{Mobile Portland} Tonight at Mobile Portland: iPad Design and User Experience

[Jason Grigsby]

REMINDER: Today at Mobile Portland, Apr 26th, 6 pm
iPad Design and User Experience

Before the iPad launched, we convened a panel of experts to help
examine what the iPad would mean for businesses, entrepreneurs
and developers. The panel was a hit and the conversation
continued into the evening.

By popular demand, we're bringing James Keller, one of the
panelists, back to talk about what we got right and what we got
wrong when it comes to the iPad. Accompanying James will be
Darin Richardson from Refresh Media.

Together, they will focus on the most compelling and interesting
aspect of the iPad: the way we interact with the device.

We'll examine how the iPad's user interface design works, what
we've learned from Apple's own applications, and how other
applications are taking advantage of the form factor.

About James and Darin

James Keller
[http://twitter.com/semaphoria]
Small Society
[http://www.smallsociety.com]

James Keller is a digital communications strategist and user
experience evangelist at Small Society, a small agency based in
Portland with a passion for the iPhone™ platform, dedicated to
helping organizations bring great ideas to life. Before joining
the Small Society team, James was at Wieden+Kennedy helping the
Portland office align client business goals and brand
experiences with emerging technologies.

Leveraging her extensive knowledge of interaction design,
business analysis, campaign analytics, and integrated marketing
communications, she has led multiple teams in creating efficient
and effective online strategies for top brands such as Coca-Cola
, NIKE, Procter & Gamble, Levi’s, LAIKA Studio, Zipcar, and the
MTV Networks.

She can frequently be seen at conferences speaking on topics such
as information architecture, social media, and convergent
culture.

Darin Richardson
[http://twitter.com/darinrichardson]
Refresh Media
[http://www.refreshmedia.com/]

Darin Richardson is a partner in Refresh Media, a small studio
that focuses marrying beautiful interface design with smart
technology. He concentrates on information architecture,
interaction design, and front-end coding to make his clients'
projects shine. Before Refresh, Darin earned his chops at
software and design firms in California.

Darin is obsessive about the details, refrains from talking
endlessly about CSS 3 properties (unless you ask), and always
enjoys a good hike in the Cascades armed with his trusty Nikon
D90.

iPad Design and User Experience
Monday, April 26th, 6 pm
Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE)
1227 NW Davis St
Portland, Oregon 97209

RSVP
[http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5742013/]

Add to your Calendar
[http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5742013/export]

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[loon tech]

do I have to RSVP or just show up?

[Matt Gifford]

Just show up.

> > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/mobile-portland?hl=en.

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[Adrian Harris Crowne]

This was a great session.  Thanks for the talks James and Darin.

Adrian

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 10:28 AM, Jason Grigsby <ja...@cloudfour.com> wrote:

[Ron Braithwaite]

Yes indeedy it was a great session! Really one of the best UI discussions I have ever gotten to experience.

So, our graphic designer couldn't be there. By any chance, did anyone video the talk?

-Ron

[Tracy Harton]

Thanks to James and Darin for last night's talk...

A couple of things were brought up that I was thinking about on the way home...

- iPad Brightness.. Its way to bright in dark room, so does the iBooks app use a private API to lower the backlight, or does it actually darken the views? Hopefully Settings.app
will be fixed soon.

- Rotation.. I knew what James was going to refer to the moment she mentioned the ABC Player. I'm still not sure why Apple didn't make orientation independence
a requirement instead of a strong recommendation.

- Universal Apps. I think apps can and probably should diverge a bit to take advantage of the specifics of different devices, so I'm not saying apps need to use common code streams or .XIBs, but
as a User, I definitely want universal apps. I don't care if its hard on the developer; I don't want to manage two apps in iTunes and I don't want to pay twice. I definitely don't want 3 versions come June...

- Lack of iPad Apps... I'm actually amazed at the number of apps which haven't even come out with a quick iPad port. Its great for those of us who did get iPad apps out early, but I personally have already
switched to competitor's versions (on both devices) for apps I had previously used on the iPhone because they have simple iPad ports. Just having apps work in landscape is enough for me in some cases..

thoughts?

/tracy

[Seth Shikora]

Yes, the talk has been recorded. Hopefully I will get a chance to encode it and upload it soon.

Seth. 

[John Keith]

Thanks Seth, I really appreciate your voluntary recordings.  I had to duck out early, so I'm looking forward to catching it on the replay.

--

John Keith

jtk...@cloudfour.com | skype:jtkeith

503.781.9825

[Jonathan Karon]

Sad I missed the talk.

Excellent thoughts Tracy, see my comments below (skewed towards the paid app
world, my thinking would be very different for free/ad-supported)...

One other thought is on timing. While developers have had access to a beta
SDK for a few months, the actual devices have been in our hands for less
than a month (excepting the flagship publishers who got an early access
device). There is functionality that simply doesn't work in the simulation
tools, or works differently than on the actual device. That combined with
the fact that the actual development tools were beta-level software until a
few weeks pre-launch means that time spent developing for iPad was less
productive and more frustrating. It might make for good marketing to be one
of the few early apps on iPad but if you're spending your time selling into
the much bigger existing device market it's a risk to re-focus on a
strategic, longer term market.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mobile-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mobile-
> port...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Tracy Harton
> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 10:09 AM
> To: mobile-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: {Mobile Portland} Tonight at Mobile Portland: iPad Design
> and User Experience
>

[...]
>
> - Rotation.. [...] I'm still not sure why Apple didn't make

> orientation independence
> a requirement instead of a strong recommendation.

