What things can I quantify that help make an app great?
A summary of: A Best in Class iOS App
The five sections this document covers are:
- Accessibility: Designing for everyone is the right thing to do, and the best apps do it and they do it exceptionally well.
- Platform Technology: Apple loves it when apps utilize their new APIs to great effect, you should too. It’s not about shoehorning features, it’s about looking at your product and seeing how to utilize iOS around it. 3, User Experience: Don’t make people think. Your app should have a core function that acts a thesis to a paper - and your UX is the body that supports it.
- Design: Explaining design is hard, but you know a good one when you see it. This section lists some things those apps which are thoughtfully created do.
- App Store Presence: This is by far the most nascent category I’ve been tracking, so its list is short. It includes best practices for the App Store.
- Voice Over is fully supported and the rotor control is implemented by including the relevant headings. Using Screen Curtain yields an experience that’s not only usable, but up to par with the regular app using only Voice Over.
- Context considering, you use accessibilityIgnoresInvertColors for images and video.
- Respects reduced motion and blurring user preferences.
- Adaptive and supports all devices and multitasking scenarios elegantly.
- Fully supports dynamic type.
- Readable text uses readableContentGuide.
- Color blind support and a 7:1 color contrast ratio.
- Smart Invert Color Support and the app responds well to color inversion.
- All bar buttons have their landscapeImagePhone and largeContentSizeImage properties set.
- All glyphs have their accessibility images set (i.e. adjustsImageSizeForAccessibilityContentSizeCategory).
- Includes closed captions and audio descriptions, all images and icons have alternative text set.
- Leading and trailing margins are used for constraints to support left to right languages.
- The User Interface appears flawlessly when tested using Double Length Pseudo-languages.
- Using NSShowNonLocalizedStrings yields no results.
- If you support drag and drop, UIAccessibilityLocationDescriptors are all set.
- Magic taps are supported for the app’s most common functionality.
- It uses CFBundleSpokenName if the app’s name could potentially be mispronounced by the system (i..e CoolApp23 would be “CoolApp Twenty Three”).
- Lastly, running the entire app through Accessibility Inspector produced no warnings and turning on Screen Curtain to navigate the app works flawlessly.
- iOS Technology is Tightly Integrated
- 3D Touch is integrated (Peeks, home shortcuts, quick actions and interaction delegate for unique experiences).
- Spotlight search and indexing support.
- Effective energy management (i.e. supports low power mode and reacts to it)
- Keyboard shortcuts have been added. The app could be used almost, or completely, with solely the use of a keyboard.
- It supports handoff on Mac (if applicable).
- Meaningful extensions are included with the app, whether it’s via a share extension, action extension, etc.
- Callback urls are supplied and documented so other apps may integrate with it (x-callback-url)/.
- Siri Intent support, when plausible:
- Also include intent phrases to help coach users
- Alternate app names are included when appropriate
- Watchface support
- If it makes sense, document sharing is supported via the file provider.
- Drag and drop has first class support:
- A fully fleshed out NSItemProvider exists for custom objects.
- Purposeful external and internal app drag support.
- This is used for reordering, should the app support it.
- If it makes sense, data can be shared via AirDrop.
- Natural language processing support if necessary.
- All tab bar images are vector .pdf images or have each corresponding size included to ensure they adapt correctly and are vended to accessibility modals properly.
- Any displayed Live Photo will animate when force touched and utilize PHLivePhotoImageView for playback.
- Each image also shows their system badge if available (i.e. live photo badges).
- If it makes sense, it supports printing via UIPrintInteractionController.
- Has Siri Shortcuts supported or donated.
- Running the Analyze function in Xcode yields no errors, warnings or suggestions.
- There are no calls to UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions, and UIGraphicsImageRenderer is used instead.
- Universal Links are supported, especially if your app’s content is available online.
- Supports native “undo” and “redo” actions, typically from shaking.
- The content type of all text views and text fields is included, and the correct keyboard type is used for the current context. The keyboard’s language identifier is integrated correctly.
- Handles the keyboard being undocked on the iPad, if views are constrained to it via an inputAccessoryView.
- If data is quantifiable while data transfer is occurring, a progress indicator is used over an activity indicator.
- It’s localized for all territories it’s released in.
- Text tends to not truncate and it never clips but rather it’s always readable.
- All tappable interface elements are at least 44 by 44 points.
- The entire app binary is under 30 megabytes. (No source here, this is based off a multitude of data points.)
- Delete actions always are followed by a confirmation prompt.
- If your app stores rich information files like a Keynote presentation, it uses the Quick Look API to preview it.
- State restoration is implemented (UIStateRestoration).
- It uses the correct audio settings, if audio can be played at all within it.
- Custom edit options are supported when text or an image is selected, if appropriate.
- The user is provided ample time to form an opinion about your app before you request a rating for it.
- The launch screen is branding free and closely resembles the first screen of the app.
- Before opening a link that could lead to another app in a web view or SFSafariViewController, try calling UIApplication’s openURL: with the UIApplicationOpenURLOptionUniversalLinksOnlyoption first.
- Table views deselect selected rows in viewDidAppear when popping back to them.
- Notifications supply a value for hiddenPreviewsBodyPlaceholder and a detail view.
- UITextInputAssistantItem items are used to support common tasks on iPad that are at home within the shortcuts bar.
- Testing for leaks and freed memory is part of your workflow, as consuming an unnecessary amount of memory and power hampers everyone.
- Navigation is clear and foolproof:
- Modality is used sparingly, and clearly brings them back to where they were when dismissed.
- Correct system margins are used throughout the app, and no hard coded ones are used (i.e. layoutMarginsGuide, safeAreaLayoutGuide, etc.)
- Haptic feedback is used throughout the system to complement user interactions, and they are not overdone.
- Controller transitions feel natural and fluid. Great examples are Calendar and Photos.
- You opt for vector assets to combat the differing resolutions and avoid any blurry assets.
- Your content is always the focus, and you constantly challenge if that’s true throughout the development cycles.
- Particular and specific user experience guidelines are followed:
- No segment controls are used in toolbars.
- There are no toolbars and tab bars in the same screen.
- Destructive actions are the top choice in action sheets.
- Alerts, if used, ideally have to two choices and titles have no punctuation. They avoid using Yes and No as choices.
- Any picker’s height is equal to about 5 list values.
- If a progress indicator is in a bar, it should have the unfolded portion of the track clear. Otherwise, it is colored to denote the amount of work left to do.
- Network activity indicators are only shown if the network requests lasts a few seconds or more.
- Switches are exclusively used within a table row.
- You aspire to ship on all of Apple’s platforms (iOS iPhone + iPad, watchOS, tvOS and macOS).
- Lastly, your app is “jank” free. You know what this means for you.
- An App Store preview video is used.
- Its keywords and category were carefully researched.
- The app icon follows the golden grid:
- It likely should include your brand’s primary color as well.