VanHecke
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DevJuice: Sneaking a peek at Bill Van Hecke's upcoming book
If the name William Van Hecke doesn't ring a bell, he's the User Experience Lead for The Omni Group. He's the guy behind those beautiful interfaces, or as he puts it, "I try to make Omni Group software look presentable and behave politely." When my editor at Pearson said I could get a sneak peak at his Learning iOS Design manuscript, I jumped at the opportunity. I've heard Bill speak several times at conferences, and am a big fan of his practical design approach. Learning iOS Design is basically design porn for developers. It offers chapter after chapter of advice, tips and explanations. From a tour of system-supplied classes to the essence of visual and functional simplicity, this book provides an in-depth dive of app design and the user experience. My favorite of the chapters I was able to preview were Chapters 8 and 9, "The Graceful Interface" and "The Gracious Interface," which describe how apps accommodate user tasks in both beautiful and user-centered ways. Other chapters discussed the design tension between richness and plainness, goal-centered design (with a big section on removing features that distract from an app's focus), prototyping and developing cross platform. After my initial taste of this book, I can't wait to read it in its final form. You can preview the table of contents here and a pre-order page is already live. The book should ship in June.
