iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual

Bigger, Stronger, Faster

You've collected all the feedback, and feel good about the list of features that you want for version 2. Time to whip out the pencils and start designing the user interface!

The Light Side

The main view for the app is straightforward. The light source is predominant, and you'll need control mechanisms at the bottom of the screen for the various modes and settings access, as shown in Figure 4-5.

Figure 4-5. A paper prototype for the main screen of your new flashlight application. The screen is broken into three areas: an information view, a light source, and a control area for switching modes.

The control area lets the user start the flasher, "disco mode," and the SOS rescue signal. The settings icon will flip the view, much like the built-in Weather and Stocks applications.

You're leaning toward using a toolbar to hold these controls at the bottom of the screen. A tab bar control is better suited to switching between views in an application—the app has only one view. The toolbar also has the advantage in that you can make it translucent, letting part of the underlying light source shine through.

Note

UITabBar is best used in applications that need to switch between views with different operational modes. Apple's use of the tab bar in the iPod and YouTube apps lets users pick different views of music and video collections. Users can also reconfigure tab bars to display ...