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Closed 11 years ago.
How do you sketch out your iPhone App designs and ideas? I am currently about to start my next project and want to find a way to get my ideas on screen instead of good old fashioned paper.
For the first stage, nothing is going to beat paper. Whatever tool you use will be (hopefully) more accurate, sure. But you're trading time for that accuracy, and in the initial stage of UI design you need speed more than accuracy.
I do my designs with a few different pencils on index cards. When I'm satisfied I'm going in the right direction, I tape the card to a ruler and use my iMac's camera to take a picture of them. I then convert it to B&W and do a simple brightness/contrast to try to get them looking as good as possible, and I've got something reasonable to digitally store.
The great thing about this is that I can draw a rough card in not much more time than it takes Save As to open up if your Time Machine drive has gone to sleep. :) I can do a nice card in a little more time. And if I ever want something nicer looking, I can edit the scan or use it as a tracer in some other program.
(And I toss the cards in ziplock bags by project.)
Balsamiq has an excellent tool for doing mockups of interface designs. They also have some iPhone components. There is an online demo that I have started using (after seeing the answer to another SO question) and have really enjoyed the experience so far.
MockApp looks great!
OmniGraffle. ( http://www.omnigroup.com/products/OmniGraffle/ ) When combined with various iPhone Stencils like: ( http://graffletopia.com/stencils/413 and http://graffletopia.com/search/iphone ), OmniGraffle makes a great toolset.
Thanks everyone for you quick responses!
After testing both Balsamiq and MockApp I have come to the conclusion that MockApp gives me exactly the sort thing I want for design my Apps as you can see exactly how it will look and the sort of space each UI Element will take up. Also with the use of Keynote or Powerpoint you could go a stage further and link all the buttons up to create an effective demo presentation of your ideas if you required to present such a thing, though this is a little more time consuming and for myself I don't require this, but nice to know its there!
Balsamiq is a slightly quicker and easier tool to use but has less stock UI components and gives a sketchy look to the design which appears cool if you wanted to create quick story board images of your app idea but for actual design MockApp creates a much more realistic appearance which I believe is better. Also Balsamiq costs $79 if you want more then just the demo.
The reason I would choose MockApp over all the other solutions is that I would assume most already have either powerpoint or keynote on their computer compared to Photoshop or Fireworks, though I'm sure if you have those applications on your computer it may be better to use those. Also MockApp is free / tweet-ware, see the MockApp website for more details.
Hope this helps
Dan
P.S. I have yet to try OmniGraffle, thats next on my list!
I am developing WireframeSketcher wireframing tool that lets you create iPhone mockups using an external stencil. You can also link screens together to simulate interactivity.
I use these Photoshop templates from Teehan and Lax...
http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/2009/06/18/iphone-gui-psd-30/
or for a whole list of iPhone and iPad stencils: http://emilychang.com/2010/03/ipad-templates-and-stencils/
(source: emilychang.com)
I just create my designs in Adobe Fireworks using this mockup toolkit: http://blog.metaspark.com/2009/02/fireworks-toolkit-for-creating-iphone-ui-mockups/
Omnigraffle works well
I also create my designs in Adobe Fireworks using mockups toolkits you can find everywhere.
If you're a Fireworks fan you really should take a look at a very nice Fireworks Extension which allows you to preview your designed app in a iPhone simulator which is AIR based. The transition effects which are the trademark of the mobile device are also built in the extension and can be applied to the designs.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&loc=en_us&extid=1786031#
if you're already familiar with fireworks mockups you will love this extension.
best
Rob Rhyne's Briefs is great for mocking up the user experience. You can play your briefs on the phone.
Software is attractive, but you'll end up spending more time playing around with colors and moving things than getting the design/functionality down. What you need is speed. With speed you can move onto the programming sooner than later. I'll admit if you ultimately want to share the design with someone else MockApp is probably a good choice.
Here's what you need: (In order of preference)
http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/28/notepod-paper-iphone-notepads/
or
http://appsketchbook.com/
or
http://thenextweb.com/2009/05/21/designing-iphone-software-pencil-wooden-forms-ink-brush/
Software is useful and may be more efficient but sometimes getting away from the screen is a good way to increase concentration on design rather than implementation. And nothing draws quite as many "cool!" comments as my stainless steel iPhone stencil:
Design Commission Stainless Steel iPhone UI Template
I don't use the print image they provide but made my own with a reduced-alpha screen capture from the simulator.
I would have to say mockapp or omnigraffle at the moment.
