Design iPhone applications: from product definition to brand promotion

When you develop an iPhone applicationProgramYou need to understand the impact of various aspects of the iPhone OS and mobile device environment on your design. This chapter covers the guidelines for a series of programming issues from product definition to brand promotion, and describes how to solve these problems in iPhone applications.

 

Product Definition

Before designing your application, it is important to define exactly what your application is used. A better way is to write a product definition description-a document that describes the main features and target users of your application. Creating a product definition is not just an exercise. On the contrary, it is one of the best ways to convert a series of product functions into a clear and complete product.

First, spend some time defining your target users: Are they experts or new users? Is it rigorous or easygoing? Are you looking for help with specific tasks or for entertainment? Understanding this helps you customize user experience and user interfaces based on your specific needs.

Since you are designing an iPhone application, some user needs are known. For example:

They are mobile.

They want to open your application as quickly as possible and immediately see useful information.

They should be able to complete the task in just a few steps.

Then, let's take a look at the features that separate your users from other iPhone OS users. Are they businessmen, teenagers or retirees? Will they use your application at the end of each day, when they check for emails, or when they have extra time? The more accurately you define the target user, the more accurately you design the user interface appearance, experience, and functions.

For example, if your application is to help business people record their expenses, your user interface should focus on providing the correct classification and easy to enter the cost, instead of asking for details about many irrelevant core functions. In addition, you 'd better select a professional color for the interface without causing visual fatigue.

Or, if your app is a game that targets teenagers, you may need a lively user interface, a lyrical language, and a stylish color.

Finally, we will look at the features you intend to provide. Based on your imagination of the target user, try to extract a series of product functions into a product definition Description document, which describes the solutions provided by your product and your target users. For example, the iPhoto desktop application allows users to organize, edit, share, print, and view photos. However, an excellent product definition not only includes the features of the product, the target user is also described. Therefore, a complete iPhoto product definition may be "a simple and easy-to-use photo management application designed for amateurs ." Note how important it is to include your target user definition in the product definition Description: Imagine if iPhoto is defined as "a service provided for professional photographers, the simple and easy-to-use photo management app "is a big difference.

A good product definition is like a tool. You should use it throughout the development process to determine whether features, tools, and terms are appropriate. In particular, it is important to clear elements that do not comply with the product definition, because the iPhone application does not have extra space to support non-core features.

For example, imagine that you are considering developing an iPhone application that people can use when buying their daily necessities. During the planning phase, you may need to consider many different activities that users may like, for example:

Obtain nutrition information about specific foods

Find discount and discount Information

Create and use a shopping list

Locate a store

View recipes

Compare price

View total purchases

However, what you think your users are most concerned about is remembering everything they need to buy, saving as much money as possible, and is likely to rush home with the purchased product. Based on these user definitions, you can create a product definition for your application, such as "creating shopping lists and finding discount tools for busy people ." This product definition filters out the potential features of the product. You decide how to make the shopping list easy to create, store, and use. You can also find discounts for the items listed in their shopping list. Even if other features are useful (and may become the main feature of other applications), they do not comply with the product definition instructions of this application.

When you confirm a reliable product definition and start to use it to filter the features proposed, you may also want to use it to ensure that the initial decision on the application type is correct. If you start your development process with a specific application type in mind, you may find that the process of defining the product definition description has changed. (For details about the different types of applications you can develop, see "three application styles ")

 

 

 

Commonalities of excellent iPhone applications

Excellent iPhone applications precisely meet user needs and provide the user experience they want. To help you balance these two points in your applications, This section summarizes some of the common features of a good iPhone application and provides suggestions on how to integrate these features into your product.

Simplicity and ease of use

Simplicity and ease of use are the basic principles of all software, but they are especially important in iPhone applications. IPhone OS users are likely to do other things while using your applications. If users cannot quickly understand how to use your applications, they are likely to switch to applications of other competitors and will not try your applications again.

When designing the application process and user interface, follow the following guidelines to ensure that the application is simple and easy to use:

How to Use Your application should be obvious.

Common functions and information are concentrated on the top of the screen.

Minimize text input.

Briefly express basic information.

