Bertrand Dufresne said
This book is thin and it is a good point. It is not a book about UI (User Interface), but about User EXPERIENCE. If you want to see good and bad interface designs, there is no better place than the app store itself. Programming the iPhone User Experience is a very clever summary and extension to Apple's HIG. The code examples are the kind of examples I was expecting from an UX point of view: code that you should not forget to include into your app if you want it to be right. I would deeply recommend it.
Joseph F. Heck said
The book is short, and while it has quite a number of code samples buried within it, it has only a few real gems that I thought were worthwhile. If you're looking for code examples on how to do fancy UI things with the iPhone or iPod touch - don't go here. It's really more of a conceptual overview of what an iPhone user experience should be including categorizing some common elements and patterns in use.
In the code samples, I found a useful nugget: a tidbit on how to improve the app startup/loading experience, with code samples. Otherwise most of the code samples were almost more of a "hey look, I can do the same thing that Interface Builder does, except in code" and re-hashes of example code that you can find on the web or in Apple's sample code projects. I suppose it's a lot easier than screenshots illustrating how to replicate with Interface Builder. The fact that you could do many of these patterns with Interface Builder seemed to escape comment in the text.
In terms of something to think about for how you're going to set up a user experience, it gives some patterns and anti-patterns that complement Apple's iPhone HIG. I thought at a fairly high level, those were pretty good. I didn't agree with all of them, and some segments seemed to be so wishy washy as to be useless (like wether or not to use Core Data) - but some were good too.
I wouldn't run out to go get this book and read it, but if you're looking for a paper copy of another point of view on the UI patterns of designing iPhone applications, this book might be worthwhile for you.
John McSwain said
When I got this book, literally my jaw fell open and my first comment was "Why is it so small??" I struggled to even write this review, but I felt compelled to state specifics. Here is what I learned:
Chapter 1 - Very strongly emulates the Apple Cocoa Fundamentals Guide. No code samples present.
Chapter 2 - Emulates iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (HIG). No code samples present.
Chapter 3 - Emulates iPhone HIG. No code samples present
Chapter 4 - Emulates Apple's Xcode Quick Tour for iPhone OS. No code samples present
Chapter 5 - Code samples are FINALLY present, but I don't know if there is a place online to download the source. Where can I download the code, run it, customize, or save it?
Chapter 6 - Code samples are present via 7-8 pages of straight code
Chapter 9 (UX Anti-patterns) seemed interesting, but there were no code samples present.
I checked to make sure I didn't misunderstand the book when I bought it, but it still said PROGRAMMING the iPhone User Experience.
I don't think programming UX is possible using this book from scratch or without additional literature. The UX explanations are not very specific as I hoped there was focus on topics like cognitive biases, user centered design, and interaction design on the iPhone and demonstrating some examples programmatically..
CodeFree said
I was expecting a book that had some new or advanced UI advice and basically it was a rehash of Apple materials. I don't think it was worth the 23.09 it was billed as and it is super SHORT. The first half is just review material from the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. This same material is present in any number of books and I can not recommend it to anyone who is an iPhone developer.
Comments