Customer Reviews

Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Here's why: it's not only a great guide to what makes iPhone apps successful, but what will increasingly be the way to make successful software for any platform. Josh does a fantastic job of getting the reader into the right mindset for creating successful apps.

This is an interface, big-idea, that's why that design works book, not a coding book. Nor is it a "how to market your iPhone app book". That said, the interviews alone with designers of big important iPhone apps about how they really designed those apps is worth the price many times over.

Warning: you will probably spend more on buying apps Josh uses as examples of what he is talking about than you will on the book itself - I guess the skills he developed writing his last book, "Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders", gave him five star ability for picking great to awesome apps.

Also, while I almost never buy anymore actual paper books, this one is worth it - the color, gloss stock, painstaking layout and content structure would not be done justice as a .pdf.

I could write a longer review, but I'd rather go back to reading, re-reading, mulling and thinking about the what Josh covered in this book. Can't wait for the iPad book!

Pre-ordered this book after hearing Josh speak at SXSW. Well worth the wait. This book covers all of the basics of iPhone UI but *even more important* are the first person interviews with guys like Josh Williams (Gowalla CEO) and Joe Hewitt (Facebook app).

This book does not teach you how to code in Objective C. It was not meant to do that.
What it does, and excellently, is teach you the design. It gets you into the right mindset for creating a successful iphone app. It teaches you the elements of design and art that go into a truly successful iphone app. I haven't read it all the way through yet, but the chapters are excellently formatted. The one I'm on teaches you the size of people's fingers and how that related to where buttons should be placed on the screen and how much space they should allot. If you want to create a beautiful, successful iphone app, this is the book to buy.

Brilliant book, really enjoyed it, and it gave me loads of ideas of how to make my app better - a lot of them little things I hadn't thought about (eg all list items are 44 pixels high. ALL OF THEM).

I'd say this is a fairly non-technical book. I dont remember a line of obj-c in it, but there is plenty of info for anyone who is doing any part of an iphone app - ideas, design, coding, art, whatever.

Highly recommended.

I've worked in mobile for several years now, on iOS, Android, j2me, Symbian and Windows Mobile (to varying degrees), both native and web apps and I have to say that I'm totally impressed by this book. There isn't a chapter or even a section that doesn't have insight.

I've been reading iOS/UX-focused blogs for a while (Marco, Daring Fireball, Ignore the Code, Dustin Curtis) and I've got a lot of views at various aspects of what makes iOS so wonderful, but this book is closer to giving me the complete picture, rather than just glimpses of various aspects.

Clearly, Josh understands iOS at a deep, deep level. You wouldn't expect this level of understanding from anyone except perhaps the designers of iOS and iPhone.

You'll find insightful comments on various topics like:
- various navigation paradigms and the advantages and disadvantages of each
- how to design your app icon
- theming
- all the major aspects of iOS, like alerts and notifications
- product definition
- when to launch other apps from within yours and when not to.

I plan to read this book again after a while. It's that good.

I'm a relative beginner to mobile development but this book does a wonderful job of explaining the key tenets to good design. Instead of getting the book though, buy the app version which $7 in the app store.

I tried the internet to learn about apps and ended up so confused. This Tapworthy manual was just what I was looking it for. Such a clear presentation with subjects I didn't realize existed. I recommend a purchase.

One of the best books about iPhone development that doesn't have a single bit of code in it (which is a good thing). This book is completely focused on making good design and interface choices when building your iPhone apps. As a developer with very little design skill, I can't recommend this book enough. It takes a practical approach to design that makes it easy to understand design principles and why you need to make certain choices in your app design. Every iOS developer should read this book!

It introduces a lot of common sense concepts that are reinforced by a good a narrative and some excellent examples. I have referred many people to this book already and I hope they find it as useful and enlightening as I did. If you are doing/want to know about mobile application development, buy this. If you want a good read and to discover some hidden iPhone application gems, buy this.

finally! some guidance for developers as they design their apps...much needed (have a look at the app store for some real clunkers that could have used the advice and instruction from this book)

even if you have a design background you'll benefit from this book. well laid out, lots of examples and 'real world' writings. proving design is as important as the code you write.