mobile musings from a fellow developer

New Developer Sketchbook for iPad Apps

By popular demand, I’ve created The Developer Sketchbook for iPad Apps. You asked for it, so now it’s available at Amazon.com. As the second book in the popular Developer Sketchbook series, it enables iPad developers to quickly mock-up their next iPad app. This time-saving sketchbook is packed with more than 250 pages, which includes:

* 100 pages of 768 x 1024 grids for Portrait user interface design
* 100 pages of 1024 x 768 grids for Landscape user interface design
* 50 pages of enlarged grids for App Icon design

Like most developers, when I have a new idea for an iPad app, I like to first sketch the initial user interface design on paper. This process enables me to jot down my thoughts quickly, experimenting with different UI concepts. Once I’m satisfied with an optimized design, then I’ll launch Xcode and create the actual UI in Interface Builder.

I was tired of constantly calculating the height measurements of commonly used interface components — over and over again — for every screen I drew on grid paper, so I created my own design templates with unique iPad-specific visual markers. Without interfering with my own sketches, these helpful guidelines indicate the accurate size and placement of the:

* Status Bar
* Navigation Controller
* Toolbar
* Tab Bar Controller
* Portrait Keyboard
* Landscape Keyboard
* Split View Column (Landscape)
* Rounded Corners (App Icon)
* Glossy Bevel (App Icon)
* Horizontal and Vertical Center

These templates have saved me countless hours by streamlining my own user interface design efforts, so I decided to make them available to benefit other iPad app developers. Since it’s typically not practical to carry around a book that’s larger than an actual iPad, the Portrait and Landscape templates have been conveniently scaled down to fit within this compact, portable sketchbook.

The Developer Sketchbook for iPad Apps
258 pages, $15.99

For Details and Screenshots:
http://www.developersketchbook.com/