iOS human-machine Interface Design specification: human-machine Interface Design specification documentation Limitations

Article Description: iOS Wow Experience-First chapter-iOS Human Interface Design specification Overview.

This is the first chapter of the IOS Wow Factor:apps and UX design techniques for iPhone and IPad, and the rest of the chapters will be released in succession.

The purpose of Apple's design specification for iOS HMI (Hig,human Interface Guidelines) is to provide the most authoritative and reliable starting point for designers and developers who have just entered the iOS field. The way they develop this set of specifications is simple-providing a wealth of basic theoretical knowledge and technical guidance to help individuals or design teams create iOS applications in the shortest time possible.

Initially, this set of rules is more about showing readers the revolutionary interaction patterns that the iOS platform brings. When Apple has just begun to open its devices to third-party application developers, the biggest challenge is how to promote iOS and related devices to become a system platform that can effectively deploy and run applications, which is acceptable to the vast majority of users.

When Apple launched the App Store in the summer of 2008, professional teams in mobile devices and consumer electronics have formed a mature community. These teams are fully able to migrate to the new iOS platform and start building applications for it. However, there are still very few people with successful skills and experience, and Apple needs more iOS application development teams and more good apps to ensure their strategy is successful.

Figure 1-1 iOS Human-machine Interface design specification (Hig,human Interface guidelines)

Historical Review

Mobile apps before 2008 look very primitive compared to the present. This is not because developers do not think ahead, the main problem is the technical limitations of hardware devices. At that time, the so-called "functional mobile phone" is the main feature is easy to carry, to determine whether a mobile phone is the main criterion is to see if it is small enough. As a result, most mobile phone screens are very small, and their resolution and color depth indicators are very low. In addition, the equipment in the computational power and memory, and so the limitations are very large. All this means that the design and development of mobile applications can only be carried out conservatively under restrictive conditions. So at the time, people were usually focused on whether or not the application would work properly, without paying much attention to its appearance style. Moreover, the market share of mobile devices was very fragmented at the time, and the designers and developers of the application had to target some minimal configuration to ensure that the application would be compatible with more devices. These limitations make it almost impossible for designers to create the most ideal user experience in any one device.

And the "smartphone" poses some new challenges. Compared with ordinary mobile phones, their screens are really bigger and better, and the computational power is much stronger, but this type of equipment often varies by vendor. At that time, the more common types of input include:

1. Wheel on side of fuselage
2. Four-direction or five-direction navigation
3. Standalone key or physical key
4. Custom key or Soft key ("Confirm", "return")
5. Handwriting Pen
6. Touch screen

Figure 1-2 Palm Treo smartphone

A device may contain a combination of any of the several input methods mentioned above. Many times, the interactive mode represented by input has become the signboard of some devices. This is mainly due to the fact that early smartphones evolved directly from the more popular PDA (personal digital assistants, commonly known as PDAs). Given the value and cognitive nature of these iconic interactions, these phones naturally choose to keep the PDA's original interactive features.

Figure 1-3 Palm TX Handheld PC (PDA)

As the market for functional handsets and smartphones matures, the design and development of applications running on these devices has become highly specialized. The chaos in the smartphone market and the bizarre differences between platforms have led to a growing separation of knowledge from design practices, which only a handful of people can grasp.

The iphone has challenged the situation, which has revolutionized people's perceptions of what "mobile phones are", "what phones can Do" and "how phones should operate", and has made it possible for people in the relevant fields to change old thinking patterns.

Today, we are familiar with devices such as Iphonee and the ipad, but don't forget that when the iphone was just launched, its home button and shape design were controversial. The simplicity of the device, compared to the larger screen of similar products and the design of most traditional physical buttons, has made it a stark contrast to other smartphones. People immediately begin to question the functionality and usability of the home key, but at the same time, there are some views that this physical keystroke is the key factor in the success of I. In addition, comprehensive touch-screen input and control methods have become a hot topic of contention.

After a brief review of history, the nature of the iOS HMI design specification became clear. When we read the specification document, we can feel the track of historical development from two topics:

1. The elaboration and analysis of iOS design concept, especially in the interactive ways such as input and control.
2. How to make full use of the hardware and software functions of the equipment platform to create the best user experience mode.