Don't miss out on this one by Less Code: http://lesscode.co.nz/interface
It lets you design right on the iPhone with iOS native components.
Related
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Closed 9 years ago.
I'm looking for an advanced iOS prototyping tool. Here are some of the requirements that would be necessary for me to use one:
Should be able to run on a device and respond like a real app does. I don't mind if the prototype runs in a container.
Should be able to rotate a UITableView horizontally (like in Pulse/BBC) and also support gestures on the table.
I've seen some prototyping tools but none of them seem to support my second requirement above. My only alternative seems to be coding, which I do not want to do at this stage because there are a lot of other details that would end up making the prototype too-much-to-handle. Any pointers?
I think you are putting too much effort into a prototype which (I'll assume) is going to be thrown away once you start implementing the real deal.
Ask yourself what you want to accomplish with a prototype.
Is it to test your navigation and design with users to see if it is intuitive and complete? In that case I would recommend that you write no code at all and make a prototype in something like Keynote. you can even use that to make a clickable PDF that you can view in full screen on the device to let users tap on buttons etc. Check out the instructional videos on Keynotopia here for an example of what I'm talking about. I've even bought their awesome templates and love prototyping this way.
Is it to see if a specific technical thing can actually be done? In that case do minimal UI and write your code for real.
If you're trying to just develop a wireframe, you can use control dragging and drag & drop interfaces within Storyboard in Xcode. If you want to do anything else, you'll need to at least add some code behind it.
Best prototyping tool I've found is here .
It's free too. But I agree 100% with #Heiberg above - don't waste your time perfecting the prototype.
Blueprint has been removed by Apple recently. App Cooker would be the best option for you with the free viewer called App Taster. A big update is coming, the price will go up. It's the right time to jump in. www.appcooker.com
I agree with #Heiberg that a long involved prototyping process isn't worth it. The iOS prototyping tool I built, Flinto takes that to heart. We focused a lot of our effort on making the process of creating the prototype very fast.
Gesture support is forthcoming. Rotation is handled by dedicated portrait and landscape versions of your prototype.
I'm happy with AppCooker for the iPad. It has also free reader, called AppTaster, so other people can try your prototypes.
It's not 100% perfect, and update cycle is rare, but I like it.
It supports gestures, but doesn't support rotation.
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Closed 8 years ago.
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I'm a developer who is making an app without a graphic designer for the first time. I am competent at making user interfaces that fits conventions and the Apple Human Interface Guidelines, but when it comes adding that extra layer of decoration to make the app sexy, I'm totally inexperienced.
Does anyone have any pointers or resources for helping developers such as myself act like graphic designers, in particular for iPhone apps?
I have a technical knowledge of photoshop, without having an artistic ability with it. I like to believe that I have a good eye for judging aesthetics, but I've never been good at creating something aesthetically pleasing from scratch.
"Acting as" requires being one, so learn the basics of graphic design. One popular book for beginners is The Non-Designer's Design Book. It's not about Photoshop, it's about recognizing why a design works to improve your judgement. There is more logic behind it than you may think. Usually being pleasing is the same as conveying useful information, "design is how it works as much as how it looks".
Review screenshots of existing iOS apps: Pttrns, Well Placed Pixels, Beautiful Pixels, or keep your own collection using LittleSnapper and CandyBar.
Unfortunately most tutorials are step by step instructions to reach a goal, but they don't bother much in why or how combining certain effects works. Then there are a lot of subtleties which you will have to dig in blog posts. Erik Tjernlund posted a good link (flyosity.com), here is another (bjango.com). These details create immediate trust from the user. There are plenty of tutorial sites on Google, but learning PS is a long-term goal.
An (offtopic) option now is to buy professional services. Example, Articles from Sophia Teutschler got help from the IconFactory. It's cost effective to invest your time in what you do best to pay for what they do best.
I really like Mike Rundle's (#flyosity) blog post – "Crafting Subtle & Realistic User Interfaces" – as a good, hands-on introduction on how to think about creating beautiful user interfaces. Follow some of his advice and your apps will automatically look much better.
To get inspiration, I highly recommend the Pttrns site. Look at how different apps solve common tasks.
My last advice is to practice a lot. My experience is that using the most commonly used tools (Photoshop and Illustrator) doesn't come naturally for us developers. Seeing a professional using these tools can sometimes be a real eye-opener. Especially workflow and how they use the tools to guide them in the creative process.
