iOS is a mobile phone and tablet operating system built by Apple, Inc. It is a light weight touch screen OS based on the Mac OS UNIX called Darwin.
91
votes
17answers
7k views
How could one prevent drunk users from using a mobile application?
Consider a mobile application which for some reason needs to prevent drunk users from using it (e.g. to avoid dreaded "drunk dials" or "drunk texts"). How could "sober authentication" be executed from ...
21
votes
5answers
1k views
Should Android and iPhone UI be different?
I'm not completely new to developing apps, but I'm at a point where I'm trying to develop something and deploy it on several mobile platforms. To only concentrate on two major ones, suppose I'm ...
19
votes
2answers
512 views
Should I follow the Android guideline or keep my app's own style when porting it from iOS?
My new project is to port an iOS app to Android platform. Before get started, I'm quite confused on whether I should follow google's guideline since some big titles on Android platform still keep the ...
18
votes
6answers
533 views
Custom rating slider
I have made a custom interface object to handle user rating in a take-away app I am currently building.
But I am not sure if it's intuitive enough in its form.
Q : Would you understand an object ...
18
votes
2answers
3k views
Do spinner-based date pickers on iOS & Android detract from the user's experience?
Generally speaking, the rule of thumb on mobile devices is to follow the platform conventions, and that native controls are almost always better than custom UIs. However, I'm at a loss as to whether ...
15
votes
3answers
3k views
Is Apple's or Google's meaning of the three-horizontal-bar icon more popular?
Apple and Google are going head-to-head to define meaning of the three-horizontal-bars icon:
In iOS this icon means "drag me to rearrange items in a list" while Google Chrome's version means "click ...
14
votes
7answers
1k views
Designing for the iPad
I'd like to make my site accessible to people that have the iPad or other iOS devices.
What considerations do I need to take into account when designing a user interface that is compatible with the ...
13
votes
4answers
250 views
What is it about our mental models that app-centric seems more intuitive than content-centric?
I always thought that content-centric was the easiest for people to deal with, i.e. "I want to change this document", and not "Let's run this app so I can then change that document".
It seems that ...
12
votes
2answers
206 views
What are the functional advantages of disabling user access to the filesystem on the iPad?
It is not possible for users to access the filesystem on the iPad since this access is not permitted on devices running iOS.
How is the function of the iPad improved by preventing users from ...
11
votes
13answers
3k views
Custom UI vs Default UI [closed]
This question is mainly for iOS/Android developers, but anybody can answer.
Do you prefer using the default UI provided by the OS or do you prefer using custom UI. I've heard many developers argue ...
11
votes
6answers
1k views
Is it appropriate to use Metro style design for a cross-platform mobile app
I'm finding it really difficult to design UI's for android and ios after falling in love with the windows metro design.
I wondered if providing a metro style app across all platforms would be such a ...
11
votes
2answers
656 views
Why do the iPhone and iPad keyboards use different shades of gray for the keys and background?
I noticed when working with iPhone and iPad keyboards that they are quite a significantly different colour:
Is there any particular reason for this?
10
votes
7answers
678 views
How should I indicate an added row of buttons above the iPad's keyboard is scrollable?
In my iOS app, I have an extra toolbar that appears above the keyboard, using the same style of buttons as the keyboard. This toolbar is horizontally scrollable.
Currently, in all devices and ...
9
votes
5answers
391 views
Should I lock to portrait my iOS app?
I'm developing a "reading" app for iOS. I'm wondering if it's useful to have the app running both on portrait and landscape mode.
As a reader I usually keep books (or my kindle, or my iPhone browser, ...
9
votes
3answers
91 views
Can we assume users know the devices they're working on?
I'm developing an iPhone app that uses pretty standard UI, follows Apple's human-interface guidelines, and in some cases imitates behavior as seen in stock iPhone apps. For example, a table view from ...
9
votes
6answers
536 views
What are some tools to monitor user interaction in mobile apps? [closed]
What tools and services are available for monitoring user interaction in a running mobile (iOS) app? Is there a way to monitor users taps, time spent in between taps etc?
