Hey Reader,

Do you want to make an iOS app? How do you learn SwiftUI? What projects should you work on?

If you’re new to iOS development or have taken a break, there is always something new to learn, as technology constantly changes. While working on this tutorial, I learned a few new things and want to share them with you.

​Watch my Full SwiftUI Tutorial Today (Payment Calculator)​

You’ll Learn:

• How to create a custom Slider (Thumb icon + track height)
• How to use UIKit controls in SwiftUI (UIViewRepresentable)
• How to create a custom Segmented Control (Multiline + Scrolling)
• How to add reusable background shadows to views
• How to create custom navigation headers
• How to add special FX and animations (Masks)

To improve your SwiftUI skills, you must practice implementing different User Interfaces (UIs). Making a new UI component or the design of a screen will teach you things about layout, composition, and layering. Pick 1-3 designs that you like from Dribbble or Behance and make them.

​Click here to watch my Full SwiftUI tutorial on YouTube (if you enjoy it, please like the videos and subscribe).

Learn the Limitations

Understanding how SwiftUI works is essential because it helps you know its limitations.

In SwiftUI, if you want to match a custom Slider design from a designer, you need to create your slider because the built-in SwiftUI slider (in iOS 18) does not currently support customizing the thumb image or the track height. This omission is an example of one of the minor issues you need to resolve when working in SwiftUI. It works well for 90% of the things you need to do, but the last 10% requires additional work to match UX designs.

You can push back on your design team and use a standard control or make the design using UIKit.

Challenge Yourself: Can you build the same UI without watching my tutorial? Watch my introduction and then pause the video. If you get stuck, hit play and see where you can improve.

Short on time?

​Watch me speed code the entire app in 20 minutes. I speed up the video by 10x so you can see the big picture without being bogged down by all the implementation details.

Don’t just watch tutorials.

You need to build real app ideas. Solve a problem.

I film my videos like I’m doing a live class or presentation, and I wanted to make editing simple (by not needing to edit). I needed a live presentation tool to help me create and run slideshows. I usually only trim the beginning or end of a video.

My idea started with a mindmap, and then I built a prototype. Now, I’m using that app to make videos for YouTube. In your day-to-day activities, consider how to make something easier. What app could assist you?

Focus your prototype on the essentials first. When I started, I didn’t have a text editor to change the slides. I had to change the presentation by changing a Swift String and running the app through Xcode.

However, the design evolved after using the app for several videos. I learned what I needed. Now, I have an editor and options to control what slides appear.

​Get a behind-the-scenes look at my latest macOS app update here.​

In the link above, you can see the beginning stages of the Full Screen mode. It is a little messy, but that is how development works. You iterate, run, tweak, and repeat. Suddenly, you have an app that does different things and solves your problem.

How am I using the slideshow app?

​Watch this video to see my new app in action as a live presentation tool, similar to Keynote, but driven by my notes written in Markdown format.

What’s Markdown?

Below is an example of Markdown. I use Markdown formatting for all my writing. It allows me to create PDFs, slides, and blog posts from the same text. I don’t have to worry about styling.

# Title
## 1. First Topic
* Bullet point A
* Bullet point B
## 2. Second Topic
...

Thanks for joining me on this development journey.

Talk soon,

-Paul

P.S. Yesterday, I used ChatGPT and Grok to help me pick an official name for my upcoming slideshow app. I needed an app name to create a TestFlight beta, but I wasn’t satisfied with my placeholder names.

That’s when ChatGPT suggested Easy Slides, and I decided to lean into my Super Easy Apps branding. That idea inspired me to call the app: Super Easy Slides. I have a text-based timer app called Super Easy Timer, which you can download here.

If you want to join the TestFlight beta, hit REPLY, and I’ll send you the TestFlight beta invite along with my current user guide.