

Show HN: Pixate - Themeable, scalable, beautiful buttons for iOS - pcolton
http://www.pixate.com/blog/2012/06/19/intro/

======
flyosity
Why is the drop shadow at an angle other than straight down? It stands out
like a sore thumb within the rest of iOS and makes the button design look
sloppy. I appreciate the usefulness of a button class like this but the
default design just doesn't look polished.

~~~
pcolton
We're just at the very beginning of building this, so specific styles aren't
finalized yet. We are also talking with as many designers as possible to make
sure it's themeable in the way they want. At the end of the day, we won't
define how it looks, but rather enable you to be as creative as you want to
be.

~~~
gurkendoktor
No matter if the angle is configurable or not, the current default is a bug
rather than a question of taste. The lighting angle is one of the few design
choices where there is a clear right and wrong on iOS.

------
kenrikm
It's like bootstrap for iOS, kinda cool because lets be honest, the default
Round Rect is UGLY.

I like how it's vector, that helps keep bundles small (instead of a bunch of
custom button PNGs I usually have to have in there)

I had exactly this idea for a while I had not gotten around to implementing
it, my plan was to make it open source.

~~~
wvs
The thing with round rect buttons is not that they're irreconcilably ugly, but
that they're only meant to be used in pinstriped table views. It's rare to see
them used correctly anymore since pinstripes are dead as a popular design
style in third-party apps. (The original Tweetie 2 was a notable exception.)

Instead they just get used because they're the only freely placable styled
button in Interface Builder.

~~~
kenrikm
Well like it or not with the App Store you need to go Big or go Home. There is
almost no place for default interface elements in most Apps because you get
lost in a sea of crappy generic apps. I only use them as a placeholder to
wireup the button in IB and the off to custom button land I go.

------
jmonegro
This is extremely cool. One of the things I find lacking about Cocoa Touch is
the lack of native, powerful customization of the default UI elements. Sure,
iOS5 added the appearance APIs, but I still find them lackluster. I look
forward to playing with this thing.

------
halayli
This breaks consistency.

~~~
speedyapoc
Be real, how many successful applications use default rounded rectangular
buttons? This breaks absolutely nothing.

~~~
ricardobeat
Thousands? Most that don't a) are games b) have goofy design.

You have to be very careful with redesigning native controls (see drop-down
lists on the web), most of the time it's just an excuse for making the app not
look "plain", instead of doing good design.

~~~
k-mcgrady
Thousands out of over half a million. It's very rare to see the default
rounded rect button used anywhere anymore. It's even rare to see apple use it
in their own apps.

------
smallegan
Will this work fine with AutoLayout and constraints?

~~~
pcolton
It should work just fine. I did a quick test settings constraints...

<http://youtu.be/8AUA8KeDtc8?hd=1>

------
debreuil
Anxious to see this component set evolve, looks really useful for apps that
need their own look.

------
arnorhs
Too bad it's iOS >= 5 only.. That basically makes this unusable for me.

~~~
blueprint
Seen the slide at WWDC? Something like 85% of iOS users are on iOS 5. Now if
the question is how to convince your boss....

~~~
arnorhs
Since when is 85% satisfying? If there's a 17-18% increase in downloads out
there by simply using a slightly different API and memory technique (not being
able to use weak references), then I'd say it's worth it.

~~~
blueprint
According to my experience that's an understatement of the benefits of not
supporting old OS versions (and the negatives of having to support them).

~~~
arnorhs
Interesting. I would love to hear more about your experience and that point of
view. Do you have a blog?

~~~
blueprint
I do but I've not blogged about iOS stuff really. You've got a couple things
to consider. One of the big ones is maintainability going forward - old code &
processes cost more to maintain and add to software entropy overall.

------
danso
I love the domain name. Itd be a classic name for any design related startup
or service

