Design Mistakes

I don’t have much time right now, and while i am hesitant to just copy and paste something into a Blog, that is exactly what i am going to do.

The full article can be found here. It drills down into the below, providing detail and some examples of good vs bad design.

Five Most Frequent iPhone Design Mistakes

Many applications share the same design problems that prevent customers from fully enjoying them. Recently, I conducted a review of 100 appsfrom the App Store and identified the five most frequent iPhone design and usability mistakes, which are:

1. Over-blown visuals.
2. Neglecting technological limitations, such as slow Internet connection, slow processors and single-threaded OS architectures.
3. Confusing navigation (flow, layout and taxonomy).
4. Confusing the iPhone with a computer. Neglecting to use new iPhone interactions (fingers instead of the mouse; multi-touch gestures; turn, tilt and rotate) and technological features such as phone functions, built-in GPS and accelerometer.
5. Disregard of context. A lack of understanding of how, when, where and why the mobile device is being used.

Let’s start with the first one in this article and proceed with the next ones in the follow-ups to this article.

 

Nerd On

How to make a hit iPhone game

I have a source of interesting information. It brought me this.

 After some serious success the guys below have provided an insight into how to create a successful iPhone game.

The good news is its already in line with the thinking of the OMGiNerd crew!

• Content updates. FREQUENT content updates
• Build a community of followers, give them a place to share their thoughts
• User generated content (i don’t think the guys below did this, but you KNOW its a good idea. You KNOW it)

http://games.venturebeat.com/2009/07/10/pocket-god-is-a-case-study-of-a-hit-iphone-game/

Nerd on.

Paper Toss

You might have seen my tweet around not playing any iPhone games for a couple of weeks (given that I am the only one who reads this, the term ‘you’ is interesting… haha.). Anyway, I grabbed a couple the other day and stumbled across Paper Toss.

Throw a paper ball into a trash can. Difficulty is measured by the distance from which you throw the ball. Chuck a fan into the mix with varying wind speeds and you have a simple and fun game to keep you going.

One of the real draw cards to iPhone games is the ‘gap filler’. Stuck in a line at the Post Office? bored on the Bus? Not interested in the gardening mags at the doctor? Paper Toss is a great ‘gap filler’,  its a great way to kill some time. How much time you ask? I was bored after about 15 minutes. I am bored pretty easily, but it doesn’t matter as my boredom coincided with the train reaching my stop. What does that mean? Paper Toss did everything it needed to - It got me home

The Quest for UI Design Tools

In the quest* to begin designing some basic games, I have been trying to discover my destiny… errr… I mean… I have been trying to find a simple application to design iPhone UIs as well as some basic guidelines… This is a new journey (read 5 minutes of research) but some interesting links are below

1) 7 Tips: http://www.mobileorchard.com/7-iphone-ui-user-interface-design-resources/

2) Photoshop Template: http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/?p=1628

3) UI template: http://www.raizlabs.com/blog/?p=348

4) 120 icons:  http://iphoneized.com/2009/04/120-beautiful-iphone-ui-icons/

5) Story boarding tool: http://www.stpsoft.co.uk/story/index.html?gclid=CO7p7LzHs5sCFQEupAodJzWEQA

 

Nerd on.

* = must use nerdy words when possible

OMG iNerd is here!

Its no secret that Nerdiness is the new black, and by black i mean the new breed of AMAZING. That right, i just called all my nerd brothers out there AMAZING. You see thats what we do here, and thats what you’ll find here. A whole bunch of amazing nerdy awesomeness for the iPhone

Nerd on.