This is a talk I did for 360iDev 2015 about iOS design and how to approach it.

1. Beyond White:
Embracing the iOS
Design Aesthetic
Janie Clayton

2. Janie Clayton
• Software Engineer and
Robot Builder at SonoPlot
• Coauthor of “iOS 8 SDK
Development” and “The
Swift Apprentice”
• Team Lead for the Swift
Tutorial Team at
RayWenderlich.com
• Cohost of NSBrief

7. Issues with iOS 7 Design
• “Flat” design, which makes buttons look like labels
• Stark and sterile
• Difficult to give apps “personality” due to
minimalism
• Features like animations, depth, and blurs are
difficult to use effectively or were missing
altogether at launch

9. Da fuck??

11. My First App

12. Heart Rate App
• Works with the Apple Watch
• Displays live heart rate data using
HealthKit
• Shows other derived data that is
pulled and processed from HealthKit

14. Jesus, this is boring!!

15. I feel like I'm gonna break this damn thing.

16. Design
Frameworks
are
HARD!!!!!!!!!

17. Auto Layout
Core
Graphics
UIKit
Core Animation
OpenGL ESMetal
Scene Kit
Gesture Recognition
Sprite Kit

18. Now Updated for Panther!

19. 3D User Interfaces

20. The Misnomer of the
“Flat” User Interface

24. Setting Up Your
Design Space

38. Good Design
vs
Bad Design!!!

39. More than One Kind of Bad
Design
• Boring
• Obfuscates information
• Not intuitive
• Ugly
• Busy/Noisy

40. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

42. What Company was
this Ad for?

43. Nissan
http://www.videomi.com/blog/archives/322
http://tier10lab.com/2012/11/29/throwback-thursday-nissan-1996-200-million-ad-campaign/

44. Working With
Designers

45. My Old “Logo”
• Found on the Internet
• Don’t own
• Didn’t customize
• Nice but doesn’t have
a visceral, immediate
feel or reaction to it
• Just not “me”

47. What I Want
• PUG!
• Specifically based on images of Delia
• Red crown like on a chess piece
• Something I can print on stickers and make into a
logo

48. Mary Cagel
@CubeWatermelon

51. Tips
• Try to have a good idea about what you want, don’t
just say “I want something cool.”
• Find someone who has an art style you like
• Try not to waste their time
• If you don’t like something about the work, send it
back and try to be specific about what you don’t
like

52. PAY YOUR DESIGNER!
• Clears up any issues of ownership and legality
• Makes the designer more likely to get your project
done
• Allows you to get exactly what you want
• You want people to pay you for work you do, why
won’t you do the same for another craftsperson?
• Seriously, this shouldn’t be a question

53. A True Cautionary
Tale

54. Decision Costs
• Month I was working on a design that they didn’t
like
• Week I was on payroll but not working
• Contacting a lawyer and associated legal fees
• Two weeks severance to avoid being sued

55. The Color

56. 20 minutes

57. Take Aways
• TALK TO YOUR DESIGNER!!
• Be clear about what you didn’t like
• Keep in mind that what they sent you might have
been a mistake
• Give them a chance to fix it and make it right
before you cut ties and go elsewhere

58. Call to Action

59. Homework
• Go out and buy crayons and colored pencils and
note cards
• Set up a dedicated area for your stuff
• Embrace crappy design
• GET AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER!!
• Try to make a design without a table, collection, or
stack view

60. How to Get Started
• Find something you like and try to copy it
• Don’t feel like you have to come up with something
new and original, try to learn the basics first
• Draw a lot
• Know you’re going to suck but be okay with it
because…
• Know you’re going to get better

61. Resources
• iOS Animations by Tutorial by Marin Todorov
• Learning SceneKit by David Ronnqvist
• 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice
• Tutorials on RayWenderlich.com
• Learning Core Animation by Nick Lockwood

62. Go Forth and Make
Awesome Shit.