8
votes
6answers
2k views
best image to indicate swipe left right
What is the most appropriate image to indicate to users to swipe left or right?
i am using http://cubiq.org/swipeview but i feel like it needs a swipe indicator in the background somewhere.
Edit: for ...
8
votes
3answers
1k views
Are “submit” buttons important for forms on iPhone and Android apps?
When inputting text on the last text field in a form on an iPhone and Android app, the enter key can be highlighted or (on iOS anyway) renamed "done", so that tapping it will submit the form. ...
7
votes
4answers
529 views
How many elements are too many for one screen of a mobile (iOS/Android) application?
Without scrolling, what would be the maximum amount of centered buttons I could arrange on a vertical axis before it became too cluttered? Interface Builder gives suggested distances between ...
7
votes
2answers
258 views
What is the reason behind the upper-case-lower-case behaviour of the Apple iOS keyboard?
On Windows and Android phones/tablets the case of the keypad letters alters when pressing SHIFT:
But Apple seems to ignore this presumably useful feature. Does Apple really know it's better NOT to ...
7
votes
2answers
201 views
What is the rationale behind not providing Dashboard/Home screen landscape mode?
I'm an adept Android user, but know my way around iOS as well. Something both platforms has in common is the stubborn conviction of not introducing the landscape mode for their Dashboard/Home screen ...
6
votes
5answers
542 views
Why are icons on mobile phone menu screens square or rectangular but not circular?
If you take a look at the app page of any mobile OS, for example iOS, Android, Ubuntu, Win8, BADA, etc., they all have square icons, either with rounded corner or sharp corners (shown in the first ...
6
votes
4answers
595 views
What do you call non-retina displays?
With the introduction of high density pixel displays (Retina being the brand name Apple uses) what do we now call non-retina (low pixel density) displays?
Legacy Displays
Low Pixel Density Displays
...
6
votes
3answers
566 views
Do I need to design four different apps for Android, iOS, smartphones, or have one common design?
I have to start designing for an app which will be used by Android & IOS users both on Smartphones and Tablets.
Do I need to design four different apps or have one common design and then ...
6
votes
7answers
200 views
How much choice should I give users?
I am considering adding an update to my iPhone app that allows the user to choose many new features such as the background image, where certain buttons are located, button colors, button design, ...
6
votes
3answers
198 views
Tabbar inside Modal View - iPhone
Is it ok to have TabBar in Modal view in iOS UI (iPhone)?
I have a "Select Contact" view in my app and I plan to make it as modal view.
But "Select Contact" is a set of views: "Favourites", ...
6
votes
4answers
830 views
How to show the mandatory fields on an iOS device?
I have to show more than 11 fields within the screen. 4 fields are mandatory. How should I indicate the mandatory fields? Is there any standard or any ideas?
6
votes
3answers
169 views
Need help Displaying an Elimination Chart on a small display (iPhone/Android/etc..)
I'm building an Application for mobile device that needs to display an Elimination Bracket for a tournament (16, 8, 4, 2, 1)
I haven't seen any application doing something similar and I'm "jammed" ...
5
votes
3answers
479 views
Why is the new Twitter menu bar on the bottom on iPhone?
Twitter recently released a complete redesign for all major platforms, in part the redesign has been made to unify the experience across platforms.
But, because of this goal I couldn't help noticing ...
5
votes
4answers
419 views
Suggestions for a touch UI used to book seats on a bus
I am trying to design the layout for a Bus Ticket Booking App.
User is allowed to choose the seats he wishes to book. Below is the layout provided to us.
I am looking for some inspiration and ...
5
votes
3answers
2k views
Why do some custom iOS apps use the native nav bar?
I'm talking about Instagram or Foursquare, they are custom designed but still are using default themed menu bar for navigation. Is there some dirty secret behind it?
5
votes
2answers
660 views
Is spacing between touch targets an unnecessary recommendation by Microsoft?
A recent Microsoft IE10 blogpost gave general guidelines for building touch friendly sites suggesting two rules for touch targets:
Target size
Margin between targets
Apple's iOS guidance only ...
5
votes
4answers
217 views
Social network login or not?
I am developing a niche social networking iPhone app of my own.
