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Tools for iPhone UI (user interface) design, mockups, wireframes or just a sketch

Shyamal — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:24:53 +0000

We tried several tools and methods for user interface designing of iPhone applications. We now use a combination of these tools and our choice depends on what best suits the product as well as the customer. The key point is communicating the design clearly to both the customer and developers.

Before going into details, let me just list the iPhone design and mockup (wireframe) tools/methods in no particular order:

Use Interface Builder (Mac only)
Use Balsamiq mockup tool (Mac, windows, linux) - http://www.balsamiq.com (http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2009/03/01/iphone-controls-new-icons-and-much-more/)
Use Omnigraffle (Mac only) and import an iPhone stencil - (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/download/ and http://www.graffletopia.com/search/iphone)
Use paper and a stencil- http://www.designcommission.com/shop/iphone-stencil-kit/
Use a pre-printed sketch paper - http://labs.boulevart.be/index.php/2008/06/05/sketch-paper-for-the-mobile-designer/
Use photoshop and the iPhone PSD - http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/?p=1628
Use Adobe Fireworks - http://blogs.adobe.com/fireworks/2008/08/iphone_gui_as_adobe_fireworks.html and http://www.building43.com/videos/2009/06/23/mockup-iphone-app-adobe-fireworks/
Although not there yet, you can try http://iphonemockup.lkmc.ch/
Use the stencil kit from Yahoo! which is available in a variety of formats - http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/wireframes/

Some bonus stuff

For some great tips on designing iPhone apps, you can read http://www.mobileorchard.com/7-iphone-ui-user-interface-design-resources/
A PSD for creating iPhone line icons http://www.keepthewebweird.com/iphone-icon-psd-template/
Icons for tabbar and toolbar http://www.glyphish.com/ and http://eddit.com/shop/iphone_ui_icon_set/

Lazy as I am, I decided to write details about each iPhone UI design tool later, so till then please use the list above and explore them.

If I missed your favorite tool, please let me know in comments and I will gladly add it here.

Aw’ Shugs Free version now available

Shyamal — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:43:20 +0000

After 10 days in review, Aw’ Shugs Free is now available on the iPhone App Store. The update to the paid version is still under review.

The only difference between the free and paid versions is that the paid version allows users to catch shugs anywhere and not just limited to a range around their current location.

Enjoy!!

Aw’ Shugs Japanese version now available

Shyamal — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:24:28 +0000

We just released the 1.1 update for Aw’ Shugs with complete Japanese support in the application. Here’s what it looks like.

You can get your copy here from the Apple App Store.

Aw’ Shugs comic now available on slideshare

Shyamal — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:22:02 +0000

Comic strip for Aw' Shugs - the iPhone application

View more presentations from techjini.

Democratic Company - everyone tells how their preformance should be evaluated.

Amit — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:48:20 +0000

We have these open sessions regularly in our company where everyone talks about why they chose TechJini, what they like here, what should be changed, we share company’s vision, goals and make everyone understand how they are part of it.
Today’s session was to decide ‘appraisal policy’ i.e. on what criteria company should judge performance. Following are the inputs and will form the basis of our policy.

Initiative / pro-activeness - Do I wait for work to be assigned to me? Even after seeing/knowing about a bug do I wait for someone to raise it?
Following deadlines Following deadlines in itself is not a sign of ‘good performance’ that’s what we are ’supposed’ to do anyways but its considered as good performance if you are given something completely new and you ‘learn and deliver’ or you have a completely untrained team or in any other special scenario.
Commitment / ownership - Accepting the bottom line of any work you do. One of the examples given was if I go on a leave I will ensure that none of my project/customers/work is affected, I will do the needful (without someone telling me) to transfer knowledge and if some urgency happens I will be taking out time from my vacation to help the new/replacement team.
Doing more than what was assigned - Have I worked on projects/tasks which were not part of my regular work? Do I also participate in other activities which do not fall in my job description?
Customer Oriented - Do I always think of what is best for the customer? Do I keep in mind which feature, technology, code will help improve performance and will benefit customer in long run? Do I always point out issues before customer does? Do I get nervous and excited with the customer?
Domain Understanding - At the end of the project do I completely understand the domain?
Knowledge sharing - Am I contributing to company’s body of knowledge? Am I taking sessions or writing articles to share my learning? Am I being approached by team members to solve issues?
Acquiring knowledge - Am I learning only enough to finish the task or at the end of project I am capable of becoming a tech lead for similar technologies?
Homework / spoon-feeding - Am I always finishing my homework before asking for help? Do I ask questions the smart way? Do I need spoon-feeding?
Then there are other good to have skills like general behavior with others, influencing/persuading skills, communication

We also had very interesting discussion on what we think is ‘hard work’.

