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Tablets appear to be becoming more important in the workplace, and we're excited to see more professional-level iPad apps. Even in the design sector, professional software like Photoshop and Sketch has not made a successful transition to the tablet.
Steve Streza wrote on why the 12.9-inch iPad Pro requires Xcode when it was first unveiled. There has been a lot of discussion regarding such a product among the developer community, both in support and against the concept. A full version of Xcode does not, in my opinion, make much sense. It performs a variety of tasks in very particular ways. To be honest, putting a full Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on a tablet would be a huge undertaking.
A tool with more focus and intent, on the other hand, could be beneficial. Consider an app akin to Swift Playgrounds or Interface Builder that allows designers and developers to swiftly experiment with ideas and see the outcomes right away.
Swift Playgrounds in Xcode appear to be the start of this way of thinking; being able to inspect the results and output of your code without having to run a build every time.
This is merely an investigation, and many factors, such as hardware capability, memory, and so on, have yet to be properly examined.
I drew up a simple flow that consists of a panel that allows you to access projects (perhaps via iCloud or Git) and create new ones.
An iPad app that merely allows you to experiment in Playgrounds would be a tremendous win and would already make a lot of people happy, but it could be pushed to do considerably more.
Over the last five years, storyboards have vastly improved. What if you were able to alter storyboards on this iPad app and go into a depth view of the storyboard to add UI components. Simply rearrange your storyboards, add segues, and make other minor changes.
Examine view controllers in depth and make changes.
A new way of thinking and working
Bret Victor discusses "being able to try ideas as you think of them" in his talk "Inventing on Principle." When you're working with Xcode on your Mac, inspiration doesn't always strike. It usually happens while you're seated in a cafe or out and about in a more mobile setting.
What if you could view your code's output while you were working on it? Consider an app that allows you to see the build on a real device rather than a simulator, or that allows you to execute it on a provisioned device nearby.
When working on a Mac programme, this is exactly how you assemble a build.
Consider the possible projects you could do to inform some of the decisions you make, even if you didn't use this for production code in the app you're working on.
Components that can be reused
The inability to reuse items in design prototypes is a major source of aggravation for me as an interaction designer. Framer, Principle, Pixate, Quartz Composer, and Form are some of the excellent and amazing prototype tools for designers that allow them to actually explore high fidelity interactions. What if we could take that framework and turn it into work that could be used instead of having to be re-engineered?
What if this app experience was synced to iCloud, or if someone could create a branch in their git repository to use some of these fundamental components in their iOS App Development in Noida?
What Apple does remains to be seen. The rumours and suspicions will undoubtedly heat up, especially with WWDC approaching. Personally, I'm excited to see how tablet apps evolve in the future, allowing us to approach the challenge from a fresh angle.
