Mobile Design Pattern Gallery by Theresa Neil, O'Reilly

 April 9, 2012

This book is weird, I’ve to tell you. I was expecting a book with some examples and some text. Well, I ended up with a book that, at the first sight, seems more a book for kids rather than a professional book since is 90% images.

The book is clearly organized, each chapter covering one specific aspect.

• Navigation
• Forms
• Tables
• Search, sorting and filters
• Tools
• Charts
• Invitations
• Feedback & Affordance
• Help
• Anti-patterns

After a little while, I learned how to learn (a lot of) good patterns and bad patterns (anti-patterns) from this book. The downside of the approach the author kept is that all the arguments are not deeply analysed, while the main information are given. For each topic, Neil shows some patterns pointing out for each one a good use of it and the possible risks using it. The last chapter (the one about the anti-patterns) is, in my opinion, the most useful. Here some anti-patterns are analysed pointing out why they are anti-patterns and how to improve them.