Creating layouts for phones and tablets

If you own an iPad or Android tablet, you will know how disappointing it is when you open an app for the first time and it appears with an iPhone layout in the middle of the screen. This doesn't have to be the case. If you get the basics of your layout right, it's not hard to make a layout that works on both tablets and phones.

You need to create layouts built up from views, where each view is a self-contained piece of the layout. For example, a view would be a list of currencies, or a set of text fields where you enter some commentary.

This is why it is important to split your content into files. Give each view its own file. That way you can build your layout by picking the views you require. For your iPhone app, you may need to split your app over several windows due to the constraints on the screen size, but for a tablet you might be able to show several views on the front screen; thanks to the larger screen and landscape orientation. This can be...