Introduction to iOS for Designers
This bootcamp is optimized for empowering designers to modify the view and animation related code for production apps. As such, there is a focus on views, navigation, transitions, and animations. Topics such as networking, threading, models, and device frameworks for accessing the camera and location are not covered. In addition, there is a focus on techniques currently used in production such as programmatic views and springs and struts over Interface builder and Auto Layout.
In terms of prototyping, the goal of the class is to provide the tools necessary to build rich, interactive mocks using Objective-C instead of Quartz Composer and other tools. While the bootcamps will not cover enough topics to make the prototypes fully functional, that would be the logical next step.
In order to finish the course successfully, there are a few course policies:
- Attendance. There is one excused absence allowed where acceptable excuses include illness, work, or personal travel. If you have travel plans, please let me know as soon as possible. No unexcused absences are allowed.
- Weekly homework submissions. There is weekly homework described in the course schedule below. Submission instructions are in the detailed links.
In the course schedule below, each week has two 2-hour sessions where we will cover about a dozen different use cases related to the topic of the week. Each week has a "skills checklist" that you should be able to do by the end of the week. Each week also has a homework that applies the use cases that we cover in class.
We will be covering laying out basic views such as labels, images, and buttons in Interface Builder and programatically. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Basic
- Creating an empty XCode project and running in the simulator
- Adding standard and retina image assets to a project
- Changing the app icon and splash screen
- Views and properties
- Views, Labels, Images, Buttons, Text Fields
- Interface Builder vs. Programmatic view design
- Basic usage of navigation and tab bars
The homework this week is to make a non-scrollable version of a detailed view of a Facebook post. Full homework description is here.
- Week 1 Skills checklist
- Week 1 Quick References
We will be covering events and delegates and making stateful applications. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Events and Delegates
- Events via targets and selectors
- Delegation for simple controls like UIAlertView and UIActionSheet
- Handling UITextField delegate events
- Handling scroll view events
- Observing properties using KVO
- Application states
- Mocking an transient loading state
- Transitioning between empty and populated states
- Performing selectors after delays
The homework this week is to implement the Facebook login flow with loading and error states. Full homework description is here.
- Week 2 Skills checklist
- Week 2 Quick References
We will be covering view animations and interactions via gestures such as tap, pan, swipe, pinch, and rotate. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Animation
- Animation of properties such as color, frame, and alpha
- Animation options such as repeat and reverse
- Damping ratio and spring velocity
- Working with affine transforms
- Gestures
- Attaching gestures to views
- Accessing location, velocity, rotation, and scale
- Processing gesture state
The homework this week is to make an interactive mock of the Paper navigation. Full homework description is here.
- Week 4 Skills checklist
- Week 4 Quick References
We will be covering creating custom UITableViews with dynamic row heights populated with modeled data. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Table Views
- Specifying the number of rows and sections
- Designing custom cells
- Using plain and grouped table views
- Setting headers and footers
- Models
- Specifying model properties
- Instantiating fake data
The homework this week is to make a scrollable version of the Facebook notifications view. Full homework description is here.
- Week 3 Skills checklist
- Week 3 Quick References
We will be covering UIKit Dynamics and its associated behaviors like gravity, attachment, push, and snap. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Basic dynamics
- Applying behaviors like gravity to views
- Handling callback for collision detection
- Using rigid and flexible attachments
- Applying continuous or instantaneous forces
- Composing multiple behaviors
- Dynamics combined with Gestures and Animations
- Dynamically adding or removing behaviors based on Gestures
- Updating animator state when manually modifying view properties
- Using view animation in conjunction with dynamics
The homework this week is to make an interactive mock of a simplified Paper "Edit Sections" page. Full homework description is here.
- Week 5 Skills checklist
- Week 5 Quick References
We will be covering working with UICollectionView and integrating it with UIKit Dynamics. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- UICollectionView
- Custom collection view cells
- Using UICollectionViewFlowLayout for grid views
- UICollectionView with UIKit Dynamics
- e.g., accordion scrolling in iMessages
- e.g., menu in Paper
The homework this week is TBD. Full homework description is here.
- Week 7 Skills checklist
- Week 7 Quick References
We will be covering designing an API and implementation using Parse. We will be covering topics and use cases such as the following:
- Authentication
- Signing in / Signing up
- Accessing current user
- Schema
- Designing basic models
- Relationships
- 1:1, 1:many, many:many
- Queries
- Using conditions
- Eager loading related objects
- Asynchronous saving / deleting