I am frequently visiting this website: http://app.itize.us/wp/
Not for directly copying others design or functionality but I always get ideas on how to design GUI elements here, often by mixing many of the different styles. I will also recommend you to just play with all of the different layer options you get when you double-click a layer in Photoshop, learned a lot by doing that!
The Web Designers Guide to iOS Apps is excellent but it does focus on NimbleKit. If you're not using NK the design discussions are still valuable.
You can follow tutorials here. I am not vary much familiar about photoshop/illustrator but may be these tutorials be helpful.
Having a "good eye" and knowing what looks nice is good, but if you don't have that initial "vision" then you will be spending a lot of time playing around until you stumble on the design that looks good and even then you may never reach that point.
As developers, we are very good at following the guidelines put down by Apple and making sure that we follow those - after all it's a nice logical set of rules to follow and that's exactly what we do when we write code - follow logical rules.
Unfortunately the design side of things doesn't have rules that we can follow. Yes, we may be technical at using Photoshop or some other drawing application, but when it comes to actually having that spark of inspiration, that's not something we can just click a button for.
Looking at other applications is one way to go. But then you may end up having an app that looks like another app or a collection of a number of apps and then you may have problems with a fluid user interaction.
My own approach to this problem was to go out and find someone who is really good at doing that art stuff and working with them. I struggled for a long time designing my own stuff, but looking back, it was obvious it was a developer (me) doing the design. I'm not sure what it is, but there's an extra something that these graphic artists seem to be able to do that I just can't get and that makes all the difference.
But the flip side to this is that he can't code. Sometimes it's best to just stick to what you're best at.
I have a friend who is a graphic designer & user experience designer who will be collaborating with me to develop an iPhone app. He does not have previous iPhone experience. What is the best way to work with him on developing the user interface, i.e. custom colors for UITableViews, UIButtons, etc? We've looked into Photoshop mock ups, but that depends on me (the developer) implementing what he drew in Photoshop, which might get tricky.
Most of the methods I've thought of have long turn around time, i.e. he uses Photoshop, sends me the image, I develop, send him a test build of the app, he doesn't like it, rinse, lather, repeat.
Do you think it's feasible to set him up with Interface Builder so he can modify XIB files? Potentially, he could build and run the app in the simulator...
Does anyone have experience doing this? Any suggestions?
Thanks much,
-dan
This goes for a developer or designer. The best way in my opinion is to mock up designs in photoshop, debate on what is good and what is bad, then send the final mock ups to the developer.
The reason you want to do it this way is because your designer can't do everything he wants to do by simply using the IB. You need to allow your designer to express his creative freedom without the burdeon of figuring out how to use a piece of software correctly.
You can find plenty of templates of iPhone and iPad components on the web. Having those components will make it very simple for your friend to put together concepts. It will also keep things consistent so you can have an easier time implementing them.
A Great Collection of iPad Resources
iPhone Materials
One suggestion is to start with the elements that do not need graphic design but you know they will be there, this will be things like table views, tab bars, any UI element provided by UIKit or even custom UI elements that you make...I would say you will probably have most of your app made by this approach and will look VERY plain...once you have that basis you should be able to work with the graphic designer and identify where and what he needs to make, it should also be pretty easy for you to integrate it since it will probably be mostly images or textures, things like animations and such will have to be handled by you anyway...just a suggestion, hope its helpful
Omnigraffle is your best bet for quickly mocking out UIs. It produces nearly photorealistic mockups. It's easy for non-artist to use but can also utilize imported images of arbitrary complexity if he needs to do something fancy.
If you want my advice, keep the graphic designers away from the app until it is fully functional logically. They should only be brought in at the end of the process to tweak the UI.
They cause train wrecks if they come into the process early. Everybody in that field has been trained first and foremost to create visuals that attract attention. In an UI, that always translates into flashy, non-standard elements that turn into annoyance with repeated use. A good UI is essentially invisible to the user. Ideally, they should notice it only because they notice that they don't notice it. (It's all very Zen.)
People trained to attract attention in the blizzard of competing images of a media saturated world don't make invisible interfaces. They make "in your face" and "look at me!" interfaces that get old in a hurry.
Don't get me wrong: a good graphics person can really enhance an interface by the skillful and subtle use of proportion and color. Unfortunately finding a good UI graphics person is a challenge. Be prepared for fights over what works transparently versus what looks cool and draws attention the first time you see it.
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Closed 10 years ago.
As an artist and musician, I often want to sit down and just let the code roll like a piece of free-form poetry, but I've found that doesn't work as well as when I have a set goal in mind. I've been experimenting lately with setting up tiny, fun goals for myself, not unlike how an artist would sketch a quick still-life, but I wonder...
