User Interface Design - completed

The UI Design is finally completed after much delay.

The reasons for the delay are numerous but mostly down to using Interface Builder in designing only the UI and not in the implementation of the project. This resulted in specific elements not responding to cosmetic changes within Interface Builder and therefore not suitable for UI Design.

I then had to mockup my design which meant further delay to having to find similar elements in mockup form similar to those within Interface Builder.

During the mockup design I had a thought of where to display the configurable parts of the application which I primarily had within the application itself but which I thought would be more suitably located within Apple's own 'Settings' application on the iPhone device as there are very few preferences that can be changed by the end-user.

Due to the change in the location of the Options screen there was also limited use in including a tab bar at the bottom of the three Options, Help and About screens to navigate to each of those pages easily. Therefore the mockup designs for the remaining two pages needed to be altered to reflect this design update.

These changes and the additional time to annotate the new design contributed to the delay of the User Interface Design.

User Interface Design - progress

I have managed to create most of the windows for the design within Interface Builder. However I have discovered that some elements, such as tables, are not possible to edit from Interface Builder but by through code in Xcode.

This has affected my design of the Options window as I am unable to list any of the custom preferences/settings I wish to include. Other elements such as the 'Back button' cannot be placed on the Navigation bar and the library Apple provides for Tab Bar icons is not very extensive.

In the case of the above difficulties I may need to procure an alternative route in designing the User Interface.

User Interface Design - started

In starting the design for my User Interface I did some research into conventional UI practices, tips on the iPhone and tools which can help in User Interface design.

I have settled on using Interface Builder to design the interface while also sketching out some designs beforehand to get a better idea on which UI elements would be suitable for the interface.

Another thing to note is the use of suitable custom pictures and textures which I may also include.

Research - completed

I have outlined all the research I have carried out so far and noted which research I need to persue in order to complete the project. However I feel I have carried out all the research that is possible outwith implementing the project and pursuing further knowledge that is required.

The resources I used in conducting my research have been stored within my Delicious bookmarks. Written material includes the book: 'Programming in Objective-C 2.0' by Stephen G. Kochan

Research - progress

So far I have developed a simple application utilizing the AudioToolbox framework to produce short sounds by pressing buttons on a GUI produced in Interface Builder.

Currently I am researching more useful frameworks including Foundation for essential tasks such as file handling and 'Game Kit' to network the two devices over bluetooth.

Topics to keep in mind are producing simple graphical effects either through the CoreGraphics framework or the OpenGL ES library and gaining more experience with the Interface Builder with multi-page apps and displaying data effectively.

Project Plan - completed

I have completed the detailed plan for the project.

I ammended the first draft of the plan by including more detailed information by defining more refined goals and allocating time and completion dates to the new goals.

I also went back and revisited the Alternative Strategies including a more detailed summary of how I reached my conclusion that the iPhone is the most appropriate platform to develop for.

I am currently working on the research required for developing on the iPhone platform.

Project Plan - first draft

I have completed the first draft of the project plan.

Hopefully after some review and amendment it should be complete. I am a bit worried I have not included enough detail into specific goals. To rectify this I may need to expand on more details of what needs to be coded and set separate completion dates for those.