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This tutorial gives an overview of the new features of the SpriteKit framework that were introduced in iOS 8. The new features are designed to make it easier to support advanced game effects and include support for custom OpenGL ES fragment shaders, lighting, shadows, advanced new physics effects and animations, and integration with SceneKit. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to implement these new features. Before starting the tutorial, I would like to thank Mélodie Deschans ( Wicked Cat ) for providing us with the game art used in this series. Prerequisites This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with both Spr iteKit and Objective-C. To interact with the shader and the scene editor without input lag, I recommend that you download and install Xcode 6.1 or later. Download the Xcode project from GitHub , if you'd like to follow along. Series Format This series is split up into two tutorials and covers the most important new features of the SpriteKit framework. I...

In terms of function, there are certainly some areas of app development that are not the "designer's job" per se, but still have a great impact on the design conceptually and in application’s creative direction. If you are working on an app, and these jobs are not being filled, find someone who has these skills to do so or give it a try yourself. Skipping these steps can lead you down a costly path of revisions when your users find that your app is missing functionality or has painful design flaws. What is the Application’s Primary Task? Once an idea for an app has been generally scoped out, it’s time to narrow down the application functionality to the core of what the app does. The most popular apps establish and maintain focus on ONE primary task. To do this you must determine what that primary task is by creating  a concise explanation of your apps main purpose and its intended audience, also known as a product definition statement. I know it sounds geeky and u...

Today I'm going to show you how to build an alternate page and style sheet for the iPhone and iTouch. We will cover how to detect if the user is using an iPhone to view your page as well as the orientation of the device - whether it be landscape or portrait. To accomplish this we will be using javascript, and some Safari mobile specific CSS tags. Getting Started We're going to start off with 2 psd's I made and get those working in an iPhone page. I am using images for the background and header although you could use just straight colors instead of images. The plus side to not using images is that it obviously loads faster but also when switching between landscape and portrait the images take a moment to load, depending on how large they are. You can find the source psd files here or you can make your own. Something to keep in mind is that we are building a page specifically for the iPhone or iTouch. If you do not have the device yourself you can download the iPhone SDK free...

In the previous article in this series, we introduced some basic iOS design specifications and templates. Now it’s time to explore what makes designing for touch screens and mobile devices so special! Unlike design for desktop websites and/or applications, the variety of ways you can interact with and get feedback from a mobile devices radically differs from its desktop counterpart. Mobile apps aren't just pretty pictures; you're developing a piece of software. Designing for mobile is a combination of interaction and usability, product development, and graphic design. Think about all the things a mobile touch screen device can react to: touch, shaking, tilting, vibrating, audio input and feedback, geolocation, and time tracking. With these elements, design takes on an entirely new dimension. It's your job as a mobile designer to consider these features when conceptualizing how an app will work. It is Easy to be Average Average applications take average advantage of the iPho...

Making a webapp for the iPhone is a lot like making a normal web site, but with a few quirks to abide by. In this article, I'll give you a wide variety of tips, covering things such as: "must-haves", usability guidelines, testing/debugging, pitfalls, and performance issues. I hope you enjoy it! WebApps vs. Native Apps Keep in mind that a web application runs in the browser, while a native application is installed on the iPhone. So, if you want to make something like a high-performance, fast-responsive, action-packed game with awesome graphics, then you're probably better off just learning Objective-C and making a native app. However, if you don't own a Mac and/or if you are trying to do something a lot simpler, like making a mobile version of your website or blog, then making a web app might be the faster and more reasonable road to take. Still not convinced? Here are a list of popular sites that are iPhone web apps/websites: iphone.facebook.com m.digg.com hotels....

Series Overview Are you a web designer, excited by the idea of designing iPhone apps, but unsure of how to get started? Or perhaps you've designed a couple of apps, but are looking to boost your skills with some fundamental knowledge of why we make certain design decisions for mobile? This series is for both novice and intermediate-level designers who want to make a big splash in the mobile design space! The topics you can look forward to in this series include both hands-on techniques and examples as well as mobile related design theory. The following is a line-up of what we will cover over the course of this series: Designing for the iPhone Audience and the App Store How to Use iPhone and iPad Design Templates Designing Apps that Use All Available iPhone Functionality How to Design for the Different Types of iPhone Apps The Mobile Design Process The Pros and Cons of Using Apple Default vs. Custom Graphics Understanding Your App's Target Audience Icon Design Tips for iPhone an...