iPhone Apps
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it’s much harder to make an impact on iPhone users in the iTunes store. Some mobile designers are spending more time designing high quality looking applications to create buzz and get recognition for their work.
Here is a list of 30 apps that are well-designed and worth their purchase from their exceptional design skills and zealous attention to detail. If you love good design, beware – you may end up spending a few dollars if you read on!
Pastebot
Pastebot is the easiest way to manage your clipboard clippings on your iPhone. It sports subtle gray gradients and ambient glows throughout the app. The designer, Mark Jardine, always makes his app icons look cute and friendly and they match well with the interface.
Pastebot
Awesome Note
Awesome Note goes above and beyond the default notes application on the iPhone. Awesome Note has been featured by Apple as one of the best Apps of 2009. It’s not hard to notice why when you see the dark wood and detailed textures throughout the app that grab your attention of quality work.
bridworks.com | App Store Link
Awesome Note
Convert
Convert took other complex converters by storm by under doing the competition and making conversions function simple like a calculator. The unit icons make it very easy to recognize what unit you are dealing with and the app icon meshed with the app perfectly.
taptaptap.com | App Store Link
Convert
Air Mouse Pro
Air Mouse Pro is a remote / trackpad app that allows you to control your PC or Mac remotely. Air Mouse Pro has a very sleek black look with subtle black gradients and large buttons, it’s simple interface hides it’s diverse features.
mobileairmouse.com | App Store Link
Air Mouse Pro
Outside
Outside makes checking the weather fun and exciting again. With high quality icons, background drops of the weather and overall simplicity, it makes it a worthwhile gem for your iPhone. The app icon is boasting a good looking illustrative landscape.
robocatapps.com | App Store Link
Outside
Things
Thing is a popular task manager that got famous for it’s simplicity and usability on the mac. The app icon has a 3D look to it, the app uses very subtle colors, and they use well-designed icons throughout the entire app.
culturedcode.com | App Store Link
Things
Cellar
Cellar makes managing your wine collection sexy and worth the effort. The app uses great drop shadows and has ambient lighting almost everywhere. The details on the wine bottles and glasses is exceptional and hard not to notice.
cellar-app.com | App Store Link
Cellar
Rebate Tracker
Rebate Tracker tracks those pesky mail-in rebates we all love to hate but somehow seem to accumulate and lose over time. The app uses a nice wood background, drop shadows, lighting, and detailed elements to bring realism to the app.
reactivegears.com | App Store Link
Rebate Tracker
Groups
With Groups, you can manage your contacts easily with this great looking tabbed interface. A wide range of colors makes the app interesting and eye catching. The icon is 3D and easy to distinguish in the store.
guidedways.com | App Store Link
Groups
Ego
Ego lets you stroke your ego by tracking your site, social, and feed statistics. They use a nice blinging icon and we know how people love shiny things. The app uses a variety of colors and has a trendy background that’s grown in popularity in the store.
Ego
Tea Round
Tea Round is Russian roulette for those wanting to sort out who fetches the tea at the office for the day. The design elements used in the app are gorgeous and subtle detail like the steam, make it a real winner.
tearoundapp.com | App Store Link
Tea Round
Classics
Classics brings some of those favorite classic books a couple taps away on your phone. Page flips make you feel like you are dealing with a real book and the nice cream color is easy on the eyes. The sexy icon makes me wonder why I don’t have these books on my shelf at home lined up like this.
classicsapp.com | App Store Link
Classics
Night Stand
Night stand brings an alarm clock in an assortment of different skins. The quality skins make this app feel at home on your night stand. The icon is pretty self explanatory, which is always nice in an app.
spoonjuice.com | App Store Link
Night Stand
Delivery Status Touch
Delivery Status Touch helps keep track of those packages that you’re expecting in the mail. The app uses nice subtle gradients in a table-like structure with a variety of unique colors. The icon resembles a 3D package and makes you giddy knowing your new item(s) will be showing up soon.
junecloud.com | App Store Link
Delivery Status Touch
Facebook is probably one of your favorite social networks and it’s easy to see why. Facebook pays attention to detail and uses it’s notorious blue color so people can recognize it. It has some great detail in the icons and resembles very closely to the actual web site in terms of functionality.
