However, the most recent project would not have been possible without the following teams:
R&D team – Ray Wenderlich, NSScreencasts
CI team – Buddybuild
Infrastructure team – Google Firebase
Dev Partners – Cocoapods and Github
Mentors – Core Intuition, Release Notes, Under the Radar, iOS Dev Weekly, This Week in Swift.
Thanks to all for their continued support.
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One section included his thoughts on server side Swift.
Some of his comments:
Everyone on the project wants it to be “the way to do server development”.
It’s phase 2 of Swift’s plan for world domination plan.
Everyone hopes Swift will be the next best thing. They’re hoping for it to be more popular than Java, Python or even C.
He commented that open source is the key to this. “Without open source, it wouldn’t be available on other platforms; it won’t be used in education or teaching.”
He also thought that systems programming is the next great frontier for Swift. He indicated that the necessary libraries and frameworks are needed and are coming together. This is being guided by the Swift server working group.
He thought there were half a dozen different interesting approaches. But stated it’s not yet clear which one will win out.
]]>If you would to discuss your app design process, please contact me.
No More Xcode
This is the last mention of Xcode in this article because it’s not necessary for prototyping. It’s too cumbersome, restrictive and final. Storyboards seem to be a good fit for this purpose but fall short when compared to the following tools.
Speedy Sketching
Sketch is a user interface design tool. It’s been designed that way from the ground up and it has a healthy ecosystem of plugins and resources.
It’s intuitive use means that the learning curve is low. Although there are a ton of tutorials and guides out there if you get stuck.
iOS App Prototyping
Amazing iOS 9 design resources have been provided by Facebook and Meng To. These contains elements of all levels of app design from entire tableviews to single icons. Each of the resources can be broken down to a granular level. With each one having customisable settings for size, colour, opacity, tint, border, blur, anything, ever.
This means that prototyping becomes a matter of arranging existing elements on screen rather than designing from scratch.
By reusing existing UI elements a design can evolve very quickly.
Building Blocks
Through the use of Symbols and Text Styles is possible to build resuable blocks of elements. These can then be updated in one central library with the change being reflected throughout the design.
(This is the first step in ensuring that the design has been structured correctly and a cohesive style guide has been applied).
Marvelling with Marvel
Marvel is a prototyping tool. It allows you to upload your designs and create links and transitions between screens. A project can then be viewed on the web or via the Marvel iOS app.
Using a third party plugin it is simple to publish your Sketch design in Marvel.
When adding hotspots to a design to link to another screen you also specific the transition type. These settings are stored in Marvel and are kept when a new version of the Sketch design is uploaded.
There is something very powerful about the lack of effort required to deploy your prototype to a device for feedback and testing. The reduction in time so drastic your project feels successful immediately. With early stage feedback from a design preview on device you’re cutting costs and adding value at the same time.
Feedback with Lookback
Lookback is a user testing tool that records a test session in the prototype, including a video of the users reactions.
Through an integration in Marvel, you can watch users testing the design you created in Sketch.
The session is initiated from within Marvel. Users can be invited via a shared URL or by email. They are asked to install the Marvel app and then start the test. It’s a seamless experience for the user.
The results of the testing are presented in a very powerful way. The timeline, app recording and user video recording are all synced to show the route the user took through the design.
It also archives all the user testing for future reference.
Winning Combination
This simple workflow is amazingly powerful. The number of steps are minimal. The value is unfathomable.
From creating a design in Sketch, animating it in Marvel to watching recorded user feedback sessions in Lookback.
Any app design process can benefit from this workflow. If you would to discuss your app design process, please contact me.
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Every iOS app developer should stop now and start using Sketch. It’s not Photoshop (because life’s too short). It’s a gamechanger.
It’s got a massively healthy eco system for plugins, resources and third party integrations. Yep, it’s not a drawing tool, it’s a UI prototyping lifesaver.
Digital Design
It’s intended for designing digital products. Templates for iOS devices are standard.
Design should be borrowed or inspired by others. It should never be lookng at a blank screen and not knowing how to fill it. With a weatlh of Sketch resources available, the design inspiration is unlimited.
