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iOS App Design

Professionally Designed iOS App Theme Giveaway – Check It Out!

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Sorry The Giveaway Has Ended – Winner Is @techilm!

It’s no secret that design is critical for success in the iOS app store.

With hundreds of thousands of apps to chose from your app needs to make a great first impression.

With a poor looking design the user may not feel that impulse to buy, and review site scouts could immediately passover your app.

Unfortunately quality app design can be quite costly.

That’s where the App Design Vault comes in.

On the App Design Vault you will find a listing of several complete app themes including artwork in both .PNG and Photoshop editable .PSD formats along with an example Xcode project using each theme.

The Giveaway:

The guys at App Design Vault have agreed to let me hold a contest and give away two of their themes to one lucky winner along with a special discount to anyone that enters the contest.

Here’s are the rules to follow to qualify for the giveaway:

1) Tweet this article – you can use the tweet button at the top or at the bottom of the article.
2) Visit the App Design Vault gallery and choose any two themes currently for sale that you’d like.
3) Enter a comment below (or below this article on ManiacDev.com if you are reading this elsewhere…) with your twitter name and  the names of the two themes you’d like along with why you would like them:

Example Comment:

Twitter Name: @maniacdev. I would like the Newstab and Paperbox themes because I’m working on a news app and can’t afford to pay thousands to hire a designer!!

4) Be sure that you are following @maniacdev on Twitter when the contest ends at 12 Noon Pacific Standard Time January 11th so you can receive your prize by direct message – or it will go to the next person.

Only one entry per person.  Random.org will be used to pick the winner.

Good luck on being the winner!

Tutorials: How To Create Great Looking iOS Apps Even If You Are A Design Noob

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I have to admit that when it comes to design, I’m pretty much clueless (and you’re probably saying I can see that by looking at your site — I’m working on it as time permits!).  Design is just so important in the iPhone and iPad app stores.  Let’s face facts there’s a lot of absolutely useless apps in the app store that you would never open more than once unless you were showing them to a friend — that have been massively successful.

It is hard to find good tips on how to do this.  Most designers seem to do everything so naturally, and will just tell you it takes hours and hours of practice.  Few designers can really break the process of design into something that you can comprehend even if you’re a design noob.

Jen Gordon has created a great set of tutorials detailing the process of designing good looking apps (looking at her apps, she really knows her stuff  just check out some of the apps Jen has designed such as Doodle Bright, Popper, and Farm Friends.  There’s ten tutorials in total that covering a wide variety of topics:

The Tutorials

1. Introduction To iPhone Design – a discussion of the differences between desktop and mobile software design.

2. iPhone And iPad Design Templates And How To Use Them – How to format your graphics for the iPhone and iPad displays, and how to adjust them for the different display sizes.

3. Designing Apps That Use All Available iPhone Functionality – A discussion of iOS device features such as gestures, the accelerometer, and gps are implemented in well designed apps.

4. How To Design For Different Types of iPhone Apps – A look at many well designed iPhone apps, and what makes them work.

5. The Mobile Design Process – An overview of some good things to think about when designing an iOS app.

6. The Pros And Cons Of Apple Default Vs. Custom Graphics – How to determine when to use the default design of iOS components, and when to roll your own design.

7. Understanding Your Apps Target Audience – Some questions you can ask yourself in order to create an app better designed for your target market.

8. Killer Tips For iPhone And iPad Design – A useful checklist to go through for bettering your app’s design.

9. Top 5 Tips For Wireframing And Paper Prototyping – A collection of tips for improving the prototyping process.

10. How To Sell Well Designed Apps With Better Screenshots – A tutorial outlining how Jen creates great looking screenshots for her apps.

Improving Your Designs Quickly

If you’d like to automatically improve your app design you may want to check out the app templates from the App Design Vault.

You’ll find a lot of great pre-made designs with example projects.  Included are templates for designing custom controls, business apps, food apps, apps for blogs and more.  Check out the gallery.

Definitely a lot of good stuff in for anyone’s just a programmer and an absolute design noob.

New Category: iOS App Design