Convert Bot
Convert bot is another useful convert utility from the tapbots crew. The app icon matches the interface well and it uses those subtle gray gradients and dark drop shadows that they are known for. The unit icons are easy to make sense of too.
Convertbot
Jamie Oliver
The Jamie Oliver app has 55 recipes and is designed to help you cook some delicious meals in 20 minutes or so. They use a darker wood and have great paper textures throughout the app. The fonts and colors go very well together and makes the app seem user friendly.
jamieoliver.com | App Store Link
Jamie Oliver
Tweetie 2
Tweetie is a popular Twitter client on the Mac, and Tweetie 2 is the mobile app that continues it’s legacy. Blue glows and subtle details like the favorite tweets star make the app feel polished and functional. The app icon is simple and effective at displaying a sexy chat bubble.
Tweetie 2
Twitterrific Pro
Twitterific Pro is another game changing Twitter client for the iphone. Just from the app icon alone, you can see the detail like the feathers, which really makes the app stand out in the store. The great use of dark pixel work, shadows, and glows makes the interface jump out and a pleasure to use.
twitterrific.com | App Store Link
Twitterrific
Beats
Beats combines a BPM counter with an advanced DJ metronome. The icon looks sharp and identical to the interface. The use of diagonal lines and purple colors makes this app stand out among the other apps in the music category. The dial pad / turn wheel looks very realistic and makes you feel like you have a nice stereo system at your finger tips.
Beats
Hipstamatic
Hipstamatic brings back an analog look to your digital photographs. The camera, lenses, and flashes in the icon and interface have great detail. The overall interface has a very grungy look, which is very different from other apps in the store.
hipstamaticapp.com | App Store Link
Hipstamatic
Voices
Voices is a nice voice morphing app that brings some silliness to your iPhone. The icons in the app have a lot of detail and provide some cool characters to the app. The red carpet and wood are great looking and make you feel as if you are on stage as you tweak your voice to your hearts content.
taptaptap.com | App Store Link
Voices
Groceries
Groceries is a nice looking grocery shopping list app. The cork looking background and paper provide realism. The detailed app icon features quality soup cans, which is sure to catch some lookers who are in need of an app to track their groceries.
sophiestication.com | App Store Link
Groceries
iHandy Level
iHandy Level is probably one of the sexiest leveling tools in the App Store. With it’s great use of realistic wood and brushed metal, along with a detailed bubble. There is no wonder why I no longer need a leveling tool from the garage anymore.
ihandysoft.com | App Store Link
iHandy Level
Where To?
Where To? is a point of interest app that allows you to easily find restaurants, banks, etc. The app uses a great black turn wheel with a blue glow for highlighted items. The app uses a leather texture, which is a change from the many types of wood textures other apps use. The app icon is easily recognizable too if you are familiar with exit signs on the roads.
futuretap.com | App Store Link
Where To?
Time Tuner Radio Alarm Clock
TimeTuner is a full-featured radio alarm clock. It uses more muted looking colors with a nice looking scale for a sleep timer to mix it up over other apps. The app icon serves as both a clock and depicts radio waves, which is subtle but recognizable.
dreamsurface.com | App Store Link
Time Tuner Radio Alarm Clock
I Am T-Pain
The I Am T-Pain app is a voice recorder which uses the popular auto tuner effect from T-Pain. Although the icon isn’t that fancy, it does make good use of curtains, lighting, a grungy texture, and a good looking ticket stub that makes you feel like you are a V.I.P at the show.
