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Mobile Design Pattern Gallery: UI Patterns For Mobile Applications (2012)

by Theresa Neil(Favorite Author)
3.78 of 5 Votes: 3
ISBN
1449314325 (ISBN13: 9781449314323)
languge
English
genre
publisher
O'Reilly Media
review 1: Mobile Design Pat­tern Lib­rary by Theresa Neil is a use­ful if not essen­tial addi­tion to the lib­rary of any­one work­ing in mobile applic­a­tion design today. Neil has sys­tem­at­ic­ally com­piled a com­pre­hens­ive means of describ­ing inter­face ele­ments and clas­si­fy­ing between their cur­rent vari­ations. She cov­ers the most pop­u­lar mobile OS’s provid­ing a pro­fu­sion of screen cap­tures and suc­cess­fully devel­ops a lan­guage akin to Chris­topher Alexander’s work in archi­tec­ture and design to identify the role and the way in which dif­fer­ent choices inter­act as part of a lar­ger sys­tem. The roughly 250 page volume is com­pre­hens­ive and as many have already noted an excel­lent well of ideas for inte... morer­face design­ers, not just in the mobile space, but more widely. As purely a mobile inter­face users rather than developer I have to admit a fas­cin­a­tion with the art. I am using a Nokia Lumia 800 Win­dows Phone right now to con­trast it with my iOS exper­i­ence. I found no issues with iOS have been an eager pro­ponent of its sim­pli­city and ease of use. I acquired WebOS-based phones as well as Android all in the name of exper­i­ment­a­tion. I am cur­rently quite fascinated/fond of the Metro UI and will­ing to give it a chance to impress. As a pure sid­e­note — and here I wish I used cal­louts on my blog — the wire­frames in Neil’s book them­selves bear a resemb­lance to the very simplistic approach of the Metro UI which I have a sense to why I find an imme­di­ate attrac­tion: there’s little or no meta­phor in the UI. Well, maybe not — my exper­i­ment­a­tion con­tin­ues. Inter­face exper­i­ence is hugely per­sonal and the role of find­ing appro­pri­ate design through a hol­istic approach is greatly aided by this volume. It puts the pieces in a lar­ger con­text, con­cisely demon­strates the vari­ances in imple­ment­a­tion between plat­forms and does so with appro­pri­ate nod to the art of user exper­i­ence of the prin­ted or digital eBook.The organ­isa­tion of the volume is logic­ally divided into chapters on:Nav­ig­a­tionFormsTables & ListsSearch, Sort & FilterToolsChartsInvit­a­tionsFeed­back & Afford­ance (the buzz word as of late)Help; andthe very clever — Anti-PatternsThese cover the bulk of inter­face ele­ments from a pro­cess stand­point — and that is a ser­i­ous ele­ment of the book — it steps away from isol­ated ele­ments and iden­ti­fies them as exist­ing within a lar­ger con­text. Most UX/UI design­ers today, espe­cially within the mobile space can immerse them­selves in isol­ated design guides pre­pared by OS man­u­fac­tur­ers to ensure adher­ence or to express a vis­ion. Con­versely they can exper­i­ment deeply with imple­men­ted designs look­ing for suc­cesses and fail­ures in oth­ers work. This book offers a third approach and I think a worthy one of attempt­ing to think more broadly about an over­all strategy and in this finds a place in the Neilsen school of thought.Through screen cap­tures, wire­frames and brief dis­cus­sions of the Neil includes a chapter of fail­ures to appre­ci­ate UX in design and to my praise includes the ABC news app which I have to admit baffled me as well. The spin­ning globe out of any con­text with repeat­ing stor­ies. The demon­stra­tion of some geek in a back room play­ing with a new three dimen­sional algorithm with little or no sense of how it might trans­late into actual use. Over all, the book is a fine ref­er­ence manual and a sur­pris­ingly good read through. It is of espe­cial use to UI developers, but is even of interest to any web developer look­ing for design inspir­a­tion.
review 2: This book has proved invaluable over the years, when mobile device patterns were in their infancy this book was a solid reference in my day to day work. With the advent of the material design language from Google the years ahead suggest mobile interface patterns will rely more so on animated interactions to convey affordance. Though this book will remain relevant for some time to come an updated version should be considered as this space evolves quickly. Overall a great reference for those designing for the web of today. less
Reviews (see all)
dosch
it's a complete catalog with a lot of good examples and a concise explanation for each case.
brien_borgnine
A must have for anybody into designing mobile interfaces and interactions.
nikki
Highly recommended as well!
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