My first attempt at designing a camera app was back in high school, before I had any training in design processes or software. At the time, Apple’s camera app lumped the HDR toggle, grid overlay toggle, and Panorama mode into a vague “Options” menu at the top. Annoyed by this, I created a crude mockup with controls I felt were better organized.
2013
2014
The big overhaul that was iOS 7 included a redesigned camera app. To accommodate the growing number of shooting modes, a swipe-based “wheel” UI that mimics the physical wheel on traditional cameras was introduced. It worked well enough at the time, but I wondered if an iconographic drop-down menu might be simpler – so I mocked up what that might look like.
2016
For this next version, I had acquired more knowledge of general design principles, and used that to inform refinements to icon forms, sizing, and color contrast. I also experimented with a customizable toolbar.
2019
As iPhone displays continued to become larger, placing important controls at the top made less sense, as they can be difficult to reach when holding the phone one-handed. I thus decided to try redesigning with all controls placed at the bottom.
