At last, an up-to-date visual guide to “Designing Mobile Interfaces”

Whether you are a seasoned mobile developer or  trying to make it into this field, this book has something for everybody.

Designing Mobile Interfaces is a comprehensive reference guide for mobile design patterns, information architecture, and interactive design.

This book is published by O’Reilly and was written by Steven Hoober and Eric Berkman, a mobile designer and an interaction designer with more than 10 years of experience.

Basics First

The authors start with a comprehensive tour of basic concepts of design and how they apply to mobile interfaces. They also introduce mobile interface design from a practical, end-user-oriented perspective, explaining in detail aspects of design that are often overlooked by novice developers such as: the environment, stimuli, human factors and interaction beyond the GUI.

Design Patterns

The book is then dedicated to document in extensive detail using visual examples and pointing out differences across platforms and/or interaction constraints.

Each pattern consists of the following sections:

• Problem – the situation being addressed through design (i.e. you want to display a list of data to the user)
• Solution – the definition of the specific pattern (i.e. Vertical List, Scrolling, etc.)
• Variations – a list of similar patterns
• Interaction Details – a description of the actual interaction
• Presentation Details – a visual representation of the pattern that is OS and platform agnostic
• Antipatterns – things to watch out for when applying the patterns

The patterns are organized into the following sections throughout the book:

• Composition (the “pages” where you display information)
• Display of Information (organizing information for display)
• Control and Confirmation (dialog boxes and feedback)
• Revealing More Information (emphasis, hierarchies, displaying results)
• Widgets (pagination, tabs, 3D effects)
• Drill down (links, buttons, icons)
• Labels and Indicators (tool tips, avatars)
• Information Controls (zooming, scaling, searching, sorting, filtering)
• Input and Output (text and characters, autocomplete)
• Interactive Controls (Preses, gestures, cursors, hardware keys)
• Input and Selection (forms)
• Audio and Vibration (using voice)
• Screens, Light and Sensors (LED, screen brightness, orientation, location)

Bottom Line

This is not a book that you will necessarily read from beginning to end, but I encourage you to read the introduction of every section to familiarize yourself with the patterns, and the consult the details within the sections as needed.

The preface and introductory contents of the first chapter of the book have a lot of critical information about the successful application of these patterns, and understanding mobile design.

This book is a must-have reference for those who work or want to work on mobile application design, and I particularly recommend it for those one-guy/girl development shops, as an incredibly valuable asset to ensure an outstanding user experience.