Tapworthy

Tapworthy

by Josh Clark
Released June 2010
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449381653

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Book description

So you've got an idea for an iPhone app -- along with everyone else on the planet. Set your app apart with elegant design, efficient usability, and a healthy dose of personality. This accessible, well-written guide shows you how to design exceptional user experiences for the iPhone and iPod Touch through practical principles and a rich collection of visual examples.

Whether you're a designer, programmer, manager, or marketer, Tapworthy teaches you to "think iPhone" and helps you ask the right questions -- and get the right answers -- throughout the design process. You'll explore how considerations of design, psychology, culture, ergonomics, and usability combine to create a tapworthy app. Along the way, you'll get behind-the-scenes insights from the designers of apps like Facebook, USA Today, Twitterrific, and many others.

  • Develop your ideas from initial concept to finished design
  • Build an effortless user experience that rewards every tap
  • Explore the secrets of designing for touch
  • Discover how and why people really use iPhone apps
  • Learn to use iPhone controls the Apple way
  • Create your own personality-packed visuals

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Table of contents

  1. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  2. Introduction
    1. But First . . . Breathe
    2. No Geek Credentials Required
    3. Advice from the Real World
  3. 1. Touch and Go
    1. On the Go: One Hand, One Eye, One Big Blur
    2. Get It Done Quick
      1. So you’re building an app to fly an airplane.
    3. One Tool in a Crowded Toolbox
    4. Bored, Fickle, and Disloyal
    5. Double-Tap, Pinch, Twist, What?
    6. Clumsy Fingers
    7. So, What, Do I Design for Dummies?
  4. 2. Is It Tapworthy?
    1. There’s Not an App for That
    2. What’s Your Story?
    3. What Makes Your App Mobile?
    4. First Person: Josh Williams and Gowalla
    5. Big Talent for Little Icons
    6. Get to Pixels Fast
    7. Making It Work
    8. Try, Try Again
    9. Finding Focus
    10. Optimizing for the Primary Task
    11. Building for Exploration
    12. Colorful Personality
    13. Less Flash, More Function
    14. The App Doesn’t Have to Do It All
    15. Mobile Mindsets
    16. “I’m Microtasking”
    17. “I’m Local”
    18. “I’m Bored”
    19. What Makes You So Special Anyway?
    20. Wait, Wait, Come Back!
    21. Throw Out the Babies, Too
    22. Can’t I Get That on the Web?
    23. Touchpoints
  5. 3. Tiny Touchscreen
    1. A Physical Feel
    2. Rule of Thumb
    3. The Magic Number Is 44
    4. Don’t Crowd Me
    5. First Person: James Thomson and PCalc
    6. Designing for Touch
    7. Give Me Feedback
    8. Pimp My Calculator: Virtual Keypads
    9. Pointed Design
    10. Take It From the Top
    11. Design to a 44-Pixel Rhythm
    12. Be a Scroll Skeptic
    13. Edit, Edit, Edit
    14. Secret Panels and Hidden Doors
    15. Touchpoints
    16. First Person: Rusty Mitchell and USA Today
    17. All the News That Fits
    18. Psst . . . Hints for Working Custom Controls
    19. Big Problem with Tiny Buttons
    20. Either/Or: You Can’t Fit It All
  6. 4. Get Organized
    1. WWJD: What Would Jobs Do?
    2. Getting Around: Apple’s Navigation Models
    3. Flat Pages: A Deck of Cards (or Just One)
    4. Tab Bar: What’s on the Menu?
    5. Tree Structure: Let 1,000 Screens Bloom
    6. Combining Navigation Models
    7. Modal Views and Navigational Cul-de-Sacs
    8. A Tangled Web
    9. Storyboarding Your App on Paper
    10. Put Something Ugly on Your iPhone
    11. Touchpoints
    12. First Person: Jürgen Schweizer and Things
    13. Organizing the App
    14. Choosing the Navigation Style
    15. Minimal Graphics
    16. What Makes the Feature List?
    17. Rhyme with Apple’s Design Language
  7. 5. The Standard Controls
    1. The Power of Standard Visuals
    2. The Navigation Bar Shows the Way
    3. The Toolbar
    4. “So an Icon Goes into a Bar . . .”
    5. The Search Bar
    6. Table Views Are Lists on Steroids
      1. Table-View Cells: Subtitle Styles
    7. Setting the Table: Indexes and Grouped Lists
    8. Table View Editing Tools
    9. Text Me
    10. Editing Text
    11. Fixing Typoz
    12. Is That for Here or to Go?
    13. Don’t Make ‘Em Keybored
    14. Multiple Choice: Pickers, Lists, and Action Sheets
    15. On the Button
    16. Yes and No: Switches
    17. Segmented Controls Are Radio Buttons
    18. Sliders Stay on Track
    19. Settings: A Matter of Preference
    20. Is There More?
    21. Touchpoints
  8. 6. Stand Out
    1. What’s Your App’s Personality?
    2. Gussying Up Familiar Pixels
    3. You Stay Classy
    4. Keep It Real
    5. Designing Custom Toolbar Icons
    6. Metaphorically Speaking
    7. I Call My New Invention “The Wheel”
    8. And Now for Something Completely Different
    9. Touchpoints
    10. First Person: Craig Hockenberry, Gedeon Maheux, and Twitterrific
    11. Taming a Dense Thicket of Options
    12. Asterisk = Action
    13. Color Me Unique
    14. Testing the Bare Bones
  9. 7. First Impressions
    1. Your Icon Is Your Business Card
    2. Building Your App’s Icons
    3. What’s In a Name?
    4. While You Wait: The Launch Image
    5. The Illusion of Suspended Animation
    6. Put Out the Welcome Mat
    7. Instructions Can’t Make You Super
    8. The First Screen
    9. Touchpoints
    10. First Person: Joe Hewitt and Facebook
    11. More Than a Lite Version
    12. A Collection of “Sub-Apps”
    13. Physics According to Apple
    14. Easy on the Chrome
    15. The Trouble with Notifications
  10. 8. Swipe! Pinch! Flick!
    1. Finding What You Can’t See
    2. Pave the Cowpaths
    3. Shortcuts and Backup Plans
    4. Piggybacking Standard Gestures
    5. Shake, Shake, Shake
    6. Two’s a Crowd
    7. Awkwardness for Self Defense
    8. Phone Physics
    9. Touchpoints
  11. 9. Know the Landscape
    1. Why Do People Flip?
    2. A Whole New Landscape
    3. Making a Complicated Turn
    4. Don’t Lose Your Place
    5. Touchpoints
  12. 10. Polite Conversation
    1. When To Interrupt
    2. Remain Calm and Carry On
    3. Pushy Notifications
    4. No Stinkin’ Badges
    5. Yep, I’m Working on It
    6. Bending Time: Progress Bars and Other Distractions
    7. Touchpoints
  13. 11. Howdy, Neighbor
    1. Public Square: Contacts, Photos, and Events
    2. Tag, You’re It: Passing Control to Other Apps
    3. Roll Your Own: Browsers, Maps, and Email
    4. Happy Trails, Neighbor
    5. Touchpoints
  14. Index
  15. About the Author
  16. Copyright

Product information

  • Title: Tapworthy
  • Author(s): Josh Clark
  • Release date: June 2010
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449381653