Time Saving Resources
Meng To has produced an iOS 9 resource kit, as has Facebook. These contain all the elements of a design that you should ever need. As all elements in Sketch are vector based, every element can be set to the required size, colour, opacity, tint, border, blur, anything, ever. From a developer point of view, this means never actually having to design any elements. Just arranging elements is enough to be able to create new screen layouts.
Although there are plenty of screen layouts included too. If you’re mocking up an app, you can easily use available resources to customise onboarding screens, login screen, tableview with content and a messaging screen. Within Xcode you wouldn’t even bother to attempt this.
Any design can be realised but a design based on iOS controls and principles can be created quicker.
It’s a simple canvas so the ‘limitations’ of device orientation and sizes with accompanying constraints are being ignored, which at the design stage is a good thing.
Any non standard UI elements within the design can be exported as code using the PaintCode plugin.
Developer Friendly
Project layout is important. It’s easy to get to a jumbled state of multiple pages, multiple layers, nested layers and duplicated layers. Refactoring will aid the whole process making for quicker iterations and maintainable designs.
Sketch plays to a lot of the strengths of a developer IDE. In fact, it’s almost an IDE for design. Maybe this is nothing new (Photoshop has had an eco system of utilities for a long time), but it’s that Sketch feels like it’s helping you. It has the same attitude. It’s helping you with your design. It wants to be part of your workflow so you’re not battling against it.
Great Tutorial
I got my introduction to Sketch through Meng To’s Design+Code and would recommended that you do too.
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There is a sliding scale of options for “attending” WWDC week:
- Get a ticket, go to SF, attend sessions
- Go to SF, watch sessions
- Stay home, watch sessions
WWDC Attendance Cost
Registration is open until April 22nd 2016 closed for 2016. Registering entered you into the lottery for tickets. Successful applicants were notified on April 25th 2016.
Registration cost $1599 which is charged on successful selection during the lottery process. You then have travel and hotels costs. Typical estimates of attendance cost are $4000. This is also a week out of the office so typically you have reduced income for a week.
Remote Attendance
If you’re not planning to attend, there are plenty of ways you can join in during WWDC week.
The two key sessions are the Keynote and the Platforms State of the Union. The Keynote is the business update which typically includes new product announcements. The Platforms State of the Union goes deeper in iOS and OSX features and updates.
Apple has announced that many of the sessions will be live streamed.
The Apple WWDC app gives a sneak preview of sessions. Not yet updated for 2016. Expect the schedule to be updated by the end of May.
There are many other events happening in San Francisco during WWDC. Some are satellite events for WWDC and some are alternative events for without a WWDC ticket but are still in the city. Both Layers and AltConf have confirmed 2016 events but have not yet published details. For a taste of the great talks from last year, view the 2015 AltConf videos.
Watching WWDC Videos
The release of WWDC videos by Apple has improved year on year. The time to release has reduced every year, with some sessions now being streamed live. Recently they have added searchable transcripts and subtitles. The searchable transcripts provide links to the point in the video. This is very powerful for quickly navigating a video. Subtitles make it easier to absorb the content.
For a full UI to access the videos, you should use WWDC. This Mac app allows you to track videos you’ve watched, save favourites and gives access to all videos and transcripts from previous WWDC’s.
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- Thurs 10th Sep – iPad Mini 4 ships
- Sat 12th Sep – iPhone 6s preorders
- Weds 16th Sep – iOS 9 ships (Xcode 7 available in AppStore)
- Fri 25th Sep – iPhone 6s ships
- October – Apple TV
- November – iPad Pro
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These screenshots show the small amount of space available for your app description.
These screenshots also highlight the importance of the app name. This is the only key information shown on the main App Store listing. It is also given a lot of real estate on the app detail screen.
The most important aspect of these screens are the screenshots. These take up the majority of the screen. The first screenshot can be an app preview video. With limited opportunities to sell to a user, these 15-30 second app preview videos are a great option.
Another common option is to add header/footer text or captions to your screenshots. This allows you draw attention to the key benefits or features of your app.
