A look into the Interface of iPhone Apps

Over the last few days I have linked to several iPhone apps and websites related to apps. This is an enjoyable time of exploration and discovery in the app business. People are looking at Apple’s decision to allow 3rd party apps to come through Safari as an opportunity instead of simply criticizing it (although  many  have). We are starting to see some interesting things percolate to the top: apps for News, RSS, Chat, Socializing, Movies, etc. It reminds me a lot of the very first weeks after widgets became mainstream in OS X.

With discovery and experimentation also come questions. Questions about standards, about methods, approaches. I’m particularly interested in the UI aspect of these iPhone specific apps. Many of the original apps came out sporting an almost identical interface to that of the stock apps that come with the iPhone (calendar, contacts, etc.) As the days have gone on the apps have started to branch out in their approach to the UI. I wonder in all of this how much attention is being given to the user experience aspect of the app. I have to assume that most of these applications are being developed by programers with little or no background in interaction design. It’s doubtful that these apps have “teams” working on them since most, if not all, are just things that have been “quickly put together
”. Don’t get me wrong I don’t care if they are put together quickly or over long periods of time, I just love the enthusiasm that is driving these efforts.

As these apps mature and this segment grows I think there will need to be some careful consideration given to how the user interacts with them. I’m not writing this as a call to arms to standardize the user interface, but rather that they should feel familiar to the user. By familiar I’m mostly referring to the “chrome” of the application and the way it interacts with the user’s input (scrolling, pinching, pressing, etc.) If you look at most applications within OS X (especially bundled apps like iLife) you will begin to notice consistent elements in each application. For instance all iLife apps share a panel in the interface called the media browser. Now if you look at the current iPhone ads and screenshots you will notice similar chrome and interactions across the various applications. If you look for a phone number or search through Google’s maps, the appearance of the application is familiar. I’m also going to bet, without playing with it yet, that they also interact in a familiar way.

So, as we venture out into this new brave world of iPhone applications I hope that an equal value will be placed on the user experience side of the app as well as the way its developed.