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Apple have given pretty strong direction about the design patterns and approach to creating iPhone application UIs [in fact 'strong direction' is being kind when you consider some apps have been rejected for using chat bubbles incorrectly]. However, more often than not we’ve found that even when following the Apple UI Guidelines there are often multiple ways to tackle an interface challenge. A good solution is to take direction from other apps that have already made it into the App Store, and to create [where suitable] consistent interfaces through common design patterns where standard methods are becoming established.

Ever since working with mobile WAP greetings in the mid-90’s I’ve been interested in the frequent need to micro-scale imagery. To some extent, the recent trends of clean, typographic buttons and clean mark-up has reduced the over-use of iconography on the web but it remains a critical part of most web projects and even more so in application interfaces. As ever though, if I’m at a creative dead-end I’m more than happy to just apply a set of rules to get things going again and Turbomilk’s article on 10 Mistakes in Icon Design provided just such a checklist for me recently. The very use of icons is often the point of much debate, let alone the resulting imagery, but the article covers some good points backed up with visual examples.

Currently, many businesses choose not to offer direct communication methods such as telephone or have an online contact form with an answer period of 24 or 48 hours. However, this might have to change as Out-law.com reports in a recent case. The European Court of Justice ruled that companies must provide a contact method on their website that is answerable within 60 minutes such as a telephone number or a contact form. Currently, the UK regulation is less specific but requires that a website must offer “the details of the service provider, including his electronic mail address, which make it possible to contact him rapidly and communicate with him in a direct and effective manner”.