apps

Over the past few months there have been some apps across both the iOS and Android platform that have either been recently released or updated to include beautiful, simplistic user interfaces. Today I’ll mention a few points on why I think these apps are heading in the right direction with design, interaction and usability.

Recently I had a project design which required borders around each image displayed. To avoid overdraw I used a 9-patch image resource with a transparent center in which the image would be placed. This would theoretically avoiding overdraw completely. So after a quick session in photoshop I knocked a 9-patch, turned on “Show Overdraw” on my

Docusign takes the time and hassle out of contracts.

Earlier this year my brother was working for a company that took over management of businesses that were no longer profitable, then attempt to pay back their creditors.  One of his clients was the Australian arm of book retailer Boarders. It was really sad to watch, these stores had such a peaceful and relaxed energy,

There are a lot of apps out there that work great on the latest devices, however when you take these back to older models some of these apps are just horrible. It becomes clear that these apps have been built on the latest and greatest, meaning that they may not work so well on less powerful devices.

I am regularly asked the question “How many Apps are downloaded in Australia?” Here is the answer for April 2012 – 66.8 Million

There has been a high surge in health and fitness App available on the iPhone. Keep an eye out and make sure they include accurate information.

Art Set is a fantastic app for iPad which caters for the needs avid artists. It takes it’s art seriously and doesn’t dumb it down for kids which is very refreshing. I particularly like the user of realistic items for selecting tools and colours.

If you have worked with some of the basic iOS controls previously you have probably pulled hair trying to figure out how to change the colours around. Most notably the UISwitch – currently developers only have access to the standard blue version, and it doesn’t help when the orange ‘Airplane Mode’ switch teases you in

You rarely get a second chance in the App world, so don’t bother releasing Apps that aren’t revolutionary. In reality many Apps don’t make life any easier for the user, nor do they provide anything innovative.