At work the product I develop is mature enough that all the UI design cues have already been decided on and implemented. So if I need to create a new control, there are plenty of examples that show me what it should probably look like in order to fit in.
Not having anything to draw on for my own work is a considerable challenge for me. I am a fairly creative person to begin with. I used to draw comic book superheroes for years while in school. I designed several web pages with their own graphics and Javascript animations.
But the world of iOS apps is super competitive to the point that how an app's icon looks like amongst its App Store competitors can make or break it. A simple Google search on how to get your app noticed yields dozens upon dozens of articles talking primarily about "discoverability."
When the analytics provider Distimo released new data about apps in December, it rightly concluded that the exploding growth in the marketplace makes it more difficult for new developers to have their work discovered. Last July, the new Apptrace tool found that 400,000 of the then-650,000 iOS apps were “zombies” that had not been downloaded even once. (devsbuild.it)
