Week 8 Reading

Personally I had a hard time reading the information from this reading. There's a lot of it and in many places repetitive. There's some good pieces here and there, like screen sizes. Here are my bits and pieces from the reading thus far…

• The display is essential for viewing and multi-touch interaction. The user’s focus is on the content. The comfortable minimum size is 44 x 44 points.
• How an app launches should be oriented the same as the Home Screen. The home screen view is based on the device, iPhone and iPod displays in portrait; iPad can display in all orientations.
• Use iOS standards: gestures, i.e. tap, drag, flick, swipe, double tap, pinch open/close, touch and hold, and shake for the comfort of the user; controls, views and icons; incorporates device features in a reliable way
• Be mindful of app multitasking which allows other apps to run in the background.
• Online User help should be minimal, program intuitive.
• The interface is a collection of screens, single windows.
• Two types of software in iOS: iOS apps, web content. iOS uses SDK to run natively on device. Web content is hosted by a website.
• Safari on iOS supports cookies and HTML5, but does not support Flash, Java or third party plug-ins. Can use JavaScript and CSS3 transforms, transitions and animations.
• Functionality is similar to website, it should work. Aesthetics should be consistent with the function of the app, i.e. if it’s a game then a beautiful appearance is expected.
• People expect immediate feedback when they operate a control, and they appreciate status updates during lengthy operations. Use subtle animation, like highlighting items, etc.

Related links

UI Guidelines for mobile and tablet web app design
http://www.mobilexweb.com/blog/ui-guidelines-mobile-tablet-design

40 Awesome iPhone application websites from webdesigner depot
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/40-awesome-iphone-application-websites/

How to create your first iPhone application from Smashing Magazine
How to http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2009/08/11/how-to-create-your-first-iphone-application/