Ask HN: iPad developers, are you lacking a designer? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: iPad developers, are you lacking a designer?

12 pointsVomisaCaasi19 comments

Hello guys, I've been doing web-design for about 3 years and I'm now looking for a way in to the iPad scene, as this seems more exciting and challenging. I would be able to give out first design for a project as pro-bono, so feel free to try me out.

Some previous examples:

Project 1 - A side-project I am currently developing in django and JS/jQuery for artists and alike. URL: http://orbita.li/disain/mindcast_001_01_1440x900.png

Project 2 - This probably gives better idea on my design/interactive skills. Sorry about the sound though, it's an artist site. URL: http://djcardinal.com/

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Do you actually have any iPhone/ipad app prototypes you've worked on to show off what you can do? Designing for mobile devices is really different from media or websites.

As somebody else already said, if I'm gonna spend money to bring somebody to work with me, I'll need to know the person is first of all capable of doing something slightly better than I can (and I can't do any design).

You don't need to create a new app from scratch, just select an app in the appstore that sounds interesting to you and try to create a different design. Blog about it, create new mockups, and share that online.. You gotta do some marketing for your work, and the only way to do that is to show what you're capable of.

I guess I should've done a bit more home-work before turning to HN.

Thank you for the great advice, this is exactly what I'm going to do.

Are you interested in doing Android work? I'm not sure what files you would provide to an iPad developer, but for Android just providing mock ups and graphical assets would be hugely valuable.

It would certainly be more challenging to come up with good designs that work well and look great when the variety of screen sizes and resolutions has to be taken into account.

Yes, as long as it features a GUI. I don't own an Android device myself, but this seems like a neat opportunity nevertheless.

What kind of rate do you expect to work at? What would the work flow be for this? Are you going to make the xib files and leave it to the programmer to wire it up, or do you have something else in mind?

I'm not familiar with the pricing trends in the iPad scene, however, when I am dealing with my clients in web/graphics design, I've been billing for 15-30USD per hour.

I would be producing the design files that a developer could use and put together when producing an app. I am able to code as-well (not for the iPad, though), but in this case I would like to strictly stick to the design process.

I'm getting the impression you haven't spent any time doing prototypes on this yet. Are you familiar with Xcode/Interface Builder/etc.?

I've been procrastinating for a couple of weeks now because I'm not happy with the visual design of the iPad app I'm working on. I'm no designer and would love to just pay someone to do this part, but if you're going to be learning this for the first time it will probably take you longer than it will me (even though your final product should look much better than mine).

EDIT: Wait, what do you mean by "I would be producing the design files"? Do you mean producing e.g. pictures of what the GUI should look like that I then have to go build myself?

As a matter of fact, I am at this point unfamiliar with any of these tools you mentioned above so your impression was correct. I'm pretty green in this field (other than the fact I've been bashing at design of various iPad's apps for quite some time now).

If you are in a great hurry, then I don't think it's worth wasting your time. We could always arrange it so that you keep working your designs, but give me concrete goals and a deadline. Should I succeed, great, if not, you have still your own work to rely on.

Ok. I've never hired a designer before so I don't know much about how this sort of thing might be done on iPad (or in general for that matter) myself.

I'm still not clear on what your work flow would be. Would you be making a sort of "prototype" in tools that you know that I have to then translate to the actual GUI or would you be working inside the Mac Xcode environment making the GUI files themselves that I can then plug into my program and use?

When designing web, I usually start with simple pen and paper for conceptualizing, then move on to Photoshop, and eventually to HTML/CSS or Flash.

In iPad design, however, I would be willing to learn the builder to the point where I can use the paper/photoshop concepts and hence produce satisfying design. I'm not sure about the learning curve in Xcode yet, so I can not really comment on that.

Fair enough. How can one get in touch with you? I don't see an email when I click your user name.

I can't see yours either. (not sure if you had set one, though, could be a bug?)

I'll just throw it out then: andrus@epic.ee

Let me know which communication method would you prefer, so I can reply to you with Skype or MSN Live initials.

Am I the only one who thought he is really underpricing himself? Depends on the quality of his work I guess.

i thought so too but I guess it depends on location too.

As findm hinted, I am not from the U.S and have mostly dealt with the clients locally.

Try #ipaddev on Freenode, there are a ton of devs there.

Thanks, I will check the place out.

I know you mention that you want to break onto the iPad scene. But would you still be interested in doing some web-design work?

Sure. What do you have in mind?

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