I’ve been developing mobile apps for years now, many times I teamed up with various people to deliver a new product and most of the time a designer is involved.

So I’ve had the fortune to encounter various designer profiles, from web designers willing to take on the mobile market, to real UI/UX people with great mindset and knowledge of the specificity of mobile application User Experience.

Unfortunately I also had to work with some designer that do not have any idea of what mobile application User Experience is/should be. And who would just design like they would do for a website or just think that design is just a façade without any other particular role than being beautiful and polished. They are all wrong. Here’s why:

Mobile App design is not like website design, it does require knowledge of the particularities of mobile platforms and moreover of which platform you’re designing for. Users of each platforms (iOS & Android) have different way to perform the same actions. And you have to care about it.

Your design does serve a particular role in the App, the design is here to provide visual representation of a functionality of your app so the user can understand visually what he can do. Design is meant to be intuitive and to help the user get the job done.

I’ve also seen many designer just applying design on mockups and just not going any further. Great design is no just beautiful “static” interface. Animations are a key thing, not just to make your app more lively. But it does also serve a role into giving the user some context & focus.

Be aware of existing patterns, successful apps & controls, develop taste and criticism and confront opinions on your and other people work.

Try to stay up to date with trends in mobile UI/UX looking for new apps featured on the app stores, and great designs reviewed by critics. Know what already exists and is available to developers, many developers have taste for great design, most of them have some knowledge of platform specific design and what are the Dos and the Don’ts (Ask them they won’t bite !) and they create and reproduce great controls available online, be aware of that all these resources exist !

Here are some resources that designers should be aware of when it comes to designing apps for Apple platforms:

Apple Design Page

• Videos
  • Design Intuitive User Experiences (WWDC14 Session 211)
  • Must see for Developers/Designers/Managers (Well, anyone involved in delivering the product)Prototyping: Fake it till you make it (WWDC14 Session 223)
  • Making Great First Impression with Strong Onboarding Design (WWDC14 Session 230)
  • User Interface Design for iOS 7 Apps
  • What’s New in iOS User Interface Design
  • Best Practices for Great iOS UI Design
  • Case Study: iPhoto Design & Animations

• Documentation
  • Must Read: iOS Human Interface Guidelines also available on iBooks
  • UI Design Dos and Don’ts
  • UIKit User Interface Catalog Apple catalog of existing controls & interface
  • iOS 7 UI Transition Guide

• App Reviews:
  • App.itize.us
  • They Make Apps
  • Meerli
  • Capptivate

• Third party Controls available to Developers
  • Cocoa Controls

• Principles
  • Transitional Interfaces
  • UI Transitions Principles
  • UI & Capability
  • Principles of UI Design
  • Pasquale D’Silva – Designing with animation

• Curated Content
  • Oozled
  • Design UX Medium

• Case of the Hamburger Menu (aka the drawer you put your sh*t in)
  • Medium
  • Why & How to avoid hamburger menu ?
  • Apple on the Hamberger Menu – WWDC14 Session 211

I am aware that many of the links shared here are only available to registered apple developers, if you’re a designer working with iOS/OS X developers, I encourage you to ask them to add you to the developer team account, so you can have a look at all the resources provided to you.