Small Society Blog

The iPad Has Been Unveiled - Now What?

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:33:00 -0800

As a veteran of agency life, I can say that being an iPhone™ OS-driven agency brings with it a unique set of hurdles - namely, that we have hitched our wagon to Apple’s pace of innovation, which includes newly accessible features with every new release of the OS, and sometimes, like yesterday, a whole new device.

As with all great things in life, this pace of innovation is the thing that gets us up and into the office each morning, but at the same time, it presents the most formidable challenges - creating the need for both our little business, and our client’s businesses, to stay nimble, aware and enthusiastic.

Getting Comfy with Our New Tools

Now that we have finally emerged from the post-launch haze, the Small Society team has downloaded the new Software Development Kit (SDK), the new Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), and run our existing apps through the paces in the iPad simulator.

We are taking a hard look at how well our apps will scale, and which of our clients might benefit from making custom iPad™ experiences. Of note, we are under NDA with Apple, as are all developers - so we can only say so much about what the future holds - but we wanted to share with you our thoughts around what details are already in the public realm.

While technically all iPhone apps will work “out of the box” on the iPad, that does not mean that most apps will look great, or even make sense when blown up to twice their natural size on a new device.

iPhone Apps Will Work Out of the Box, But is That a Good Thing?

The fact of the matter is that for most iPhone apps, there are two tricky areas that dominate the planning process. The first is what we tend to call “mobile context usage” - which simply means, what is the user doing on-the-go? What features will differentiate this experience from what you might traditionally do for a user on your website (who is tethered to a desk and/or wifi)? The second question is usually one of the feature to pixel ratio. With such a small screen, feature clutter is deadly.

Both of these problems become far less important for the iPad. We do not anticipate that people will be using their iPad while walking down the street or standing in line at the grocery store. We also have twice the pixels to play with… and thus, many (non-game/non-immersive) iPhone applications will not “feel” right on this new device.

The Argument For Creating iPad-Optimized Experiences for Existing iPhone Apps

Apple, themselves, mentioned that they re-wrote all of their own apps specifically for use on the iPad - and if you look at the interface choices they made, a pattern about how to do this becomes clear.

On the iPhone, users are very used to drilling down from a list view into a content view, and then often toggling between these two views to compare items, or merely to work their way down through a stack of important content. You see variations on this paradigm from news applications, to mail, to shopping applications. This makes sense given the pixel constraints of the iPhone, but it is a bit of a burden with a larger screen.

As evidenced by the iPad mail application demonstrated in yesterday’s announcement, Apple is leveraging a split view for iPad apps, where the familiar list view is available on the left, and where the message content is available on the right. This is actually more akin to what most users are used to seeing in desktop mail applications, and makes sense to most users almost immediately. The iPad’s split view makes the best use of the pixels available, and uses the gestural based interactions that existing iPhone users know and love. It truly is where traditional computing and iPhone meet in the middle.

It is of note that there are further considerations for optimization (a greater emphasis on re-orientation of the device being but one example) - but they are mostly secondary to rethinking this split view approach for most applications.

From a Technical Point of View

For sanity’s sake (and because of our NDA with Apple) we won’t get into the deep technical nitty-gritty here. (Although you can certainly hire us if that sounds fun!) But, there are a few technical notes that are public knowledge that are worth mentioning here.

First of all, the iPad does run the iPhone Operating System (OS), and our development team is thus already amongst the best in the business in terms of technical acumen necessary to build iPad applications.

Also, with the release of a new version of the iPhone OS to support the iPad, there are a number of new features that are available to us as developers. This means that even existing iPhone apps (whether or not optimized for the iPad) stand to benefit from the technology behind this announcement.

Next, the split-view approach to an iPad optimized experience is in many ways, simply taking two views that have already been built for an iPhone experience and presenting them side by side. This means that for any existing iPhone application, we should be able to leverage existing code to build an iPad experience more efficiently.

Lastly, it is important to note that we can bundle up one universal app that contains both the iPhone and the iPad optimized views - which is what we believe most consumers will come to expect. There are a few exceptions to this rule, as we saw with the New York Times demo, where sister apps that sync with each other may be most appropriate… but out of the gate, I doubt this will be the dominate paradigm.

The Case for Making iPad Apps, Whether or Not You Have an iPhone App

We’ve already talked a lot about the relationship between iPhone and iPad apps, but the citizens of Small Society also believe that the iPad does signal a pretty major shift in the traditional computing paradigm.

We cannot help but notice that Apple is offering a pretty compelling and affordable replacement to casual computing (previously defined by a low-end, mouse-driven PC with a cheap internet package). Many of us at Small Society have come out of a desktop software development and believe that the iPad has the potential to redefine this casual computing category. With it, we also believe there is a huge opportunity to innovate.

