The iPhone may be limited to running web apps and services instead of true native apps for now, but Apple can still give developers a nudge in the right direction when designing their UI and experience. A new iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) document from Apple is just such a nudge, offering developers in-depth documentation on the iPhone’s UI, how to design for it, and how to handle composition passed through various technologies.Broken into four sections, the iPhone HIG introduces developers to some of the concepts and paradigm shifts that they’ll need to grasp before developing for the iPhone. Gone are a mouse, multi-layered windows, and an accessible file system—only a few media applications and MobileSafari are available. “Regardless of these differences in platform,” the introduction reminds intrepid iPhone developers. “Your main goal as a web composition developer is the same: to capture users’ imagination and earn their loyalty with a solution that is functional, focused, and

At least Cocoa developers have a bright side to enjoy while being limited to HTML, CSS, and AJAX.

Actually, those who are just dying for native iPhone applications can glean some hope from some language used in the iPhone HIG document’s main page. An aside during the introduction states: “Currently, developers create web applications for iPhone, not native applications.” It may be one simple word, but “currently” adds a whole lot of flavor to that sentence for anyone who cannot live by Web 2.0 alone.

That said, it’s probably a good thing that Apple released that document. While most iPhone web developers seem to have done a good job of incorporating the key aspects of the iPhone’s different UI into their offerings, that doc should help the stragglers clean up their products and supply a more familiar experience.

Via http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/09/30/apple-posts-iphone-human-interface-guidelines

Original post by admin