Tap Worthy Chp. 1 - 4
Chp. 1
“The best app designs become almost invisible, and the controls seem to fade to the
background to put the user’s task or entertainment front and center.”
When on an iphone, the user normally goes through apps very quickly, going from one task to another. That means making quick exits, and task functionality essential for a well designed app. The user also spends short times glancing at the phone before returning to their outside tasks. No user is going to pay attention to all the elements of your app, but iphones are very personal and express the user well, so if they love their phone, they most likely love your app. User’s use mobile apps, while they are mobile. Where the audience uses their app, also tells the designer how they use it. The best apps can be used and fit into a busy schedule. Apps need visual simplicity. Even apps that are meant to be used for long immersive sessions, need to be designed for the practicality of being used for a quick second. One should make their apps function/tool very specific, do not have loads of things that the app can do, instead realize that they will have multiple apps for multiple functions and tools, and that creating and honing in a certain tool will be beneficial, because the design can be really well done and crisp. Apps come and go, there are plenty of apps out there, so people's interest sways, you need to make your app interesting and most functionally in order for people to keep it around and spread the word of it to their friends. People have disinterest in learning new gestures, despite the use of an iphone being touch based. Also need to base the phone's design on realizing people have bigger, or clumsier fingers.
Chp. 2
Is it tapworthy? Users have to spend scarce resources launching or being on your app, time, attention, and thought. An app is worth it if it provides the user the efficiency to get tasks done, keep them entertained, stay connected, fill in downtime, or etc. Beauty of the app derives from the function and not the actual prettiness of the app. Put your efforts into creating something new, or solving a problem yet to be fixed when creating a new app, so that it doesn’t flop. Do not create something that is already made well, if recreating something, make sure it is actually better than the previous successor. Do not think of an iphone as a smaller computer, because the users do not view it as such. Also when creating an app think of if the user actually wants to do it on their iphone. People behave differently on their phone compared to at a desktop. When thinking about the mobility of your app, maybe think of it in the context and flexibility of ‘being away from my desk.’ What is so convenient about having this app available to the user at all times. Mobile Mindsets:
‘I’m Microtaskings’: Phones are becoming the trusted option when leaving home to get stuff done. Phones are always on our body. Still iphones will not replace laptops. iPhones are good for microtasks, the best iphone apps emphasize quick access to ideas, contacts, tasks, info, entertainment, forecasts, etc. Simple compared to desktop versions. The best productivity apps are tuned for short but frequent hits.
‘I’m Local’: Launching a mobile app to get the skinny on our surroundings. Iphone is the most personal computer out there. Tapworthy apps take advantage of iphone sensors to give personal context to tasks and info where appropriate. For example weather or map apps, or even yelp. Local data analysis.
I’m Bored’: Not every user is doing something productive with their phone at all times. There are a lot of entertainment and productivity killers apps on the app store, these apps triple in numbers compared to productivity apps. The app store has more arcade apps popping up. The iphone might have limitations, but they have intuitive controls (touch screen) that make it easier and more accessible for everyone. The solution to boredom is something that is better than what the user is currently doing. Iphones are both work and entertainment. Exploration is also a key into apps designed to entertain.
Chp. 3
The hardest part about designing an iphone is not actually the size and pixels, but the interaction of the touchscreen, being manipulated and touched by human hands, in a way that a desktop never has been. Not only difficult for visual or graphic design, but also industrial. The designer needs to consider how the app feels. How well does the interface work with one-hand, or lefties, what is the thumb range? All important questions the designer needs to think about. Organizing the layout for an iphone interface also means organizing for fingers. It is important to put toolbars and functions at the bottom edge of the iphone screen, due to thumb reach. Compared to how desktops normally put those functions in the top edge corners. Lesser used buttons, can be kept in the top right corner, use touch hierarchy for the importance of where certain functions should go. This all works well for righties, but when it comes to lefties, it's gonna be the mirrored image of the right thumb zone, Some apps allow a setting or function to swap its layout for the use of lefties, though most of the population is right handed, the designer does not want to leave out that small portion of left handed people when creating and designing their app layouts. How big is the fingertip: apple says 44 pixels, this is the magic number, and is used throughout their designs and layouts for button sizes, and the ease and real estate of a finger, basic unit of measurement for the iphone. Though the button may look small, the 44 pixel minimum works with the tappable footprint.
Chp. 4
Need to look at the look of your app, and see how it works, organizational design. Essential operation depends on easy movement from screen to screen. How you choose to string those screens together determines how people will move through your app. Apple's designs are a great example of a good brand and aesthetic, with ease of use; Apple’s apps are a refined example of disciplined moderation. Apple’s navigation models: ways to organize an app
Flat Pages: targets relatively simple apps with a single main screen. A deck of cards, or just one. This method especially suited for utility apps, presents tidy spoonfuls of simple, focused content in screens presents like cards. The pages are flat, because the information style is in a flat list, which means there is no hierarchy of information.
Tab Bar: set of buttons at the screen's bottom that lets the user switch between app functions. Can display anything you like behind each tab, but its most helpful to plan the organization upon the different types of activities or information your app offers. Each tab should have its own specific interface style to better suit its function. Tab bars can also be used to offer different pers[ectives on the app’s information.
Tree Structure: drill down through a hierarchy of categorized options or content and ten easily pull back up to the surface.
Immersive App: ‘none of the above’ options, full screen, graphical apps that dispense standard controls and navigation schemes to create their own environment.
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