Since upgrading my hardware and buying a Mac Mini and an iPad Pro, my workflow has undergone a big change for the better.
I used to spend time designing on lots of A4 paper, creating written notes and drawings of UIs. This was a good way of working, but it meant either carrying around loads of A4 to wherever I was working, or more often just leaving the paper notes behind thus rendering them useless: Enter iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, and Notability.
Notability is my note-taking app of choice, as it combines typed notes and drawings in one note. I’m now able to make design notes sat in front of the TV (relaxed working), and take them with me when I need to translate the notes into Swift code at my computer desk (focused working). No more piles of A4 cluttering up my desk.
Another app that’s been useful on the iPad is Swift Playgrounds. I can try out code ideas before I delve into Xcode and doing this has helped me learn a lot about Swift in isolation. Again, I can take the iPad with me when working at my desk, and transfer what I’ve learnt to my main app.
Finally, I’ve been using Numbers to store my data model. A spreadsheet is a good tool for a data model, as the tabular format makes entering a table’s column details easy. In conjunction with the excellent Git client Working Copy, I’ve been easily keeping the data model and code base up to date.
Although it was a big investment in new kit I’m really glad I did it. My workflow has altered for the better and I am more productive with my app work than I’ve ever been.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got some websites to search for details of implementing UIViewControllers in Swift code…
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