So I will admit out of the gate, this is an expensive book considering many options out there. It is also not a book in a traditional sense, it is more like a subscription to a website that contains a book-like format.
I came across the Design+Code website through one of my various searches through blog posts and reviews of tools and information around application design. It was highly recommended and a few developers decided to redesign their applications after reading the website.
I am a firm believer in UI, UX, and overall design to make something modern, simple, yet effective in delivering the intended value to the user. I liked the author’s approach to design and decided to make the investment.
The “book” has a wide variety of chapters that cover four main areas: iOS Design, Tools, Building of the App, and Design with Swift. The last chapter was a major selling point for me as I wanted to learn more about using Swift in a practical way along with Xcode to build an application end-to-end.
There are also oodles of resources included in appendix chapters and throughout the book itself. This really does jump-start you in terms of getting resources to build a UI faster and in-line with his design theory.
What many readers will enjoy is how he breaks down design theory from Apple in terms of the current flat design elements with simple and intuitive information at the core. He also goes into theories around the usage of sound and animation to enhance the experiences only when and where necessary.
There is also a perfect combination of the theoretical and practical that you can use this as a reference resource in your design efforts. I would suspect that over time you would find your own style and refer to this less as time goes on. Or, if you choose to use much of his approach, you would eventually memorize the approach in your app design.
In either case, I do value the investment I made in this. The only thing I wish I had was an offline / PDF version that I could use as a reference material while designing. However, I make this work by having the website open when needed in another monitor / iPad.
If you do decided to make the investment, I would really appreciate hearing your thoughts.
Cheers,
Aaron