Programming the iPhone User Experience

Mobile HIG Concepts

The mobile human interface guidelines are described in a large, detailed, useful document called iPhone Human Interface Guidelines and are included in the iPhone SDK documentation. As with interface guidelines for any platform, you should know the HIG inside and out so that you can take the path of least resistance where such a path exists. Try to avoid breaking the guidelines for market differentiation or other reasons that aren’t user-centered. Instead, have faith in the expectations of the audience, and use pricing, marketing efforts, and a focus on advanced and valuable details to one-up your competitors.

One warning: Apple controls the single distribution channel for applications and reserves the right to reject any application from the App Store for any reason. Unless you’re developing applications for hacked devices, the App Store is the only means of distributing an application to a market. When submitting an application, you must agree that your application adheres to the mobile HIG. There are countless examples of applications that eschew the HIG in some respect but still make it into the store. Conversely, there are at least a few well-known cases in which rejections have been based solely on nonconformance with the HIG. Break the rules at your own peril, and choose your battles wisely without giving up on a compelling user experience.

Provide One User Experience

The launch of the iPhone SDK was a keystone moment for many types of developers. There were ...