Part of this is rethinking desktop software for gestural-based interactions. Another aspect is simply rethinking what software means for the average household, when it is more location-aware and reliably/consistently networked.

We got into this business because of a common belief that the iPhone OS is fundamentally shifting the way every day people interact with the world around them… and we are thrilled that Apple’s vision is continuing to evolve, and that our business will evolve right along with it.

So… Apple upped the ante again. Do you have an idea? How can we help?

More Resources from Apple:
Watch the Keynote
Learn about the iPad

A Great Overview of the iPad from the New York Times, with a quote from Small Society’s very own President - Raven Zachary:
iPad Blurs Line Between Devices

A Sneak Peek at the Small Society Team During Yesterday’s Keynote,
Glued to our Screens:

New Year's Resolution: More Blogging

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:52:40 -0800

Happy New Year, everyone! At Small Society, we’ve been so busy building apps that we’ve been doing a poor job keeping our company blog up-to-date. One of my goals for 2010 is to dedicate more time to outbound communications. 2009 was a very successful year for us as an iPhone agency and we have already some exciting things in the works for 2010. Hopefully, you’ve been following us on Twitter (@smallsociety), where updates are a bit more frequent than they are here.

Expect a batch of catch-up posts in the next few weeks covering some of our 2009 news and app launches.

Support your Local Community - this Thursday!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 11:06:23 -0800

When the citizens of Small Society heard about 30 Hour Day we knew that this was something that we wanted to come out to support!

For those of you who haven’t heard, 30 Hour Day is an event where Rick Turoczy of the Silicon Florist and Cami Kaos of Strange Love Live are going to livestream for 30 hours straight in an effort to raise money for charities like Free Geek, Oregon Food Bank, and Toys for Tots. So basically, 30 Hour Day (@30hourday and #30hd for you twitter types) is the warm, fuzzy trifecta of Portland community, charity and fun!

While the actual Livestream itself isn’t happening until December 18 and 19 (including 30 hours of entertainment, interviews, and interesting goings on) - we wanted to start the excitement, get the word out, and kick off the giving season where we knew there would be a collection of generous geeks… so….

We are proud to announce that we will be accepting donations to both Toys for Tots and the Oregon Food Bank THIS THURSDAY at Ignite Portland:

November 19, 2009
IGNITE PORTLAND 7

Bagdad Theater
3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214

Doors Open at 5:30PM
Show Starts at 7:00PM

General Admission, No Tickets
Admission is always FREE!

We know that even the most organic-home-grown-in-my-garden types must have an errant box of mac and cheese lying about, or perhaps you bought too many cans of refried beans in a regrettable Costo moment. Or perhaps you can swing by your local Fred Meyers and pick up some crayons and a coloring book? When you’ve got those non perishable foods and new unwrapped toys together, bring ‘em to the Bagdad, and we will take care of the rest. Whatever you can contribute, we will be grateful.

We also wanted to give a huge thanks to the Legion of Tech who didn’t hesitate to let us set up a collection area at Ignite.

See you Thursday!

Whole Foods Market - There's an App for That

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:31:00 -0700

Apple has been running a series of TV commercials over the past year featuring iPhone applications in action. I’m sure you’ve see a few of these. In the past week, Apple has released a series of new iPhone TV commercials, two of which include the Whole Foods Market Receipes iPhone app icon during both the beginning and end of the commercials (“Travel” and “Share”). And while the mysterious hand does not actually tap on the Whole Foods Market Recipe app itself, it sure is an honor to be included on the iPhone during these segments.

Yahoo! Developer Network Spotlight - Small Society

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:15:00 -0700

While I was at Yahoo! for iPhoneDevCamp 3 a few weeks ago, the fine folks at the Yahoo! Developer Network (YDN) filmed a short video interview with me about my work at Small Society. They did a fantastic job with the production of the video, especially considering that I was a bit tired and stressed during the filming, as it took place just a few hours before the start of iPhoneDevCamp 3. Thanks again, YDN!

iPhoneDevCamp 3 Recap

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:07:00 -0700

Two weeks ago, I (along with Small Society developers Jon Wight and Andrew Pouliot) visited Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, for iPhoneDevCamp 3, the largest iPhone developer conference (other than Apple’s own WWDC). This year, we had close to 600 attendees, the largest event yet. This is our third year. The prior two years were held at Adobe Systems’ San Francisco office. I created iPhoneDevCamp in June 2007 before the release of the first iPhone - when iPhone development equated to web development. We’ve come a long way since then, and with the tremendous success of native apps and the App Store, this year was bound to be a success.

