designing ios apps that rock!
TRANSCRIPT
This post is about
the lessons we learned about designing iOS business apps.
The same concepts can also be used for building mobile apps in other
platforms.
your company is ready to embrace theOK, mobile
world.
A common challenge most companies face is how to transform a desktop
system into a mobile app.
Now, where do we start?
Start with the user experience.
Wikipedia defines user experience (UX)
as referring to a person's behaviours, attitudes, and emotions about using a particular product, system, or service.
Forget about how your desktop app looks like
and how it runs.
Heck, that desktop app is already running for 10-20 years and you
already know the business requirements by heart.
Start from
scratch.
What you don’t know (and should know)
is how to integrate these business requirements
into the design of a mobile app.
Do not make the mistake
of just trying to fit the desktop interface to the smaller screen of your target device and then call it
a mobile app.
It doesn’t work that way. Really.
Think about the design.
The picky details and obsession to perfection is
what drives Apple designers and engineers to
create Great Apps.
Steve Jobs is known for pushing the design of Apple products to
extremes.
Apple’s “Human Interface
Guideline” is a good
reference.
The guideline is about how an app
should look like and how it should run.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/
To attain this, developers should use the same basic UI concepts and
elements in building it.
Apple just wants all the apps in their store to have the same exceptional user experience.
Simplify the interface. Only use elements that complements each
other. Avoid adding visual objects that overwhelms the content.
The content should be the focus. Everything else is secondary. Your design should primarily consider how the content
will be shown.
Deference.
Don't overwhelm your screen
with too much unneeded visual
elements.
Before adding anything to your screen, always ask
the questions - Is this necessary? Will
it help focus the content?
Negative space also bring focus
and clarity to the content.
Negative spacing
(or blank spaces) gives breathing
room.
Clarity.
Picking the right colours and appropriate font can suggest which elements are tappable, highlighted,
neutral or subdued.
Colour and font are two aspects that makes or breaks your design.
This is the major area in iOS app design that Apple explained thoroughly in their
documentation.
It is also the most time consuming aspect of design - trying the best combination of
font and colour to your interface.
The function of icons
and buttons should always be
obvious.
Do not use an icon or button that users are not familiar with.
The objective of every screen should be clear.
The user interaction that goes with it should be easily perceived and self explanatory.
Users should know what to do next.
Depth.
“In real life, when you go to one room to another, you get a sense of motion and distance. That way
you don't get lost. That same concept should be applied to the user interface."
https://designcode.io/iosdesign
Depth is a very abstract concept, but at the same time very powerful.
Animations and transitions of screens are built-in in Xcode (the development platform
for iOS) and you can execute it easily.
But use it subtly and don't overdo it.
Excessive animations will become distracting (even
irritating) over time.
Clarity
Colour and font. Icons, buttons and
screen.
DeferenceFocus the content
Simplify the interface.
Negative space.
Depth
Animations and transitions.
Yup, I know these concepts are pretty
deep.
The next post will show how we use it to build our iOS B2B app.
Learn on, grasshopper. The night is still young.
AboutMe
My blogs will try to convince everybody to learn how to code. How to become creators of technology.
This became a passion as I see people using technology in their daily lives but have no idea how it works. Sadly, almost
all of us are mere consumers.
As a software developer, I have always been interested in learning technology and how I can share what I’ve learned
specially to others with professions outside my field.
This is part of a series of posts about how I can convince you to be a coder.
Stay tuned, grasshopper.
To know more about our company and other blogs, just click the link below:
www.kontakios.com
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