Learning iOS Design: A Hands-on Guide for Programmers and Designers

Learning iOS Design: A Hands-on Guide for Programmers and Designers

“This book contains everything you need to know to create awesome, life-altering applications. . . . I pride myself on knowing a lot about design, but when reading this book, I probably didn’t encounter a single page that didn’t offer at least one interesting idea, new concept, or clever design technique. It’s also written in a way that prevents you from putting it down. . . . You’re in for a treat.” – From the Foreword by LUKAS MATHIS, author of ignorethecode.net Transform Your Ideas into Intuitive, Delightful iOS Apps! As an app developer, you know design is important. But where do you start? Learning iOS Design will help you think systematically about the art and science of design, and consistently design apps that users will appreciate–and love. Pioneering Omni Group user experience expert William Van Hecke first explains what design really means, and why effective app design matters so much. Next, using a sample concept, he walks through transforming a vague idea into a fleshed-out design, moving from outlines to sketches, wireframes to mockups, prototypes to finished apps. Building on universal design principles, he offers practical advice for thinking carefully, critically, and cleverly about your own projects, and provides exercises to guide you step-by-step through planning your own app’s design. An accompanying website (learningiosdesign.com) provides professional-grade sketches, wireframes, and mockups you can study and play with to inspire your own new project. Coverage includes Planning and making sense of your app idea - Exploring potential approaches, styles, and strategies - Creating more forgiving, helpful, and effective interactions - Managing the constraints of the iOS platform (or any platform) - Crafting interfaces that are graceful, gracious, and consistently enjoyable to use - Balancing concerns such as “focus versus versatility” and “friction versus guidance” - Understanding why all designs are compromises–and how to find the best path for your own app Register your book at informit.com/register to gain access to a supplemental chapter in which Bill Van Hecke discusses the design changes made in iOS 7. This book does indeed use iOS for all of its examples and guidance, but it's actually a general-purpose software design book in disguise. iOS just happens to be where a lot of the best, most forward-thinking design is happening right now. So I did my best to make sure that even though you're learning these concepts in context of iOS development, when you work on other platforms you'll be well prepared to design pleasant and thoughtful software there, too. Learning iOS Design can be a great starting point for a whole career worth of software design. Since 2004, Bill Van Hecke has been User Experience Lead at the Omni Group, one of the world's most accomplished and affable Mac and iOS developers. Bill got his start designing software by reverse-engineering his older brother's text adventures in MS Basic on the Macintosh Plus, and then graduated to creating Hypercard games to mail to his cousins on floppy disk. Bill's primary hobby is hobby-collecting: reading fiction and science; playing bass guitar; appreciating, translating, and developing niche video games; studying the Japanese language; mastering tabletop gaming; and exploring 3-D modeling. You can find Bill on Twitter, prattling on about these topics and more (@fet).