12 October 2007 – 11:32 am
I’ve just given my second presentation for DECO1200 and I think some interesting points have been raised. I’m trying not to be a genius designer (i.e. “I’m right, you’re wrong. Get back in your box!”) .
- Vanessa asked what the colour button (on the edit screen from the prototype) does.
- Good point. I don’t think the prototype makes this obvious enough. In a working application, you’d be able to poke the colour button and see what options are available. So you could actually explore the options.
- Rob suggested making the blogging/e-mail integration more clear.
- Again, I’ve been planning to do this, but the prototype doesn’t address it at all.
- Emma suggested rotating the iPhone to rotate photos.
- This was one of the first ideas I came up with, but I think (given the fact I can’t test this on an iPhone), the accelerometer doesn’t have the accuracy to detect the degree of rotation to be fine enough to do this. And secondly, how would users react to rotating their phone and have the picture remain “level”.
- Rob also bought up another issue I hadn’t really thought of. That is by reducing the features, I may have gone too far and removed what made it interesting.
While I’m aware that most of the other DECO students see my app as “Photoshop in your pocket”, I’ve tried to keep the app simple by really focussing on basic photo-editing tasks. Here, having a large, relevant, survey audience would be handy. I’d like to know what my target audience really want. I’ve been making the assumption that people who need Photoshop will have a desktop or laptop with it already, the iPhone app would focus on more basic low-level tasks.
Right now, I’m going to quickly modifyHopefully, this will also address Rob’s main point. It hasn’t done that yet. Still some more flash hacking to do. Hooray for weekends!
11 October 2007 – 4:21 pm
Today, I’m going to start a series of posts about the developments I’ve come across over the duration of the project. I’m going to scan in a bunch of scribbled pages I’ve knocked up on the train.
It’s also, hopefully, going to show how my ideas have changed to better meet the requirements of my non-tech-savvy audience.
Read More »
7 October 2007 – 10:57 am
According to Ars Technica, Apple are planning a new web-based SDK for the iPhone to be released sometime next year.
It will enable offline Web 2.0 apps, similar in concept to Google Gears, so you don’t need to have EDGE or WiFi connectivity to use an app (provided the data has been cached locally). It also exposes more of the iPhones features to developers. It will come a bit late for us, but it would go a long way to making my app possible through the web-based development environment.
In other news - stolen from the same article - Apple have released an iPhone Human Interface Guidelines document late on Friday (US time). For any of you wanting to make your app as “native” as possible, I’d recommend reading over it. It’s a bit of a shame this wasn’t released a few weeks ago, my Minisite 2 prototype is based on OS X guidelines. Oh well.
A quick update, the DECO1200 Minisite 2 has been posted on the MON site, although I have decided not to import the content into WordPress. I think it would take too long — time I could better use working on the DECO1005 and DECO1008 assignments (in typical style they all end up due at the same time!).
I’ve also posted a copy of a report I’ve written regarding my thoughts on the iPhone application — now dubbed Mobisnap (as Mike suggested, I’m following a logic path from Mobishop → Mobisnap → Snappy Tom [sounds like a voyeuristic photographer?]).
You can also view my conveniently posted Mobisnap Prototype and comment on it, your feedback is vital for the final submission and Minisite 3.
Cheers!
Revision 2.2: Updated to show operation of edit screen and navigation. Adds help button?
Below is a Flash prototype for the Mobisnap application. It’s programmed to run you through a “product tour” of the program - although the final slide is still incomplete. I’ll update this as soon as I can think.Your comments are welcomed - and vital for the final version! Just post using the form provided.
Read More »
Minisite 2 is currently online at http://people.arch.usyd.edu.au/~dcos5821/deco1200/minisite2/index.html. I’ll upload it to WordPress a bit later.
28 September 2007 – 10:23 am
Rumours are circulating that Apple is planning a revival of the Newton handheld (which still kick Windows PocketPC) in a similar form factor to the iPhone. With a large high-res multitouch screen and useful features like copy & paste that the iPhone lacks, it should be more like a PDA. Obviously though, all of the “information” is based on speculation. But if it’s true it means Apple will then have MP3 players, laptops, desktops, PDAs, phones, servers and software in their line-up.
Also, on the mobishop project, I’ve been looking at the MacOS X Leopard tour videos and screenshots and integrating those shiny ideas with my interface. It should help to make the experience more familiar for Mac users.
25 September 2007 – 5:22 pm
Quick note to check that the upgrade to WordPress 2.3 succeeded. Which it did. Happyness.
WordPress kicks TiddilyWiki 
25 September 2007 – 11:26 am
Some more iPod Touch related news: first, a review from US PC World Magazine, which describes a few issues with the screen, sound quality and stability. In particular, it seems to have difficulty working with high-end headphones - something you wouldn’t expect from a “high-end” MP3 player.
As usual with Apple gear, it seems that you pay dearly for being an early adopter. Speaking of Apple gear, I’m thinking about MacBooking myself… Any advice?
And back to the Mobishop project, I’m currently working on a set of prototypes (high and low fidelity [not in that order]), and slowly fleshing out the details of the features and user interaction.
19 September 2007 – 7:33 am
That’s no help to us, since O2 aren’t a carrier here. Given their wide range of choice between Hellstra, Optarse and Vodafaux (and 3, forgot them), I wonder which Apple will choose. On the upside, 3G networks have widespread (ish) coverage here - something the US doesn’t have (they couldn’t even settle on a single standard - and when they implemented GSM, couldn’t agree on a single frequency! Democracy at its finest!)
Back to the point, the BBC have a couple of articles on the O2 deal and the iPhone vs. the Nokia N95, both of which make rather interesting reads.
To finish, a rather odd quote from Steve Jobs (who described the deal as a marriage):
“We dated a few people who we didn’t get married to,” he said. “So there are a few unhappy girlfriends out there.”