In the last few months here at Kristian Andersen + Associates, we have become increasingly more involved in iPhone application user experience/user interface design. Our existing experience with UX/UI design for the web was a great jumping-off point, plus we’re all day-one iPhone users and are virtually tethered to them right throughout the day.

Our most recent app engagement began in the usual way, collaborating with the client on multiple rounds of wireframes and process maps, dialing in the inner workings and structure of the app itself. When we started to move forward into the initial visual prototypes the ideas for the navigation and overall aesthetic came fast, but we quickly realized something just didn’t ‘feel’ right. It didn’t take long before we realized why and just how easy it is to fall into the same trap that so many others do when designing for the iPhone. In an attempt to create something fresh and slick we were losing the very thing that makes the best iPhone apps ‘feel’ right – familiarity.

“… it is clear that a user interface feature is ‘intuitive’ insofar as it resembles or is identical to something the user has already learned. In short, “intuitive” in this context
is an almost exact synonym of ‘familiar.’”
—Jef Raskin

Spend time with the native iPhone apps such as Mail, Calendar and Clock, and you can see familiarity at play. While each one fulfills a different purpose, they seem like they were ‘cut from the same cloth’, related, familiar. They share common design elements such as standard header and footer bars with clear navigation controls. They share consistent colors, gradients, shadows and highlights. There is a minimal amount of information presented on-screen at any one time and there are no distracting superfluous visuals to get in the way. main navigation and other interactive elements are appropriately sized and spaced so they are easy to ‘tap.’

Some of the other native iPhone apps such as Weather, Stocks and Maps need to present more visual-based information, calling for more elaborate interfaces. However, Apple have managed to retain the same familiarity throughout by using the same basic principles. Many of the third party apps available in the App Store are also successful for these reasons. Below are some of the apps I use on a daily basis: