Creator of iOS App Halftone Speculates on Success
My advice is to train yourself to recognize and note the small (but important) reactions that you have when you’re working with your own apps. Dismiss your professional knowledge about the effort it will take and consider the experience alone. Only when you’re willing and able to do what’s necessary to perfect a feature will you be accomplishing your best work. Your exit criteria should be when you’re delighted to use your own app or feature and surprised that you were able to pull it off.
(Via Mike Swanson’s Blog)
Apple named Halftone one of the best Photo apps of 2011. If you’re a developer, paying attention to Swanson’s speculations on why Halftone has been so successful is probably worth your time.
As I design and develop software, I try to understand prevalent user interface patterns. I’m pretty good at that. What I have to learn is to challenge and rethink user interaction to provide the best experience possible. And not worry how hard something will be to implement.