Most users think, Mac UI is all about slick graphics and “cool” icons. Well, that might be true partially, but user interface design isn’t about photoshopping or designing cool looking icons. According to Jakob Nielsen, aesthetics is just one aspect of usability. There is much more to user friendly software than just the “cool factor” or great icons. Recently, I was using Microsoft’s Excel to edit a dozen...
Read Morebit.ly wrapper for Objective-C/iPhone
Continuing from my part 1, in this section, we will discuss about how to use this helper in your own application. Source Code Download the source code here MKBitlyHelper 1.0.zip Documentation With just three lines of code, you can shorten your URL using this wrapper. Initialize the helper class with your loginname and apikey. bitlyHelper = [[MKBitlyHelper alloc] initWithLoginName:@"yourlogin"...
Read MoreFormatting Dates relative to Now – Objective C (iPhone)
Many a times, in an iPhone application, you might need to format the date relative to today. This code snippet will help you do it. + (NSString *) formattedDateRelativeToNow:(NSDate *)date { NSDateFormatter *mdf = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init]; [mdf setDateFormat:@"yyyy-MM-dd"]; NSDate *midnight = [mdf dateFromString:[mdf stringFromDate:date]]; [mdf...
Read MoreConsuming a RESTful Service (bit.ly) in an iPhone Application
bit-ly-rest-api-objective-c Introduction Of late, many programmers who develop for Windows/Linux have moved to iPhone because of it's runaway success. Among the most successful apps on the Apple AppStore, first comes games (yeah I can hear you, fart apps!!!). Next comes apps like Tweetie and others those consume a web service (REST or otherwise). Games are pretty difficult get started especially if you aren't a game programmer. However,...
Read MoreElements of Usability Design: OK/Cancel vs Cancel/OK – Is it just a matter of taste?
OK, many of the programmers would have been confused as how to design a dialog on your website. In what order should the dialog contain the OK and Cancel Buttons? Should it be OK – Cancel like Windows or Cancel – OK like the Mac? Are there any “rule of thumb” why a certain standard should be followed? Or is it just a matter of taste? Firstly Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines state that, rather than OK or...
Read More