This project is part of the Back to the Mac course from summer semester 2015. We dealt with the current state of iTunes and the complaints about its growing complexity. The aim was to pick out parts of the functionality and to redesign compact, fresh new solutions for them while respecting the systems style guides.

I for myself discovered that I haven’t used iTunes feature to download, manage and synchronize apps for iOS in a long time. In my opinion this is due to the fact that it got increasingly unintuitive to do parts of this with iTunes. Downloading and discovering new apps is still kind of the same experience on mobile and desktop, on iOS device however it’s easier to create folders and get rid of the app-chaos. I wanted to include an improved experience of this into a standalone software and design additional useful features that would make me want to switch back to my desktop as the tool of choice when it comes to managing my iOS apps.

AppControls focus lies on three core aspects: to manage apps, keeping them up to date and to synchronize them. These features are easily accessible via a segmented control in the topbar. You can see your apps sorted by category, type, date of purchase, name, folders, in grid-like or tableview fashion. Everything is searchable and you don’t have to look around or dig deep in the software to do stuff. In the synchronize tab you see all your connected iOS Devices(via cable or network). You can either add apps manually or just pick the folders you created with app control. It’s also pretty easy to resort things and build consistency across your devices. Surprisingly the design for the update section was actually implemented pretty much the same way as I imagined it in the latest iTunes update. Thanks Apple.

For me it was the first time designing for the desktop and it was a pretty good excercise. Despite having quite some experience with designing for web and mobile there were a lot of new aspects I had to consider while working on my concept. Working with Apples own style guides is always fun for me and I think this course gave me some useful new skills and insights.