I was wondering if it would be best to allow the user to connect to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to login to my app ...
5
votes
1answer
402 views
Should an iPhone application scroll to the top of a table when resorting
My application has a table view with a segmented control in a navigation bar. When the users taps a segment in the segmented control, the application fades the table into it's newly sorted state. The ...
5
votes
6answers
523 views
Best way to select quantity of items for an eCommerce mobile application?
I'm designing an e-commerce app, and I'm looking for some options for the best way to select the quantity of an item before adding to the cart
The first (on the left) is when the user selects the ...
5
votes
2answers
133 views
Is Tab Bar based iOS Design for feed driven apps a better UX?
Working on a feed driven iOS application and wondering peoples thoughts on Tab Bar driven iOS design for feed based apps. There is a large amount of evidence that supports the well integrated use of ...
5
votes
1answer
621 views
Back Button Color in iOS
Why exactly is it that I'm not finding very many examples of a Back button being different color from the app background?
Is there somekind of a rule in place?
I proposed using a black Back button ...
5
votes
1answer
601 views
iPhone - popup dialog for user input: when it's worth using it?
I tried to ask this in another thread but, apperently, my scenario was covering the real question. So I try again here, addressing this specific issue.
I noticed that, normally, popup dialogs in iOS ...
5
votes
1answer
515 views
How should I design the guides in my iOS app?
In my app (sort of like a music-oriented PDF reader), there are a couple of basic PDF's describing features and what certain buttons do, but there isn't a full blown tutorial. Adding to that, I ...
5
votes
2answers
256 views
In RTL locales, should mobile application animations be reversed?
In mobile applications, it's common to drill down with the new view animating in from the right. Going back results in the opposing animation (from the left). These are analogous to turning a page.
...
5
votes
2answers
417 views
Best practice for overriding a pincode in a native iOS app?
I am working on the next version of an existing iPad app which has a pincode to lock admin functions. The current version has no means to override the pincode. We followed similar patterns and use ...
4
votes
2answers
548 views
Why aren't iPhone text messages at full width?
Why aren't text messages viewed on the iPhone iOS displayed at full width? I can think of several reasons why it would make sense:
Short messages won't have unnecessary line breaks, long text ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
Comparison between Android and IOS apps UI one-to-one
I am currently doing some research trying to describe differences between IOS and Android UI in detail. I know, there are a few questions before and some stuff on Google (I'm already going through ...
4
votes
2answers
2k views
Alternative to the tab bar (in iPhone app)
I have a project that has 8 different areas, e.g, travel, weather, etc. The front page is going to have 8 different icons; they will navigate to each section. I will then need something like a tab bar ...
4
votes
4answers
3k views
Alternatives to More Tab Button in a UITabBar?
I am working on an iPad application that currently uses a UITabBar as the prevailing navigation element. The application has maxed out the number of buttons on the bar and is now forcing a More ...
4
votes
2answers
113 views
Ipad/Iphone designing in Full-Screen vs Non-Full-Screen?
I've noticed that most games are in full screen mode and some Apps have taken this on in design. Is there any research or argument for having an App in Full-Screen vs Non-Full-Screen?
The only ...
4
votes
1answer
120 views
Startup screens: “Show this page at startup” vs. “Don't show this on startup”
I'm currently working on an iOS app where the user is presented with a startup screen until the user disables it.
I am insisting that this startup screen should have an already ticked checkbox that ...
4
votes
3answers
1k views
Pull-to-refresh and search bar
I have an iOS app that uses tables views. It also implements a pull-to-refresh model, which works very nicely. I now want to add the option to search that table view. Normally, I would just hide the ...
4
votes
6answers
913 views
iPhone table view filter with multiple controls
Assume we have a real-estate iPhone app which shows a list of properties in a table view.
I would like to offer the user the ability to filter the list according to about 6-7 different criteria.
...
4
votes
5answers
2k views
Using a TabBar with slide out side menu?
I'm working on designing the layout for an iPhone app which will contain three tabs. I'm trying to eliminate the tab bar if possible, but I'm not sure what my alternatives are.
I'm considering a ...
