So you've got an idea for an iPhone app -- along with everyone else on the planet. Set your app apart with elegant design, efficient usability, and a healthy dose of personality. This accessible, well-written guide shows you how to design exceptional user experiences for the iPhone and iPod Touch through practical principles and a rich collection of visual examples.
Whether you're a designer, programmer, manager, or marketer, Tapworthy teaches you to "think iPhone" and helps you ask the right questions -- and get the right answers -- throughout the design process. You'll explore how considerations of design, psychology, culture, ergonomics, and usability combine to create a tapworthy app. Along the way, you'll get behind-the-scenes insights from the designers of apps like Facebook, USA Today, Twitterrific, and many others.
Develop your ideas from initial concept to finished design
Build an effortless user experience that rewards every tap
Explore the secrets of designing for touch
Discover how and why people really use iPhone apps
Josh Clark is a writer, designer, and developer who helps creative people clear technical hassles to share their ideas with the world. As speaker and consultant, he has helped scores of companies build effective websites and mobile apps. When he's not writing or speaking about clever design and humane software, he's building it. Josh is the creator of Big Medium, friendly software that actually makes it fun to manage a website. He's also the author of Best iPhone Apps and iWork '09: The Missing Manual, both published by O'Reilly. Before the rise of the Web, Josh worked on a slew of national PBS programs at WGBH-TV in Boston. He shared his three words of Russian with Mikhail Gorbachev, strolled the ranch with Nancy Reagan, hobnobbed with Rockefellers, and wrote trivia questions for a primetime game show. Now Josh makes words and spins code at his hypertext laboratory globalmoxie.com. He divides his time between Providence, Rhode Island, and Paris, France.
One of the best, most well-written technical books I've read, Josh's weighty tome covers the fundamental principles of good app (and User Interface) design.
Whilst it's mainly focused on iPhone app development, it doesn't attempt to showcase any code samples; it's about the stage before you begin to write the app - the planning, the design, the pitfalls and the execution. As a result, much of the content is appropriate for design of anything that's going to be displayed on a small screen.
It's a great read, informative, illuminating and completely engaging. Which is why it gets 5 stars
4/7/2011
(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)
5.0
Extremely readable, non-technical book!
By SportSafety Labs LLC
from New York NY
About Me Developer
Pros
Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Entertaining
Helpful examples
Useful
Well-written
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Best Uses
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Comments about O'Reilly Media Tapworthy:
Tapworthy was a great and valuable read. I found it to be very informative and indeed I used many of the suggestions in my first iPhone app, "Concussion" which was released on the Apple app store recently. I read Tapworthy in iBooks on my iPhone while developing the Concussion App, and wish I had completed the book before I started the Concussion App project!
10/31/2010
(1 of 2 customers found this review helpful)
5.0
A Must have for great apps
By stjohn2002
from uk
About Me Educator
Pros
Accurate
Concise
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written
Cons
Best Uses
Expert
Intermediate
Novice
Student
Comments about O'Reilly Media Tapworthy:
When teaching web design it is difficult to find inspiring books to recommend. Look no further! This is easy to read and fully of excellent advice and guidance - it has become my recomended course reader.
7/13/2010
(6 of 7 customers found this review helpful)
5.0
Very good and informative book
By Cristina Luminea
from Ireland
Pros
Easy to understand
Helpful examples
Well-written
Cons
Best Uses
Intermediate
Novice
Comments about O'Reilly Media Tapworthy:
Tapworthy by Josh Clark is a great book that not only looks at how to design an iPhone/iPad app but teaches the reader how to design with the user in mind and make sure their app is addressing their users' needs. Aside from this the reader will find real examples that reinforce the concepts presented inside the book. This book is a must read before even thinking of creating an iPhone/iPad app.