The highlights from this year included keynote presentations by Chi-Hua Chien from Kleiner Perkins (talking about the iFund, of course), Andrew Stone (Twittelator Pro), and Steve Demeter (Trism), a musical performance by BT, dozens of presentations by attendees, and 54 new iPhone apps demoed during the Hackathon.

Thanks to everyone who made the event possible this year. While we aren’t quite ready to start the planning for iPhoneDevCamp 4 in 2010, based on the success this year, I suspect we’ll be repeating the event next summer.

Oregon Business Journal: Kickin' Apps

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:56:08 -0700

The August 2009 issue of Oregon Business Journal included an article by Adrianne Jeffries entitled, “Kickin’ Apps: Portland’s fertile ground for mobile app development.” Jeffries did an excellent job covering the diverse and impressive mobile technology scene emerging in Portland. Small Society is included in the article, along with a number of other cool companies in the area.

Willamette Week: Hotseat: Raven Zachary

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:49:00 -0700

Catching up on a backlog on Small Society blog posts…I was recently featured in the one of Portland’s arts papers, Willamette Week. The Hotseat format is essentially a Q&A with an individual in Portland. I was selected by the paper for the July 15th, 2009, issue. I have linked to the online version of the article for those of you who are interested in reading the interview.

Whole Foods: our most drool-inducing project yet

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:22:23 -0700

Raven and I have been known to pass travel time by making the short list of folks/brands that we’d like to work with someday, but from day one of Small Society, there was one company that Raven was passionate about making an app for…

Whole Foods Market has always kept the citizens of Small Society stocked with Kombucha (those of you who know us will understand how serious this is), and both Raven and Jon spent some time living in Austin, Texas, home of Whole Foods and their absolutely gorgeous flagship store. So, this year when Raven was in Austin to moderate the “iPhone: The New Gaming Platform” panel at SXSW, he and I decided to swing by headquarters to have a quick meet and greet with their team. Lucky for us, it was a great meeting, and we kicked off just a few weeks later.

When we started thinking about how to bring the Whole Foods brand to life in the mobile space, there was a lot of passion about the content available in their recipe database. Whole Foods has a core mission to bring fresh and healthy food to their customers - and so it makes sense to help those customers transform that food into a nourishing meal that they can share with friends and family around the table.

Our only concern was that there were already some recipe apps available on the app store. But, after discussing it, we all agreed that the exact same brand values that make Whole Foods different than your average grocery chain would help differentiate the app itself. We focused the user experience on these key criteria - for example, the recipe search has a filter that supports special diets such as vegan, dairy free or sugar conscious, and the recipes call for quality, whole ingredients.

We also wanted to flip the recipe finder concept on its head a bit. As much as I’d like to tell you that I pre-plan each week’s meals and shop ahead, the project team agreed that most of us don’t usually approach dinner that way. Instead, most of us open the freezer, fridge, and pantry door and rely on our creativity to make something work. It was this paradigm that inspired the “on hand” feature that allows you to choose up to three ingredients and the app provides recipes that leverage what you already have available.

Our app launch was timed perfectly with the launch of the iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update, so the Whole Foods app was built using key new Apple technologies such as MapKit for the store finder, in-application email for sharing favorite recipes, and the ability to copy recipe data using Cut, Copy, Paste functionality.

(Please note that because we used these awesome 3.0 technologies, your device needs to be on 3.0 for the app to work. If you haven’t already done so, upgrade, it’s worth it… we promise!)

On its first day in the app store, it was hailed as a Staff Favorite. We are also very proud to announce that it is currently Apple’s App Store Pick of the Week.

It was awesome working with the Whole Foods team, and we hope that as you read this you are happily snacking on Strawberry Shortcakes with Maple Syrup and Frozen Yogurt. Wait, you aren’t? Better download the app (after all, it’s free!)

One Big Step for One Small Society

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:42:00 -0700

So here’s the thing… Small Society is the type of agency that believes that great people with a great idea can make a great app - but if you add just a dash of process garnered from years of experience making software, it can take that app from great to outstanding. We also fundamentally believe that in these young, Wild Wild West days of iPhone applications - having a strong process really sets us apart from many of our peers.

That being said, every once and awhile, an opportunity comes along that requires you to let go just a little bit and follow your heart.

Last week, we had the honor of having some of our work onstage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). The Apple keynote has found its way into pop culture - having been parodied by everyone from 30 Rock to the College Humor crew - but to an Apple fan, it’s far more than that. Leading up to the keynote most Apple fans have already spent countless hours reading up on the rumors, trying to guess what the new announcements will be. For those who are not lucky enough to attend the keynote live, most fans will endlessly hit reload as one of the big Apple sites live blogs the entire event. So for us, the geeks who have dedicated our careers to this platform, an opportunity to help build one of the keynote showcase apps is an incredibly awesome experience.

