created a new usage scenario for the iPhone, or replaced an extant scenario that was too clunky?

What are some of the most interesting usage scenarios you’ve come across?

144

How did you arrive at that $2.99 price-point?

144

So the price point keeps the app in the hands of the l33t, so to speak?

145

Is Prowl profitable?

145

Is there a lesson to other developers in Prowl?

145

Part VI Making Better Apps and Enfranchising Your Users – The Right Way to Iterate, Planning an App Store Strategy, and Some Serious iPhone Development Philosophy

Part VI Making Better Apps and Enfranchising Your Users – The Right Way to Iterate, Planning an App Store Strategy, and Some Serious iPhone Development Philosophy

Chapter 11 User Experience: Ge Wang

Chapter 11 User Experience: Ge Wang

What is your background like?

149

Why did you bring your research from computers to the iPhone?

149

Why is the iPhone unique that way?

150

How do Smule apps create music?

152

What did you learn doing laptop orchestras that informed your iPhone app design?

154

Before you began building apps, were there any that you particularly admired?

155

Are Ocarina and Leaf Trombone games?

155

How have your apps built on each other?

155

How do you know how difficult to make an instrument?

156

What do you have in mind when you set out to build a new Smule app?

157

Chapter 12 Iterative Design

Chapter 12 Iterative Design

The Canadian Way

159

Simply Complex

161

Group Single-mindedness

165

Reverse Engineering Cocoa

168

The Sidebar Solution

174

Enter the iPhone

177

Project Yellow Canary

180

Chapter 13 Upgrading

Chapter 13 Upgrading

One question many of the developers in this book have pondered: do I charge for my upgrade? Do I charge for my app at all?

One question many of the developers in this book have pondered: do I charge for my upgrade? Do I charge for my app at all?

What about ad-supported apps like your free version of Instapaper?

184

Are free upgrades a good idea? Or should you make users pay again? Let’s use Exit Strategy NYC, featured in Chapter 6, as an example.

Are free upgrades a good idea? Or should you make users pay again? Let’s use Exit Strategy NYC, featured in Chapter 6, as an example.

Loren Brichter, who developed Tweetie 2 and is featured in Chapter 1, decided not to do a free upgrade. Yet Tweetie 2 still shot to the top of Apple’s “top grossing list” when it went on sale. How is Tweetie 2 different from Exit Strategy NYC?

Loren Brichter, who developed Tweetie 2 and is featured in Chapter 1, decided not to do a free upgrade. Yet Tweetie 2 still shot to the top of Apple’s “top grossing list” when it went on sale. How is Tweetie 2 different from Exit Strategy NYC?

What happens when the scope of your app changes with a second version, as with Exit Strategy NYC? Should Jonathan have changed the name and risked losing the benefit of SEO in the App Store, in the hopes of having a name that describes the app better?

What happens when the scope of your app changes with a second version, as with Exit Strategy NYC? Should Jonathan have changed the name and risked losing the benefit of SEO in the App Store, in the hopes of having a name that describes the app better?

Does the name of an app need to convey exactly what the app does?

186

Do you think buyers have price “benchmarks” that developers should attend to?

186

So reviews are skewed negatively in the App Store?

187

What is the case to be made for apps over $5.00?

187

Index

193