Cocoa Touch™ for iPhone® OS 3

Chapter 4. Understanding the Basics of an iPhone User Interface

In This Chapter

Exploring the UIs of various built-in applications

Understanding the basic components that make up an iPhone UI

Knowing the standards required for building an app that fits into the iPhone model

The iPhone is known for its beautiful user interface and ease of use. Studies have shown that while the users of other smart phones use perhaps one or two features of their smart phones on a daily basis, iPhone users use over ten. Making your application be one of those ten features requires a great user interface that delights and inspires the user.

As a mobile device app developer, you also have to assume that for the majority of cases, when a user wants to work with your application, the window of interaction is usually no more than about 45 seconds. That is to say, the user wants to pull out the iPhone, open your application, navigate to the information that they want, get the information or perform some action, and then exit the application and put the iPhone back to sleep — all of this in about 45 seconds or less. This makes designing a good user interface a tremendous challenge.

You'll begin your exploration of building iPhone UIs by looking at the UIs of the applications that ship with the iPhone out-of-the-box, as well as the iPhone home screen. Apple has some of the best user interface designers in the world, and I think that there is a great deal to be learned by studying what they have done in their applications ...