Provides a fingertip size target area for all clickable elements.

The following sections describe the principles of simplicity and usability in more detail.

Obviously

You cannot assume that you have time (or can focus) to study how your application works. Therefore, you must try to make your application understandable immediately.

The main functions of your application should be clear at a glance. You can minimize the number of controls you must select and clearly identify these controls so that you can understand their functions. For example, in the built-in stopwatch function (part of the clock application), as shown in 3-1, you can see at a glance which is the stop button and which is the start button, which is used to record the time of each lap.

Figure 3-1 Built-in stopwatch

Top-down Layout

You can click the screen of an iPhone OS device with your finger or thumb. Users tend to hold their devices (or put them in the palm of their hand) in their unaccustomed hands, and click the device with the fingers of their dominant hands. When using the thumb, people either hold the device in one hand, click with the thumb, or hold the device between both hands, and click with both thumbs. No matter which method is used, the top of the screen is the most conspicuous for users.

Because of these usage modes, you should place the most commonly used (usually important) information on the most obvious and convenient top when designing the application's user interface. When a user browses from the top of the screen to the bottom, the process of presenting information should be from general to special, from advanced to low-level.

Minimize required input

Whether a user clicks a control or uses a keyboard, the input information takes up their time and energy. If your application requires a large amount of input before obtaining useful information, this will reduce user efficiency and prevent users from continuing to use your program.

Of course, you usually need information from users. However, you should balance the information provided by the user with the information you provide to the user. In other words, we strive to provide users with as much information or functions as possible for each piece of information. In this way, when users use your application, they will feel that progress is being made and it is not blocked.

When you request input from a user, consider using a table view (or selector) instead of a text input box. It is usually easier for a user to select a word from a list than to enter a word. For details about the table view and selector, see "Table View" and "selector.

Concise Expression of information

When the text on the user interface is short and direct, the user can quickly understand it. Therefore, the most important information is expressed in a concise and concise manner, and the information is highlighted significantly, so that the user does not have to read a large text segment for the information they are looking for or for the purpose of figuring out what to do next.

To help you do this, you can think like a newspaper editor and try to transfer information in a compressed title style. Add short labels (or easy-to-understand symbols) to controls so that users can understand how to use them at a glance.

Provides a fingertip size target area for the control.

If you place controls too close in your layout, you need to spend more time and energy determining the area where they are clicked, and it is easy to spot the control. A simple and easy-to-use user interface should rationally allocate controls and other user interface elements, so that users can conveniently place controls.

For example, the built-in calculator application shows a very large, easy-to-click control, and each control's target area is about 44x44 pixels. Figure 3-2 shows the calculator application.

Figure 3-2 controls of the built-in calculator Application

Focus on Main Functions

A user-satisfied and happy iPhone application should focus on its main functions. Therefore, when designing an application, you should always focus on your product definition description, make sure that each product function and user interface element supports this description. For more information about how to create a product definition, see "Product Definition description ".

A better way is to determine what is most important in each context. When you decide what to display on each screen, constantly ask yourself, is this the key information or function that the user needs now? Or, to be more specific, do users need this information or feature when they shop in a mall or walk between meetings? If not, is it important in another different context? Or is it not that important after all? For example, an application that helps users record car mileage should not be concerned with the location of car dealers.

When you follow these guidelines, your solution becomes clearer. In particular, your applications are more obvious to use and minimize user input. Focus on your solution, so that you can easily and quickly enter the most important part of the application (the specific content of these guidelines, see "simplicity and ease of use ").

For example, the built-in calendar application (as shown in 3-3) focuses on the date and the events that occur on the current day. You can use a button with clear labels to display the current date, select view options, and add events. The most important information is the date and related events, which are also the most prominent. User input is also simple. It allows users to select time, repetition interval, and reminder options from the list, rather than pressing the key.

Figure 3-3 the built-in calendar application focuses on dates and events

Effective communication

Communication and feedback are equally important in iPhone applications as in desktop applications. Users need to know whether their requests are being processed and whether their actions will cause data loss or other problems. Even so, it is important to avoid improper communication, such as reminding users or asking for confirmation too frequently when it is not really serious.

