iOS App Development Portable Genius

Understanding UI Design

iOS includes a very basic selection of objects that you can use in your UI designs. You can add standard buttons and sliders, and you can embed buttons in toolbars and tab bars. Many apps use these standard objects without changing them.

But these objects aren’t visually exciting. You can make your app stand out by customizing the appearance of onscreen objects. Customization can be as simple as using an original icon in a toolbar button or as complex as creating an entire customized UI with your own original collection of onscreen objects.

Creating an excellent UI

Good design is critically important in iOS apps. Attractive apps with limited features can be at least as successful as sophisticated apps with mediocre graphics.

A good UI isn’t just about graphic design and layout. It’s important to give the user the information they need to use and understand your app with the minimum of learning and effort. The ideal iOS app doesn’t need a manual, because all features are clearly labeled graphically or with text. Although it isn’t always possible to create designs that live up to this ideal, it’s a good goal to aim for.

Apple’s design guidelines are worth reading. They’re listed in a document called the iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Figure 10.1 shows the User Experience section from the guidelines.

Here are some other suggestions:

Use graphics and icons instead ...