There is always going to be some case, somewhere, where one orientation or
another is absolutely inappropriate. Certainly it gives developers an easy
punt if they don't feel like doubling the amount of work they need to do on
UI but I'm happy Apple chose to empower developers on this one at the
detriment of some users on some apps.

>
> - Universal Apps. I think apps can and probably should diverge a bit
> to take advantage of the specifics of different devices, so I'm not
> saying apps need to use common code streams or .XIBs, but
> as a User, I definitely want universal apps. I don't care if its hard
> on the developer; I don't want to manage two apps in iTunes and I
> don't want to pay twice. I definitely don't want 3 versions come
> June...

I'm in favor of universal apps as well, but it complicates the developer's
life significantly. Probably more than any non-devs can imagine. Apple
already spends a TON of time trying to educate devs on best practices and
how to achieve the basics of stable, usable apps. Adding the complexities
of Universal builds to that multiplies the problems for developers who don't
have the background. It's a balancing act.

In business terms I'm not thrilled that someone can purchase one copy of my
app and install it on multiple devices. (Though to be fair, installing an
app on multiple iPhones pretty much guarantees multiple users whereas
installing on an iPad and iPhone doesn't.) Depending on the app it could
cost me 50% or more of my initial R&D to bring it to the iPad. Upgrades are
free for life and you've already paid for my app; where's the incentive for
me to bring an iPad version to my existing customers?

>
> - Lack of iPad Apps... I'm actually amazed at the number of apps which
> haven't even come out with a quick iPad port. Its great for those of
> us who did get iPad apps out early, but I personally have already
> switched to competitor's versions (on both devices) for apps I had
> previously used on the iPhone because they have simple iPad ports.

500k to 1m iPads vs. 30-50m iTouch/iPhones. If I'm a publisher, interested
in volume, and assume the market isn't saturated, where do I spend
resources? It's not a cut and dry answer but if on the one hand I can focus
energy and money on selling an existing, proven product with sales history
and on the other I'm spending on R&D to go into a much smaller market I have
a pretty good handle on the tactical and strategic trade-offs.

~jonathan

[Andrew Deal]

Thanks Seth.

I look forward to it as well.

--
Andrew Deal - Director of Enterprise
Office: 360-859-1174 Cell: 360-213-7411

CelleCast and CGI Productions LLC
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[Tracy Harton]

On Apr 27, 2010, at 11:30 AM, Jonathan Karon wrote:

I'm in favor of universal apps as well, but it complicates the developer's
life significantly.  Probably more than any non-devs can imagine.  Apple
already spends a TON of time trying to educate devs on best practices and
how to achieve the basics of stable, usable apps.  Adding the complexities
of Universal builds to that multiplies the problems for developers who don't
have the background.  It's a balancing act.

As a developer, I agree that it complicates things as well.  As a business, split apps

and multiple pricing structures are nice.    Apps on the iPad are definitely trying to hold off

the race to the bottom, but I'm afraid its just a matter of time.

cost me 50% or more of my initial R&D to bring it to the iPad.  Upgrades are

free for life and you've already paid for my app; where's the incentive for
me to bring an iPad version to my existing customers?

Maybe an in-app purchase to upgrade to iPad support?  Yearly fees?  $.99 for life definitely

isn't spurring very deep apps, I agree.  Apple could definitely help here, too.

But as a User, I want the convenience of universal.

500k to 1m iPads vs. 30-50m iTouch/iPhones. If I'm a publisher, interested
in volume, and assume the market isn't saturated, where do I spend
resources?  It's not a cut and dry answer but if on the one hand I can focus
energy and money on selling an existing, proven product with sales history
and on the other I'm spending on R&D to go into a much smaller market I have
a pretty good handle on the tactical and strategic trade-offs.

And for many of the simple little apps I use, it would only take the developer a day to spin an

iPad version just to support the higher resolution screen and orientation.    Some have atleast done

the quick port, but most have not and I think it affects their usefulness.  

The really cool apps that really take advantage of the platform can come later... and charge more?

/tracy

[Jason Grigsby]

I'd love to hear Elia weigh in on universal apps. Most developers have been against doing universal apps for paid apps, but universal seems to have worked out for PowerOne.

-Jason

[Elia Freedman]

We have had some success with powerOne as a universal app. We launched
powerOne for iPad before it shipped. Where we were languishing on the
iPhone, powerOne was (until yesterday) number 1 in the finance
category for top paid and #1 for topping grossing finance category
app. These positions have not only increased our iPad sales but also
have had a positive impact on our iPhone sales since universal status
makes us more findable in searches.

I think a lot of developers aren't doing cross-platform simply because
they didn't make any money on iPhone so why bother. less than 10% of
developers are making a living doing this. We are going to see more
software titles that do not support multiple platforms, OS4, etc.,
moving forward.

For the record, if I had to do it over again, I'd do universal again.

Elia

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elia Freedman
Infinity Softworks
(503) 939-4379
Email: el...@infinitysw.com
Site: www.infinitysw.com
Blog: http://www.eliainsider.com
Twitter: eliajf