Animation is a good way to communicate effectively, provided that it does not impede users' tasks or affect their efficiency. Fine-tuned animations can deliver information, provide useful feedback, and visually display the results of their actions to users. However, too many or meaningless animations impede the application process, affect its performance, and plague users.

 

All text-based communication with users must use user-centric terms, especially avoid using technical terms on the user interface. For example, on the Wi-Fi wireless network preference setting page, use clear, non-technical languages to describe how devices connect to the network, as shown in 3-4.

Figure 3-4 Use user-centric terms on the application's user interface

 

Appropriate support gestures

People are used to using their fingers to operate the unique multi-touch interface of the iPhone OS device, using gestures such as tapping, shaking, and clamping to choose, operate, read web content, or use applications. The real advantage of using fingers to operate devices is that fingers are always available, they have the ability to perform many different actions, and they give users an intuitive, device-related feeling, this is not possible for external input devices such as the mouse.

However, the finger has a major disadvantage. Compared with the mouse pointer, the size, shape, and sensitivity of the finger are much different. In the context of the screen, the fingers are never as accurate as the mouse pointer.

Fortunately, you can use a good user interface to make up for the challenges posed by finger input devices. In most cases, this means that you need to ensure that your layout can accommodate the average size of a fingertip. It also means that you need to respond to finger movements to give users the desired behavior.

A user performs certain actions to obtain special results. This action is called a gesture. For example, you can click a button to select it and shake it, or drag it to scroll down a list. IPhone users are used to these gestures because the built-in applications are used to the same purpose. Therefore, you should use these gestures properly in your application to avoid confusion.

Some more complex gestures, such as swipe or pinch open, are also used in Built-in applications, but they are not common. In general, these gestures are used as shortcuts to speed up task completion, rather than the only way to execute the task. For example, when viewing the mail list in a mailbox, the user displays the delete button in the message preview row and clicks it to delete a message being viewed. You can display the delete button in two different ways:

Click the edit button in the navigation bar to display a delete control in each preview row. Click the control to display the delete button.

When you use the swipe gesture on a specific preview line, the delete button of the message is displayed.

The first method requires an additional step, but it is easy to find, because it only needs to click the edit button that has been clearly identified. The second method is obviously faster, but it requires the user to learn and remember the specific swipe gesture.

Therefore, to make sure your applications are easy to use, try to use common gestures such as click and drag. Avoid using uncommon gestures such as swipe or pinch open as the only way to execute an action. Your application should have a simple and direct method to execute an action, even if it means multiple clicks.

In most applications, it is equally important to avoid defining new gestures. In particular, the actions executed by these new gestures are already associated with standard gestures. An exception is an immersive application where you can add custom gestures as appropriate. For example, an efficiency-type application requires a user to draw a circle gesture to display the delete button in a table row. Such an application will be messy and difficult to use. On the other hand, it is reasonable for a game to require a circled gesture to rotate a certain part of the game.

 

Table 3-1 lists the standard gestures that users can use. Do not try to redefine the meaning of these gestures. Conversely, if your application supports these actions, make sure that the corresponding gestures are also supported. For more information about how to handle gesture-generated events, see the iPhone application programming guide.

Table 3-1 gestures used to interact with iPhone OS Devices

Gesture	Operation
Tap	Press or select a control or project (similar to clicking a mouse ).
Drag	Drag
Flick	Quick rolling or shaking
Swipe	In a table View row, the delete button is displayed.
Double tap	Zoom in and center the content or image part. Zoom in (if it has been zoomed in ).
Pinch open	Zoom in
Pinch close	Zoom out
Touch and hold	In editable text, a enlarged cursor view is displayed.

Carefully integrate Brand Elements

The brand is most effective when its design is clever and simple. When users use your iPhone application to complete a task or entertainment, they do not want to feel forced to watch ads. Therefore, you should introduce your brand colors or images in a low-profile manner. For example, you can use a custom color scheme in views and controls.

 

The application icon is an exception. It should highlight your brand (the application icon is the icon that you can see on the home screen after installing the application ), users will often see this icon, so it is necessary to spend some time to make your brand more eye-catching. For how to design an application icon, see "application icon ."