By: Alan Smith
Submitted: 2011-04-04 00:30:53 | Word Count: 541
The relevance of user interface is increasing day by day, especially after the launching of iPad by Apple.
There are many graphics software that can assist you at designing the user interface. Among these the Adobe Photoshop is one of the easiest tools to for iOS UI design. The task is made very simple because of project icons and easy accesses to the different layers.
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The Start:
There is much similarity between the deigning for the web and designing for iOS. The screen of the iPhone is much smaller than that of the desk top PC or lap top. Moreover there are specific points for access on the iPhone. For the novice or amateur designers it is better to practice on the iPhone Graphics provided in the iPhone device.
In the iTunes store of Apple Inc. you will find many toolbars and buttons. The Interface builder offered by Apple constitutes most of these basic elements.
The iPhone resources are designed with the help of this Interface Builder software. With the help of this software application the developer can connect the iOS graphics with the Objective-C code in the backend.
Some of the prominent interface elements are sliders, navigation bar, input fields, status bar, tabs/tab bar, switches, and table lists.
Many interface elements are freely available as part of iPad and iPhone user interface kits.
The layered document for Fireworks and Photoshop are included in these kits. These documents contain page elements and icons.
Usually a graphic related to the actual iPhone (of the screen size 480 x 320) is included in most of the developed user interface templates.
Prototyping of the application:
Before using the Photoshop for developing the application it is better to sketch the idea. The idea could be presented on paper too.
The iOS application is first divided into different parts. The illustrator usually sketches the frames for each part or pieces of the application. These frames are also called views.
This can be of much help to the illustrator in the future. It is recommended that you refer to the sample iPhone user interface kit especially when you think of yourself as not excellent at artistic work. IPhone 4 GUI PSD is available for free along with the latest version of Teehan+lax.
Most of the content of any standard application are included in the file. It is recommended that soon after downloading the SDK, the initial template should be saved in the new directory. This new directory can be later used as a point of reference.
When a diagram that is similar to the design of iPhone is used the task of prototyping becomes very simple. The style of framing in iPhone is similar to that in iPad.
The view states need to be saved separately in new directory. The files are usually saved in .psd format. Once the setting of initial design is done, the creation of complementary views becomes very easy. The copy of each file should be saved as .png or .jpg
This technique is good for those user interface designers who are not expert at Photoshop or think of getting confused handling the layered files.