What do others do when they want to code for fun, without the bondage of an already-committed project?
Design work, I find, flows much easier than just coding. I find that coding is often more of just implementation of a good design; I really like to just sit down with a pad of paper and a pen (and likely a bottle of wine) and work out an interesting design.
Project Euler is where I'm having fun at now. I can go at my own pace and work on the problems that interest me. Also, work in any language I choose.
Write documentation when coding doesn't come easy - coding will quickly seem much more appealing!
Going for a walk outside.
I tend to map my idea or build a structure in a MindMapping tool like MindMeister. And it's great for a team because it can be edited in real time by multiple persons!
I like to pick up a new language and learn how to express ideas in it. This usually has the benefit of showing me what I like and don't like about the languages I currently use. I usually pick some little tool project I've been wanting to do. Using the new language angle get's me motivated
My most recent 'new language' is Scala, in this case it will likely become a langue I use.
I like writing on whiteboards. Great for db diagrams, task lists, feature lists, (other lists,) random ideas, notes, etc. (db diagrams being the biggie for me)
Python is great for just getting things going on an idea and having the language (usually) behave like you would expect.
While it may have its drawbacks, it sounds like a great fit for what you are describing.
So to answer your question, the Python Challenge is entertaining and often gets me thinking about little things that would be fun to code, probably because it exposes you to different types of problems.
I like to code.
I like to find something interesting, code it and then see it works.
It does not have to be a project per see, it's good enough if it does something, like use Google api to get picasa albums, change song in iTunes or get details of current iTunes song, automate downloading of document from web site that is behind login and requires cookies and all that stuff, data parser in python, simple app on Mac, core data application, google codejam problems, topcoder.com problems ...
I like to learn new features of some language or some new language/technology/patterns/tool :-)
Usually I will work in Photoshop for a while. Get creative and try to come up with a new design that's not constrained by any code. Maybe even find something inspiring on the web for some new design ideas... then try to implement the design in code. That's the fun and challenging bit.
Use the REPL.
You figure out broadly the sort of thing you need to do - what APIs you need to use, what data structures you need to handle - and then prod them interactively until they start making sense. A ton of languages I use now have REPLs: Ruby, Python, Scala, Java (BeanShell, or JRuby/Jython etc.), C# ('csharp'), PHP (Facebook have made a REPL for it), Smalltalk (GNU gst) and, obviously, LISP/Scheme.
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Closed 11 years ago.
Anyone have experience with drawing graphs on the iPhone? Looks like GraphKit isn't an option, so it's up to the programmer to either write his own library (using OpenGL, I guess), or an existing library. I can't seem to find any libraries that are confirmed to work on the iPhone.
If you've written your own how did you go about it (opengl, quartz, etc), or if you used a library which one?
I have been keeping my eye on this one:
core-plot
but I haven't yet tried it. Though it seams like it has potential.
chris.
Ive used coreplot...got an appstore app with it...not thrilled about its use. Its very customizable, maybe TOO customizable. It gave me quite a bit of trouble setting it up and i still have problems with is. Id like to know how Roambi.com does their porting from excel, it looks pretty good. MSOffice4mac should just come out with a direct port to iphone
Have tried and used CorePlot, on my way to a app-store app. Was a pain setting it up and then digging in deep, certainly the best graphing option currently.
I've done graphs in an application before using Quartz2D. Since the graph was particularly wide, I had to use a CATiledLayer for the view, which I think was what caused more issues than it fixed. The graph looked nice, but in the end, it was just too difficult to deal with. Too many bugs when trying to draw too much of the graph at once, or trying to draw the graph several times in a row quickly as the user changes between different views.
At this point, my suggestion would be to try something in OpenGL, though I don't know how you'd go about achieving it, since line drawing is pretty basic on the iPhone in OpenGL.
I have tried to plot a graph using Quartz 2D . It looks more like a drawing. But I am fixing the axes and plotting the coordinates according to the axes. But the problem is I want to make the graph user interactive. Each coordinate on the graph will further have to drill down showing the details of the coordinate. So how can I make the coordinates interactive .
You can check out the PowerPlot library which is an iOS native library. It is the only choice (to my knowledge) that not only has the "usual" assortment of charts, but also graphs (with nodes and connections) among the views. It is not based on OpenGL, but on Quartz. It also does not target the desktop version of MacOS, focusing specifically on iOS.
Licensing policy is dual license - developers can choose GPLv3 or a commercial one.