App Store Review Guidelines (Third-party tools allowed)

Today, Apple posted formal guidelines for mobile app review/approval. The best part is that they have relaxed restrictions for third-party development tools. Up until now, the review process has been fairly subjective and undocumented. The good news is that the process is now documented and available here (must login with developer account). The bad news is that it is still fairly vague and worded in such a way that if they decide they don't like your app, it won't get approved.

In light of the shortcomings of this documentation, this appears to be a great step in the right direction for Apple. If you listen carefully, you will probably hear developers rejoicing everywhere. Only time will tell how this will all play out. For now you can move forward using development tools like Flash cs5 and mono-touch to create iPhone apps.

Human Interface Guidelines and other UI info

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) provide a great foundation for anyone not extremely savvy with UI development; and good reference for those who are savvy. They provide basic examples for many types of scenarios involving the use of audio, video, button interaction, alerts and many others.

Apple provides explanations of what they intend the different UI components to be used for and why certain components work better than others when designing for a mobile device instead of a full desktop.

Apple pushes highly polished, intuitive user experiences with most tasks being no more complex than they have to be. This same theme is present in their HIG documentation. The idea they are trying to convey is about fluid and consistent experiences. The good news is they have already figured this out; we just have to become familiar with it.

Here are a few links to some useful UI information and additional tools:

Human Interface Guidelines: www, pdf

iPhone and iPad stencils: www

iPhone UI element for Photoshop: www

iPad UI elements for photoshop: www