I Am T-Pain
Ghostly Discovery
Ghostly Discovery is a mood-based radio station, which helps you discover songs based on your mood. It has some great looking dial knobs. The color wheel looks great on the dark gray background and the icon is different enough to easily be remembered.
o2creativesolutions.com | App Store Link
Ghostly Discovery
Reeder
Reeder is an RSS feed reader, which syncs with your Google Reader account. The app icon looks great with a hint of orange and the popular RSS bars. I think what makes it great is the simplicity of the app using a gray color. With tiny little icons representing the news source and it’s ability to focus on the content, it make the app stand out from other bloated readers.
reederapp.com | App Store Link
Reeder
My Desk
My Desk is an app you can fill up like your desktop at home or work. The app makes great use of different graphical elements and has a nice looking backdrop shadow. Other textures are used throughout the app to provide some variety for your eyes.
metabrain.com | App Store Link
My Desk
Share Your Favourites
Do you use an application that you think is particularly well designed? Feel free to share in the comments!
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With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
With over 100,000+ apps in the App Store, and the numbers growing fast, it's much harder to make an impact on iPhone users ...
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All good choices, with possible exception being Groceries. Somehow it does not click well with me, probably because of that awful font. Also those wooden bars don`t really work with plain non-textured white rows. Could be only me, but I it`s a turn off.
My recent favourites (that are not listed above):
Movies Now! – http://www.kodu.co.uk/
iSaidWhat: http://www.tapparatus.com/isaidwhat/
Guitar Toolkit: http://agilepartners.com/apps/guitartoolkit/
PanelFly: http://panelfly.com/
I must enjoy the UI to use any app on a daily basis, so I design my apps according to that. Thus some self promotion (I would love to hear comments on the UI):
Run Mate: http://codeaplus.com/runmate/
Quickie ad-hoc to-do: http://codeaplus.com/quickie/
I’d like to nominate our iPhone app, Broadersheet, you reviewed it here: http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/internet-reviews/broadersheet-your-customized-iphone-newspaper/
Would definitely nominate this. One of my favourite apps.
I’d also nominate Classics and Keymote.
I do like Broadersheets app icon and would have proablyadded it to the list if I had spotted it earlier.
@mathew
Classics is included but I did like Keymote as well.
I would like to introduce our iPhone application called Stage, which lets you share your favorite music with your friends online. It has an extremely beatuiful Interface! More info: http://dev.iphone360.ch/stage/
You should add Reportage, the interface is awesome!
http://wherecloud.com/portfolio_reportage.html
Wow! I came here to look at the visuals, but I’m leaving with about 10 more apps in my pocket. I had no idea some of these existed. Nice list!
Some of my favorites, not mentioned in the post.
Movies NOW! http://www.kodu.co.uk/
iSaidWhat http://www.tapparatus.com/isaidwhat/
Guitar Toolkit http://agilepartners.com/apps/guitartoolkit/
Birdfeed’s UI shits on Tweetie and Twitterific.
I like all three. Birdfeed’s icon rocks tho!
Not sure about Groceries though, somehow the combination of the wood bars and plain white item rows is putting me off. It does not clicks right, but could be only me.
Forgot my own two apps in previous comment…
Run Mate http://codeaplus.com/runmate/
Quickie to-do: http://codeaplus.com/quickie/
I highly value pleasant looking and usable UI, so build my apps according to that.
I digg the apps Aleksandar. Definitely usable and clean looking. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, very glad to hear that.
Is that the right web link for Groups? Seems to take me to some Search and Read Quran site? (unless I need to find it on there somewhere?!)
Yeah unfortunately their main site is funkadelic like that. I included just the root links of the sites so it would provide some exposure to other apps that the companies might have, that look good. Here’s a better link for you:
http://www.guidedways.com/mobile/groups/
What about “iSaidWhat?!”
http://www.tapparatus.com/isaidwhat
I agree. iSaidWhat?! has one of the best UI I have seen so far.
Fantastic collection of apps! Thanks for sharing!
As for others, I love the design of Convert from Polar Bear Farm… http://www.polarbearfarm.com/convert/
Yeah they do have a decent app and I like the clean look. I may have included them but I was already including 2 other convert apps and wanted to make it functionally diverse so it wasn’t chalked full of the same types of apps. Thanks for letting us know.