In fact, this is the purpose of the "platform features" part of the specification to help designers and developers understand the difference between iOS and other platforms they once knew. This is necessary because the level of iOS devices, systems platforms, and applications can be compromised if the preconceived notions and standards that the industry's products bring to them are not ruled out.

This sensible approach has effectively boosted Apple's strategy. The status of iOS devices has been fully consolidated, and has become a major market attraction of the mainstream platform.

Limitations

However, the human-machine interface Design Code also has a place where it does not have a bit. Even if Apple is careful to plan their design guidelines and experience specifications, it is not hard to find that many of these elements have some degree of limitation. Interaction designers may find it difficult to identify too much valuable information because of the conceptualization of some parts of the presentation. Some of the recommended design patterns in the specification document do not perform well in abstraction, and lack the necessary basic description. In addition, some of the design aspects of the content also appears to be somewhat general, not very good from the perspective of user experience to deepen the expansion.

Some introduction to the design and development process in the specification document, which is used to help inexperienced teams get started as quickly as possible, but is somewhat perfunctory in terms of content. Moreover, the process described in this paper is only applicable to some specific requirements, and the specification document does not clearly give a more comprehensive and applicable method principle.

If this is the first time you've ever tried to create an iOS application, these problems will not cause you much trouble. In the specification document, Apple gives priority to the contents of screen size specification, device orientation, touch screen interactive mode and so on. The goal is to allow the design and development team to focus on the "input" and "output" components that are most critical to the user interface design, and thus maximize the design concept of iOS mobile applications.

It is not realistic to expect Apple to provide a comprehensive and accurate set of documentation resources, which is now a good starting point for us. From another perspective, we will also find that the main purpose of this set of specifications is to minimize the risk of opening the device platform to third-party developers to protect Apple's brand image and the market share of iOS equipment, thereby ensuring its continued success. The success of any third-party iOS app is Apple's success, so their long-term planning is perfectly reasonable. On the face of it, Apple is using norms to popularize excellent design patterns, but from the perspective of brand protection and permanence, this set of norms also carries the following strategies:

1. Establish the cultural prestige, causes the consumer to produce the exclusive consciousness.
2. Maintain a unified temperament between the iOS platform and the Apple brand.
3. Proving that the price of its equipment is high, but the cost of investment is equally huge.

Beyond the norm

To create a successful mobile application, it is not enough to have a basic understanding of the problems related to user experience design. iOS apps in the marketplace are constantly evolving, how to create compelling visual representations and interactions, and to keep your applications competitive in the marketplace through differentiated user experience designs? It is very important to document and analyze the problems in this aspect. In addition, can we further create a more compelling and highly customized visual experience and incorporate it into the interactive environment of iOS devices, based on the "appearance consistency" principle advocated by human-machine interface design specifications? How should they reconcile their stylistic differences? There are no very complete, accurate, easy to understand answers to these questions for our reference at the moment.

And these are the purposes of this book. We need in-depth deconstruction and excavation of iOS, to help readers grasp the concept of iOS design ideas and methods, and then create a more advanced iOS applications. I'm going to go around all the arguments involved in customizing the appearance of the interface and focus on presenting the reader with some effective tools and methodological strategies--you'll learn how to design an amazing application from scratch, or do a piece of work on an already applied redesign.

In the following chapters, we will delve into the user experience model for iOS, and some usability topics will be covered. However, you need to know that the traditional usability concept is an important basic principle for a successful application, but in some cases these principles also need to make the necessary adjustments to the actual design requirements. You will learn that the choice of design options and decisions, in many cases, is actually a trade-off process.

As a reader of this book, you need to have an understanding of the iOS HMI design specification and experience with project planning and design for iOS applications, as well as the practical work skills and mindset in user experience design. However, even if you do not yet have these conditions, this book can still bring you a lot of valuable design ideas and practical solutions to help you better grasp the opportunity to create an amazing iOS mobile applications.

The composition is compiled from: C7210, original address.