Book Image

iPhone User Interface Cookbook

By : Cameron Banga
Book Image

iPhone User Interface Cookbook

By: Cameron Banga

Overview of this book

The incredible growth rates for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad have pushed consumers to a new “App” economy, with developers racing to the platform. Mobile touch-centric interfaces vary greatly from traditional computing platforms, and programmers as well as designers must learn to adapt to the new form-factor.The iPhone User Interface Cookbook offers a complete breakdown of standard interface design on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. You will learn the tools behind the trade, how to properly utilize standard interface elements, and custom UI tricks that will help your work stand out on the App Store.The book is designed to be a complete overview of interface design on all iOS platforms, offering insight and an inside look into app design. A variety of topics are covered, starting with an overview of tools for the app interface designer, touching upon popular interface components such as the Tab Bar, and offering suggestions for complex game interfaces. Whether you’re new to the platform or a seasoned developer with numerous applications in the App Store, this book strives to teach everyone simple and easy to implement tips for iOS interface design. Regardless of skill level, the iPhone User Interface Cookbook offers a detailed breakdown of all things interface design.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
iPhone User Interface Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
PacktLib.PacktPub.com
Preface
The Importance of Direct Manipulation
If you need a stylus, you blew it

Accounting for the lost Status Bar


Because a game is typically full screen, in order to provide an immersive experience in our game, we'll lose the important 20 pixel Status Bar located on the top of our iPhone or iPad screen.

The Status Bar contains important user information on connectivity signal, the time, and battery life; we may not want to completely remove this functionality if we can avoid it. Users often enjoy such features and may want to know how much battery life they have or what time it is when playing our game. However, we don't want them to close our app in order to find this information.

In this recipe, we'll discuss ways in which we can best go about keeping these features inside of our application, so the user is never forced to leave midway through a game level.

Getting ready

Either the iPhone or iPad will work well in this recipe, as both will give an idea as to the significance of losing the status bar.

It also may be useful to read up on the iOS Date and Time...