11 UI Kits for iPhone and iPad Development | Freebies.

I’m starting to get really excited about HTML5 and CSS3, but I’m not sure if I’m ready to take the plunge. However, when articles like this one are written, it gets alot more enticing. What do you guys think? Is it worth it to jump at this point?

ZURB – Super Awesome Buttons with CSS3 and RGBA.

I have found that many of the people in this field are filling the role of both Usability Engineer and User Interface Designer, when their only background is in requirements gathering, wireframing, prototyping, etc. For those people, I suggest that you go back and get the basics on design. Here is a great link that I found that is a simple introduction of Color Theory. I would advise you to read this and other articles to get a good reference on which colors work well together and which don’t.

Simple, Practical Color Theory | Tutorial9.

1. Custom Post Types – Finally, I can update my portfolio without hacking WordPress. This will be huge for people who manage content within pages.
2. Menu Management – My favorite feature of 3.0, since I am constantly using widgets to hack sites’ menu navs.
3. Custom Taxonomies – This feature makes WordPress much more of a “genuine” CMS. Great for tracking fields of data.
4. New Default Theme – Finally, a good theme that doesn’t need to be immediately replaced on fresh installs.
5. Multi-site Support - This will be great for my corporate clients running WordPress who want to allow one editor to maintain many sites at once. Very convenient.
6. URL Shortener – So long bit.ly.
7. No more automatic password generation – That was so annoying.

Check out the original post - WordPress 3.0: The 5 Most Important New Features.

For all the Mac users out there, Omnigraffle is the best program for organizing information and wireframing ideas. This is an amazing icon pack that can be used anywhere, but are designed for Omnigraffle templates. I highly suggest that if you are serious about wireframing, buy this pack and add them to your arsenal. I use them quite often for my projects.

Wireframe Icons, Royalty Free EPS and PNG | Konigi.

In the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines, Apple recommends a minimum target size of 29 pixels wide 44 pixels tall. Since physical pixel size can vary by screen density, Apple’s pixel specifications apply best to the iPhone’s 320 by 480 pixel, 3.5 inch display (164ppi).

In the Windows Phone UI Design and Interaction Guide (PDF), Microsoft goes further and suggests: a recommended touch target size of 9mm/34px; a minimum touch target size of 7mm/26px; a minimum spacing between elements of 2mm/8px; and the visual size of a UI control to be 60-100% of the touch target size.

Read the entire article here.

This is a super-handy reference guide for interaction designers looking to have a print-out of all the touch gestures, especially across mobile operating systems.

As someone who considers himself both a UX Designer and  a UI Developer, I found this article quite interesting. It’s nice to know that this “rivalry” isn’t just an inner struggle for me, but for alot of people in this field.