Between starting the book in September of 2010, and the publication date, a lot of mobile pattern collections have emerged.
I for one actually disagree with the principles behind most of them. Not all, but many. I've talked about this in some presentations, so for the record, too many of these are:
- Screenshot focused.
- Few or no explanations.
- Interface focused, with few nods to interaction.
- Too focused on one OS. Mostly, iOS.
- Mostly, really, iPhone. Far too often "mobile" means handsets, though some tablet interfaces are coming.
- One tier of organization, and no cross-referencing. If you don't get their method of organization or referencing, you may not understand what options are available.
Of course, you may disagree. The presence of these is another key reason I am not worried about having too many screenshots in my patterns. There are plenty of others that do this. Enjoy.
Codified Pattern Libraries
Android Patterns - One of my favorites, each pattern is drawn, has a lot of explanations and describes the interaction, and there's a really snazzy organization to help you drill down to the options available for your design problem.
Mobile Design Pattern Gallery - Also an O'Reilly author, Theresa Neil has published this supporting website with the patterns from the book. They are abstracted at the top level, then explained as screenshots.
Flickr collection of screenshots Theresa used in creating this library.
Cocoa Controls Custom controls and views for iOS and Mac OS X. Includes links to get the source code for the widgets. Not as explained (e.g. why to use a widget) as I'd like, but reasonably well-organized and designed to implement, not just be pretty.
Screenshot- & Review-Oriented Pattern Collections
Mobile UI Patterns - Mari Sheibley's quite large, regularly updated, and somewhat organized collection.
Lovely UI - A collection of mobile UI elements, tagged so all the similar items can be found.
Mobile Patterns - Ryan Sims' collection of patterns, with the opportunity for you to contribute your own to the collection.
Pttrns - By By Robin Raszka & Chemix, seems to be more focused on interfaces (screen design) than even the others.
Tappgala: The best in mobile interface design Organized by verticals (e.g. Healthcare) and about the whole app experience, not individual screenshots. Curated but allows contribution. Heavy iOS representation, but not officially restricted to that.
Make Better Apps German-language only site, with long reviews of entire applications, including many screenshots.
Well Placed Pixels No obvious organization, with a single screenshot per app. Links load the app's hope page. Some desktop widgets and apps also represented.
Beautiful Pixels Not precisely a collection, but functionally similar. Written app reviews with a design bent.
House of Buttons By no means all mobile, and even includes concepts.
FWA Mobile - Mobile of the Day A collection of apps and sites. Desktop version
Creattica A gallery where creatives submit their own work, with brief blurbs about them. This is the mobile part, but it includes desktop, graphics, packaging, etc.
Dribble Mobile Tagged group of screenshots submitted by designers.
iOS-only Patterns
iOS Inspires Me A selection of items, broken down by icons, apps, web, etc. Some notes, review and other minor information attached to each item.
Well Placed Pixels With no organization at all I can see, includes iPhone and iPad only.
Landing Pad - A showcase of beautiful iPad applications again as a Tumblr blog-like, organization-free list.
iOS Design Inspiration Grouped by icon, iPhone, iPad, web, and other top categories. Supports user star ratings by category, but little else.
Tapfancy Grouped by verticals, with multiple screenshots (use left/right arrows) for each application.
Building iPhone Apps Several images (see thumbs above the screenshot) of a random collection of app screenshots.
Web-only Patterns
Mobile Awesome All screenshots, no obvious organization, web-only maybe. Has attached blog and some other resources.
Refined Mobile Mobile web-oriented. Organized by categories, and by color schemes, so very useful when looking for interface screenshots to crib from.
AppSites A showcase of beautiful iPhone, iPad & Mac app websites. No actual items collected past the grid view. Clicks go to the actual site.
jQuery Mobile Gallery A simple gallery of jQuery mobile websites and native apps for ideas and inspiration.
CSS iPhone & Resource Screenshots, links and articles about CSS and web design for mobile.
Screenshots From Designing Mobile Interfaces
Screenshots for Designing Mobile Interfaces - This is just a collection on Flickr, of all the screenshots (or often, photos) of the various devices I own. Not organized into a library, but if you were looking for an old device especially, it might be here. Enjoy.
Anti-Patterns & Worst Practices
What would our jobs be without making fun of others? But really, it's important to recognize bad solutions, and know why they are bad so we can all improve. Here's a couple places that collect bad mobile solutions.
WTF Mobile Web also on twitter @WTFMobileWeb. This also explains real well the point of sharing antipatterns.
Next: Introduction to Mobile Typography
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