I think a big part of it is the aesthetic look of the app, and less the functionality. And the reason I say that is since we are so limited in what we can develop, most of the apps are very simple. It took me about an hour or two to do the backend for Gas.app, but I spent days working on the graphics and design, getting it better and better (and it still could get even better).
However, with Joe Hewitt's navigation, it can help A LOT of apps, including my new Movies.app (www.moviesapp.com). I built Movies.app completely in probably about 4 hours. I spent a much larger percentage of the time writing the backend than I did doing the design, since a very clean, functional, and easy to use design was already available.
I think that if you want to design a good app, it must look good, and should definitely fit the screen size (and in most cases the page shouldn't even be resizable).
<Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com> wrote: > I've been showing various iPhone web apps to people tonight at > iPhoneDevCamp, and connecting various people together with different > needs.
> One question that has come up is what is it that makes an iPhone web > app an exemplar?
I'll second Jeff't comment. A good iphone app has to be simple and clean. I think the key difference here is that it should look and function more like a client iphone app, than a typical web page - especially mobile web/wap pages. While mobile web sites have been very simple to use, they don't carry over well to a rich interface like the iphone's. You don't want to be zooming yourself, or worrying about clicking the right hyperlink.
iPhone apps enable sites to break up the content, so it no longer has to be on one long endless scrolling page.
On Jul 6, 9:20 pm, Jeffrey903 <yankees...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think a big part of it is the aesthetic look of the app, and less > the functionality. And the reason I say that is since we are so > limited in what we can develop, most of the apps are very simple. It > took me about an hour or two to do the backend for Gas.app, but I > spent days working on the graphics and design, getting it better and > better (and it still could get even better).
> However, with Joe Hewitt's navigation, it can help A LOT of apps, > including my new Movies.app (www.moviesapp.com). I built Movies.app > completely in probably about 4 hours. I spent a much larger > percentage of the time writing the backend than I did doing the > design, since a very clean, functional, and easy to use design was > already available.
> I think that if you want to design a good app, it must look good, and > should definitely fit the screen size (and in most cases the page > shouldn't even be resizable).
> On Jul 7, 12:00 am, "Christopher Allen"
> <Christoph...@iPhoneWebDev.com> wrote: > > I've been showing various iPhone web apps to people tonight at > > iPhoneDevCamp, and connecting various people together with different > > needs.
> > One question that has come up is what is it that makes an iPhone web > > app an exemplar?
1. Useful - Something that saves me time (like the movies app) or possibly money (like the gas app) - but first we have to spend $600 to get this, so perhaps money is not as important as is time. 2. Fast - Dont make me wait. What I hate is sometimes safari hangs while trying to load something and there is no way out of it. Again dont waste my time. 3. Easy to Use - Make the buttons and text easy to read and don't make me scroll / zoom. Make navigation simple. Use uniform buttons and graphics. 4. Remember Me - Keep my info so I dont have to reenter it every time. 5. Be Free. I don't think I will pay for an iPhone app, unless its got something of amazing value or usefulness.
I think a good iPhone app is one that will keep users coming back. Sure fancy effects and formatting look great, but it's the content and usefulness that will survive.
Already, with my silly little joke book site, I've seen thousands of jokes read over the past week. Hopefully I've been able to make folks smile :)
Sure the app needs lots of UI help to make it more "iPhone'y" but that will come over time, and I am already learning great tips from this community, and I want to thank you all greatly.
Put a smaile on your face and make the world a better place.
Let me log in once per day or control how often I must relogin to all my sites (daily to never) with one master password. I don't know what's involved on backend or front end to make it work, but like the concept of keychain for the web.
> Let me log in once per day or control how often I must relogin to all > my sites (daily to never) with one master password. I don't know > what's involved on backend or front end to make it work, but like the > concept of keychain for the web.
I like OpenID -- I'll pass the desire for it around iPhoneWebDev. Especially for example OpenID login/auth code that displays well on iPhone.