In summary, the most important parts of your app store listing are:
- Screenshots
- App Icon
- App Title
- App Description
- What’s New
I’ve created App Store templates for experimenting with icons, descriptions and screenshots. This allows you to consider how a user will interact with your app at the point of sale.
This should be a significant consideration as part of your design process.
Using this information
You can use these screens as a starting point for creating your app. Build your sales messages into your plan from the start.
- Can you easily describe your app?
- Can you show the benefits of the app in a screenshot?
- Will your users understand it?
- Will it sell?
Download these free resources as PDF’s and start planning your app.
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The basics
- £0.79 – Universal app
- Offers Apple Watch App
- All 5 screenshots have text heading with features and benefits.
- No App Preview video.
- 27 Ratings, the majority are 5 star.
- Top description is short and descriptive. Full length description details all features, all compatible iOS devices and Mac models.
- Related section for Top Paid iPhone Utilities Apps included Knock, priced at £3.99, offers Apple Watch App. 13 ratings with an average of 3 stars.
- iOS App Feature Bingo: Today Widget, Mac, TouchID, Apple Watch, Glance, iTunes, Notification Center, Bluetooth.
Version History
This is version 1.2 of the app. Version 1 released 15 Jan 2015, with Version 1.1 released 10 Mar 2015. Some early review indicate issues with app reliability. The majority of recent review are positive.
Developer Website
A truly beautiful website for MacID. More great copy for the app. All very Apple in design. Links through to his personal blog which has a couple of articles which appear to be his first experiments with the mechanisms that make up MacID. He also has an extensive run down of iOS8 features where he mentions the TouchID API.
App Rankings
The app has multiple peaks and troughs only recently levelling out at the top of the charts, primarily caused by the price change from £3.99 to £0.79.
Summary
Much can be learned from this app. A simple mechanic for the app. A simple well designed icon. The screenshots are selling this app. The price has been the trigger for the number one position.
It looks like that the app at the top of the App Store charts in mid May 2015 was probably first conceived at WWDC in June 2014. Just another App Store overnight app success.
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We did a study of SPDY performance on mobile: 23% faster than HTTP – SPDY – SPDY — Google Developers
Opera Dragonfly – Early look at upcoming features: “pretty print”, function return values, UPnP
Creating web content for TV – Dev.Opera
https://developers.google.com/tv/web/docs/design_for_tv
@norckon: The problem of cross-platform mobile development… #mobilism http://t.co/t7IBnK0m
Xbox now used more for online entertainment than online gaming – latimes.com
Double Vision – Global Trends in Tablet and Smartphone Use while Watching TV | Nielsen Wire
Registration is now open for the @w3c online training course on “Mobile Web Apps”! http://t.co/Cei1fM3P
CamHolder 0.2 for iPhone, Android and other mobile handsets – by Heiko Behrens
Test on Real Mobile Devices without Breaking the Bank | Brad Frost Web
YouTube to pay for your mobile data charges? Carriers betting on it – FierceWireless
The Coming Zombie Apocalypse | Blog | design mind
Mobile Apps Must Die http://t.co/QOueb5XW
Fixed Positioning in Mobile Browsers | Brad Frost Web
The HTML5 test – How well does your browser support HTML5?
First, Understand Your Screen « James Pearce
Multiscreen Patterns | precious, strategic design & visual language
Let’s Get Physical (Units) | Boris Smus
*this* is mobile, not just a 320px wide piece of glass #mobilismconf
The EMs have it: Proportional Media Queries FTW! Cloud Four Blog
QuirksMode – for all your browser quirks
Updated:
Triumph of the Mundane | Blog | design mind
Cutting through the Crap: The Essence of Content on the Future Web // Speaker Deck
Coverage of Mobilism 2012 – Lanyrd
Mobile Debugging // Speaker Deck
RT @jaspio: Here’s a panoramic shot of Path Tuschinski: what an amazing venue #mobilismconf #mobilism http://t.co/60kAiDra
JavaScript console – for debugging JavaScript and remote debugging mobile web apps
1960s Braun Products Hold the Secrets to Apple’s Future
Mobile-first, a quick introduction
Application Cache: Douchebag // Speaker Deck
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