Rohdesign Weblog: iPhone

Here you'll find all posts file under the iPhone category.

December 23, 2009

iPhone Sketchnote Wallpapers

Had some fun this month, taking my sketchnotes and creating 4 iPhone wallpapers:

Check out the Sketchnote Wallpapers set on Flickr. Select "All Sizes" and grab a copy of the full-size 320 x 480 pixel version for your iPhone or iPod Touch.

I've also created the "Die IE6 DIE!" wallpaper for the Motorola Droid.

Enjoy!

Permalink | | iPhone | add to del.icio.us

December 19, 2008

Bullfrog Touch Logo & iPhone UI Design

In May 2008, Jon Trainer of Outer Level software came to me with a then confidential project — designing an icon and a UI screen for a top secret iPhone native application called Bullfrog Touch.

I've worked with Jon for years — designing the Outer Level logo, and creating an icon for LicenseKeeper, so I was happy to help translate his popular Mac OS X app Bullfrog to the iPhone.

Bullfrog Touch Logo Design

The first challenge was creating a new logo for the Bullfrog Touch application. I needed to incorporate the existing Mac OS X Bullfrog cartoon icon, created by Jordan Langille and adapt it to the iPhone. With the bullfrog icon on the left I chose Arial Rounded Bold for the Bullfrog font, applying a bright green glow in Fireworks.

In the open space to the top-right of the Bullfrog text, TOUCH fit perfectly. I stayed with Arial Rounded Bold in all caps, adding jumbled alignments to visually suggest a bullfrog's jumping action and for a bit of contrast.

Bullfrog Touch Score Screen UI Design

Next challenge Jon needed help with visually was the scores screen. Jon had a rough idea of what he wanted, provided in a mockup screenshot I could use for reference:

Using Jon's sample as a rough starting point, I began researching screens on my iPod touch and online, to see how Apple and other developers had dealt with UI elements, fonts, colors, sizing and so on. After the research phase, I built a mockup in Fireworks, right on top of Jon's original sample screenshot:

My goal was to make the scores screen clear, easy to read and use, while maintaining look and feel of the new logo into the UI design.

Jon was happy with the results, using the mockup and exported files as a reference for the final application UI. The colors and button styles and some of the elements were changed, resized and tweaked, but are still pretty close to my mockup.

Here's my original mockup next to the the final Bullfrog Touch scores screen:

Conclusion? That was fun, I want to do it again!

It was an interesting and enjoyable challenge working with Jon on this iPhone UI design project. I look forward to helping others on future iPhone app projects to keep exploring this fascinating new UI design space.

Bullfrog Touch was chosen as one of the best iPhone/iPod touch games to give as a gift, in the TidBITS Gift Guide 2008

Jon Trainer has a post about the design process on his company blog.

Thanks Jon!

Permalink | | Icons | add to del.icio.us

November 13, 2007

Declining an Apple Job Opportunity

About a month ago, late on a Monday night, I received an intriguing email.

A senior recruiter at Apple found my blog, reviewed my design work and wondered if I might interested in a position on the iPhone/OS X design team.

At first I thought it was a joke. Surely this was a prank, sprung by my good buddy, Michael Ashby.

Then I did my research, and it was the real deal.

This was definitely Apple calling.

Holy smokes!

Talking with Apple
After the shock wore off, I setup a initial phone interview. I had to find out more. I contacted several good friends living in Silicon Valley, to learn more about working at Apple and living in California.

The next day, I had a great conversation with the recruiter. I shared my background and skills, learned more about the potential position, Apple, and California.

If I was interested in moving ahead with this, the next step was an icon design project and an essay on my solution for a UI design challenge.

With this huge opportunity on the table, I took time to get counsel from my wife, family and friends, to think through the ramifications and to pray for God's guidance.

After much thought and consideration I decided to decline the opportunity.

Decline? Are you NUTS Mike?!
The very idea that I was completely nuts did cross my mind. After all, this is Apple, and an opportunity to work on the iPhone/OS X design team!

The opportunity was extremely attractive. A potential opportunity of a lifetime — doing design work on the iPhone, for Apple. But upon reflection and reviewing who I am and what I'm all about, the answer was clear.

Here are the reasons I decided to decline:

I Love My Work
I realized how much I love the design work I do, and how satisfying it is to build brands with small companies. I love being an advisor to my clients, sharing my expertise with them. I enjoy working directly with business owners and entrepreneurs, developing brands that reach their customers and help them compete and win against bigger competitors. I love being my clients' secret weapon!

I Love Milwaukee
A move to California would have been part of the deal. I've been to California and it's a beautiful place, but I love living in the Milwaukee area. I like being able to own a home we can afford, in a quiet neighborhood with great schools. I've spent my life building lasting relationships here. My family is here. It's a wonderful place to raise a son. I love the seasons, the Packers. This is where I belong and I where want to stay.

I Love MakaluMedia
The company I work for is a large part of my success. MakaluMedia's owner, Matt Henderson has been a strong supporter for my 10+ years with the company. He was willing to try remote working in 1998, when it was new and untested. He was willing to let me go after clients and create a design firm within the company. Every day, I get to work with amazing colleagues and clients, and that's very meaningful to me.

