Sneak peak of one of the interactions I am designing
I’ve gotten to the point where Grades is very usable. Students download the beta and are able to quickly know what the app does and how it can help them. Students email me, telling me how useful the app has been for them. Some students have even shown their friends, who immediately wanted it for themselves. Thats good and encouraging but I myself am utterly unsatisfied with the app. Its good but its not delightful. It is not magical. Not yet.
This is what I am focusing on now and I’m really happy with the progress. I am asking myself the question, how can I make interacting with the app fun? How can I give the app a personality of its own? Think Tapbots and TapTapTap’s apps. They go beyond the usable and into the realm of fun. These are the kind of apps people show their friends.
I am not saying that all apps need to be fun. Sometimes usable is good enough (i.e. serious apps like Documents to Go). But, if you can make a mundane task—calculating the grade you need on your next test—fun, that is remarkable. Its something to talk about, something to share.
As a UI designer, i really respect all the effort you are putting into your app
When i saw my fellow developers working on my custom interfaces and views on the iPhone SDK, and when i knew how much more lines of code you have to write for a custom view instead of the few lines for a standard list view; i knew how much users underestimated this kind of effort.
I wish you and your app a great luck
Hey Bandar, thanks. I try not to think too much about the extra coding while I’m in design mode. From your blog I’m guessing you’re the designer of 2Do (though I can’t read Arabic). Excellent work!
Design is probably the most important part of the development process. If you can get that right, then everything else will fall into place. Are you still in design mode or developing the application at this point?
Haha, the app is already in beta but I’m still in design mode. Apple actually suggests that design permeate the development process (see their “7 ingredients of successful iPhone apps” talk). As I said, the app is quite usable at this point but I am now working on adding those details that make an interface magical. I’ll definitely discuss this more on the blog.