I would also like to introduce our app “MoneyBook”
I think the UI looks beautfiful and sexy…
http://moneybookapp.com
I would nominate one of my own: http://colorstreamapp.com/
Looks great Sahil. I may just have to get this so I can mash some web projects together on the go.
I’d suggest LEDit (which is pretty fun also): http://wessley.net/LEDit
I’m shamelessly nominating my own goals tracking app called “Choice by Choice”: http://logiccolony.com/choicebychoice
I’d nominate Momento, Stunning UI!
http://iphone.appstorm.net/reviews/lifestyle/momento-a-unique-iphone-diary/
http://www.momentoapp.com
Nice one Steve. I use this one myself.
I’d suggest checking out the FanGuide applications. The icons are great and really distinct for each location and the UI is really easy to use.
http://fanguidetours.com/
I would like to share the app and GUI for it that I made, Rapid ID.
Its the first GUI I have made a my favourite iPhone icon which I have made.
Hope you could have a look at it!
http://www.visialsoft.co.uk/RapidID_Promo/screenshots/main_view.jpg (screenshot)
http://www.visialsoft.co.uk/RapidID_Promo/screencast.mov (screencast)
http://www.visialsoft.co.uk/VisialSoft/rapidid.html (website)
http://bit.ly/4vjLFB (iTunes link)
I can get you a promo link if you would like a look at the app more in depth
This cute shopping list is worse the try : http://itunes.com/apps/bigpapoo/quickshop
Grocery IQ is great b/c of the coupon feature and the UI is simple and easy. Also X3 browser instead of using Safari. It lacks the bookmark feature but I hardly use those anyways.
These guys are pretty big fans of the UI picker view, some of the apps are pretty basic utilities, but it’s weird, a lot of times the more complicated the app the less they get used (for me at least). DrumPro’s interface isn’t anything amazing, it looks more like a real mpc, but the sound quality was incredible
http://www.harmonistinc.com/ sorry messed up the url option on the first post
I really love the EA’s Spore Originsinterface. It was one of the first games to use the accelerometer interface well. It feels like one is tilting a microscope slide.
For generative music, Bloom is super simple. Trope added features but the mucked up the beauty and simplicity of Bloom. The related Air simplified but just isn’t elegant, thought it sounds like endless variations of Music for Airports – and that was the point.
Perpetuum Is beautiful, simple to use and useful. It’s simply a program to show the moon phase. It is really simple yet elegant.
iSkream changes audio, but it has a fantastic old-school look with toggle switches and knobs, all with audio. It takes digital audio and gives it the analogue touch with fine details. The VU meter’s needle even giggles if you jar or shake the iPhone. Lots of detail for a fun little
The image is deep linked to the developers website, /Caldera Studios.
If you’ve got time we’d love you to check out our App Beermap. Real ale review app with a UI we think you’ll enjoy!
How about Cookmate guys?
http://cookmateapp.com
Cookmate looks awesome. I would of included it if I had spotted it before I had written the article. Gotta keep this talent streaming in.
Yeah BeerMap’s UI is awesome. You guys should check it out!
I’d like to nominate one of ours called Vow Box.
Luckily I already own quite a few of these app’s so I won’t spend too much but check the UI on Beats, it’s smexy.
iStudiez Pro (www.istudentpro.com) deserves to be in the list.
i realy love the design of jamie oliver’s app and the apps from tapbot, like pastebot, convertbot and weightbot.
an other app, that has a very nice interface is i-gun
http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/i-gun-ultimate-arsenal-experience/id305953435?mt=8
Yeah I really like the amount of detail that has gone into those weapons, but this particular article was more geared towards utilities. Either way, thanks for sharing.
What do you think about cliqcliq Colors 2?
I nominate “Umbrella”
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/umbrella-the-simplest-weather/id331519827?mt=8
Saved my skin a few times…
Grades: http://grades.tapity.com/
Great app & it looks amazing.
You all might want to do another one of these posts… It seems to be a hit.
I am looking for skilled iPhone familiar designers to make an icon for an iPhone App that will be published in the iTunes App Store.
If you’re interested, please reply with samples of other App Store icons you’ve created (looking for really nice & vivid work).