Maybe I'm crazy for passing up a chance to work at Apple. I'm cool with that.

I know in my heart and soul, that declining this opportunity was the right decision for me and my family. I'm content knowing this is the place where I want to be and where God is working through me to help others and love others.

For my money, that's the right place to be.

Related Links
Cameron Moll: Why I passed up the chance to work at Apple

Permalink | | Design | add to del.icio.us

October 24, 2007

iPod Touch Two Week Report

It's been two weeks since I've switched to an iPod touch. I love this device. Since I'm regularly asked about it, I've decided to write a report in on my thoughts so far:

The touch's size is perfect. Thin and small. Slides into my pocket nicely, though I'm still not completely over the idea of carrying such a valuable device in my pocket just yet.

I love the density and weight of the touch. It feels substantial and sturdy, though I am very careful not to torque the thing. I still need to find a sturdy case that doesn't add too much heft.

The screen is incredibly bright. I've turned it down to 1/3 brightness to save battery life and it's still very readable. Did the same thing on my Zire 72.

Mobile Safari is very useful. I can surf the sites I regularly use, with tap and pinch to zoom as needed. Mobile specific sites, like NewsGator Mobile and Facebook, do a nice job providing essential information on the smaller screen. For a complete listing of mobile sites, visit Apple's Web Apps Directory.

I'm noticing that Safari seems to quit when it gets overloaded with a particularly detailed page, or if too many pages are open at the same time. I'm not sure what wipes Safari out, but it seems to wipe out more than it ought to.

Safari can be an e-book reader of sorts! It can read Word documents quite nicely. I just performed a tests on several MS Word documents, and it worked perfectly (go figure). The text loads in Safari, flows to the window and retains formatting, including em dashes and curly quotes properly. I am already planning on loading several Safari windows of e-books in .doc format on my touch, then going offline to read 'em whenever I like. Note that you will need server space where you can host these Word docs.

Safari also supports PDF files quite well, though if formatted for a Letter or A4 page, requires scrolling around and zooming to see fine details. I imagine one could create a PDF document optimized for Safari on the iPhone, though doing that as plain HTML seems easier to me.

Plain text .txt files are semi-supported in Safari. It complains about not being able to read the file, but seems to open them anyway. However, the text doesn't flow with the screen properly and is set in a fixed Courier font that makes reading tedious. RTF files seem to not be supported by Safari.

I'm enjoying the easier to read contact list, and editing/adding capabilities. One thing I missed from my Palm was a full and editable contact list. The nano offered the list in tiny, nearly unreadable type with no editing capabilities.

I'm pleased that Apple is releasing a Software Development Kit (SDK) to developers in February 2008, and figured they had this in their plans all along. Looking forward to cool apps like Natara Bonsai — right Bryan? :-)

I like the Video capabilities and the wide screen, though I've not taken full advantage of this yet. I've put Firefly from our DVD set, but not much more. The YouTube app is handy, though I avoid the black hole time suck that is YouTube, unless I'm looking for something specific.

Brando Workshop sent a BW UltraClear Screen Cover to test, which works well. Brando's screen covers are tough and easy to install. Thanks Brando! :-)

Having a synced copy of iCal on hand is useful, though I wish for calendar editing. I know there's a hack (thanks KeVroN), but I'm avoiding hacks, since Apple just announced the SDK for '08.

Using the iPod touch in the car is a problem. I feel uncomfortable having to visually interact with the touch, so I make changes at stoplights, or queue playlists or podcasts to run uninterrupted. One solution I'm considering is an Apple Universal Dock with remote, for manual control on the road.

Battery life is a little less than I would like, though I think reasonable considering WiFi feature and screen size of the touch. I'd be very open to an iPod touch with the same dimensions as the iPhone if it had a bigger battery. I'm exploring shutting off WiFi when not in use, to see if it extends battery life.

I love that the touch pauses tracks when you remove the headphone jack.

I'm getting used to the keyboard, which works decently for most needs, though I wouldn't want to write any kind of long post using it, just yet. I'm hoping ThinkOutside will develop a version of their foldable keyboard for the iPod touch and iPhone. I'd buy one.

The iTunes Mobile Store is well done, though I won't use it terribly much. Still, I have to admit it's very cool to have access to any track I might want directly from the touch. Might come in handy some day.

I'm getting used to the multi-touch interface after years using the nano's scroll-wheel. I like the iPod touch interface, though there's a pretty big trade off versus a scroll-wheel interface for pure music management. The touch's software-based interface and lack of control buttons, require visual and tactile interaction to manage what I listen to. If you need a pure music player, then a scroll-wheel iPod would be a better fit.

Summing it Up
I feel there's a huge potential for this device to expand and adapt to my needs, especially in 2008 when applications start appearing. As it is now, the touch is quite useful and fits my lifestyle well — with a few more key native applications I can envision it becoming more and more useful as time goes on.

The iPod touch integrates well with my most useful tools. I can carry a lighter load in my Cafe Bag for logo sketch sessions: my Moleskine planner, Miquelrius sketchbook, Faber Castell pencil and iPod touch. It's great!