What we like and dislike about TechJini - Joys and pains of working with TechJini (a start up or small company)

Amit — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:33:54 +0000

Right from the heart, this is what we ‘jinies’ (I just invented that term ) have to say about life at TechJini.
So here is what we like and what we would like to change:

Exposure - We get exposed to different kind of work, something we will get to do in 2 years in a big organization we get to do it in first few months only. - Nuwas
Good Learning - With so many new projects and all with different technology there are new challenges and lot to learn almost every day. - Akshi
More responsibility - Our work is not limited to what is assigned and just coding or testing or designing. We do almost everything and very early in our career. - Everyone
Different technologies - Exposure to different technologies and very easy to shift/learn. We get all the help but are also encouraged and showed how to do quick self learning. This acts as a big confidence boost. - Vipindas
Flexible timings - Flexible working hours in true sense. No enforcement of mandatory working hours, can work from home, if I work on holiday I am given a compensatory off or cash - Everyone
Friendly environment - Very very friendly environment, there are no bosses (absolutely no hierarchy), feels like a small family, even policies are made after open discussions - Everyone
Technical Challenges - We get to face more technical challenges which is making us better programmers. - Everyone
Neelima - Very friendly and helpful person, someone we will not have anywhere else - Sapna
No bureaucracy or politics - Cant be more democratic and fair then in TechJini - Everyone
Open to do whatever I want - I get enough opportunity, time and space to do whatever I want other than my regular work. I was able to finish a certification (which company is happy to pay for) and I can interact with everyone in the company - Arun
No bench - We have never seen anyone without work. There is absolutely no bench and so many product ideas to work on.
My product - Only place where I am encouraged and given full opportunity to work on my own idea and the best part is I don’t have to work alone, everyone in the company will work on my idea.
Formal corporate culture - Culture here is too relaxed, we are serious in what we do but we do not get to see a very formal corporate culture which also has lot to teach.
Brand Name - All the benefits of working for a big brand name.
Company conveyance - hmm….
6 days a week - Sometimes it pinches that our friends are having fun but we work on Saturdays too. Even though we do not do regular work (extra learning or activities) but still.
Good Office building - We need to move to an attractive address soon, guys are finding it difficult to call prospective in-laws
Website - NEED to change website.

Update:
- Website changed

Android tip #1 ContentProvider , Accessing local file system from WebView / showing image in webview using content://

Amit — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 08:08:54 +0000

ok, this was a tough one.
First be informed that this is something Google (Android people) are trying to prevent i.e. letting browser (WebView) have access to the local file system. In earlier releases of SDK you could access local files using ‘file://’ but it is stopped now. Then there was an option where you can provide a WebViewClient and implement shouldOverrideUrlLoading to make it work. This was also removed.
The way to make it work now is by implementing your own ContentProvider, there is lot of discussion and documentation on implementing ContentProvider but all that is completely redundant (not needed). The solution is very simple, create your own ContentProvider and only override


public android.os.ParcelFileDescriptor openFile(android.net.Uri uri, java.lang.String mode) throws java.io.FileNotFoundException

Rest of the code in ContentProvder is not needed for this problem.

Step 1:
Declare your Content Provider in AndroidManifest.xml

Step 2:
Create your ContentProvider and implement openFile
All you have to do is get real path from uri, open it and return the descriptor


URI uri = URI.create("file:///data/data/com.techjini/files/myImage.jpeg");
File file = new File(uri);
ParcelFileDescriptor parcel = ParcelFileDescriptor.open(file, ParcelFileDescriptor.MODE_READ_ONLY);
return parcel;

Step 3:
(You need this step only if file is not already present on the device/sdcard)
Save your content to the file. Following is an example to store a Bitmap


FileOutputStream fos = openFileOutput("myImage.jpeg", Activity.MODE_WORLD_WRITEABLE);
imageView.getBitmap().compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, fos);

fos.flush();
fos.close();

You can find out where your image is stored using


System.out.println(getFilesDir().getAbsolutePath());

Step 4:
Access the file in WebView


myWebView.loadUrl("content://com.techjini/myImage.jpeg");
//com.techjini is what you mentioned in 'android:authorities' in your AndroidManifest.xml

Looks simple

MySql tip #2 Taking backup ensuring multi byte characters does not become garbage

Amit — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:15:13 +0000

If you have multi byte data in your tables its important to take backup in utf8 which can be done using the command below:
mysqldump -u root --default-character-set=utf8 DB_NAME | gzip > DB_NAME-`date +%Y%m%d%H%M`.sql.gz

The date parameter simply appends date/time to the backup.

In order to restore the backup taken above use following command
gunzip < FILE_NAME.sql.gz | mysql --default-character-set=utf8 -u root DB_NAME

This will ensure that db is back up without affecting multi byte data.

JBoss tip #5 Keeping the project in exploded .war file in some other location other than deploy folder

Amit — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 07:43:09 +0000

This is how you can increase your productivity while developing an app on Jboss, no need to package and deploy again and again, reduced development and testing time.

Open %JBOS_HOME%\server\default\conf\jboss-service.xml and add the new location

deploy/, E:/ file:/var/opt/apps/

JBoss tip #4 Increasing the jta time out from default 5 mins to more

Amit — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:07:42 +0000

Open %JBOSS-HOME%\server\default\conf\jboss-service.xml
[sourcecode language=’xml’]

name="jboss:service=TransactionManager">
3600
${jboss.server.data.dir}/tx-object-store

[/sourcecode language=’css’]
[sourcecode language=’xml’]
3600
[/sourcecode language=’css’] by default it would be 300, here we changed it to 3600 which is 1 hr.