It was this opportunity that inspired us to throw our usual user-centered design process out the window and join our friends at Zipcar for a crazy five-week sprint to bring a prototype of the Zipcar application to life. Our lead developer (Jon) and our fearless leader (Raven) went through a similar sprint on the Obama ‘08 iPhone application, and so the team was confident that there was enough time to get some solid code written, but our challenge was in understanding the Zipcar customer (25% of whom have iPhones!) and what they would want from this app, while at the same time leveraging brand new technologies to highlight the iPhone 3.0 OS.

Needless to say, we were excited. The weekend before the kick-off meeting in Cambridge, Jon had already implemented MapKit as a means to locate cars. On the plane home immediately following our kick-off, I had developed a first draft of the wireframes. From there, we were iterating the app almost daily, side by side with the Zipcar team, who were providing design, server development, and moral support every step of the way.

It was a crazy timeline, and the sprint wasn’t without a few tense and tiring moments, but in the end we built something that the whole team is quite proud of. We leveraged the best of 3.0 technologies including MapKit and Push Notifications, while at the same time bringing out the brand personality of Zipcar and keeping true to the ideal iPhone user experience. Luckily, Apple was pleased with our progress.

Perhaps the most talked about feature of the prototype was the ability to honk the horn and even unlock the car. Thanks to technology already built into the Zipcar fleet, it was possible to do some pretty amazing work in an incredibly short period of time. We were also lucky enough to not only see the demo live on stage at WWDC, but help the Zipcar team demo the technology for our fellow devs inside the Moscone center on Tuesday and Wednesday of the conference. (It was also pretty cool to be trending topic on twitter, if even briefly, amid all of the other cool announcements.)

Watch the Zipcar demo at the WWDC 09 keynote

Also, check out media coverage of the demo:
Wired (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/06/zipcar-iphone/)
Mashable (http://mashable.com/2009/06/08/iphone-30-apps/)
The Apple Blog (http://theappleblog.com/2009/06/09/zipcar-car-sharingrenting-with-your-iphone/)

We’d like to thank Apple for giving Zipcar (and us, by proxy) the opportunity to participate in the keynote, and for giving us such an awesome platform to work with. And, of course, we’d like to thank Zipcar for being an outstanding client. Not only is Zipcar changing the way we think about transportation as the largest car-sharing service in the world, but the people who work for Zipcar truly embody the company brand - they are smart, fun and passionate.

We feel lucky to have been a part of such a crazy endeavor, but are all just a tiny bit relieved to have a little extra time to catch up on all of that sleep we missed.

smallsociety.com for iPhone

Sun, 31 May 2009 21:45:00 -0700

I spent this weekend putting IUI through its paces and have launched an iPhone optimized version of smallsociety.com. Browse from your iPhone or iPod touch to take a look. I have some JavaScript browser detect code on the index page which redirects these devices to an optimized site instead (in the /m/ path). I made a number of tweaks to the standard IUI code to get the presentation I wanted.

Kudos to Joe Hewitt and the other IUI contributors for making this code available.

Bed Bugs by Igloo Games

Tue, 26 May 2009 21:34:09 -0700

Bed Bugs by Igloo Games:

Igloo Games has released Bed Bugs, a new iPhone game as a follow-up to the company’s excellent Dizzy Bee series. Highly recommended, especially for anyone with children under 10 (and as young as 3 or 4!). Perhaps one of the most simple rule sets ever for an iPhone game (touch monsters to stop them) akin to Whac-A-Mole. It’s a joy to play.

O’Reilly Media has posted the video of my Where 2.0 panel...

Tue, 26 May 2009 21:23:22 -0700

O’Reilly Media has posted the video of my Where 2.0 panel entitled “Mobile Reality” covering the topic of mobile augmented reality. Where 2.0 was held in San Jose, CA, May 19-21, 2009.

My iPhone Home Screen. Many apps battle for placement here....

Tue, 26 May 2009 17:55:19 -0700

My iPhone Home Screen. Many apps battle for placement here. Rarely do they change.

Warner’s iPhone App Push: Beginning Of The End For Small Developers?

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:13:00 -0700

Warner’s iPhone App Push: Beginning Of The End For Small Developers?:

A misleading headline, as the article is focused on Warner Bros. being a major iPhone app publisher for its various media properties - film, music, etc. ‘Small developers’ will always have opportunities on the App Store, that isn’t going away. Warner Bros. is going to have more marketing spend available for iPhone app marketing, but innovative ideas are going rise to the top, whether or not they come from small developers or large media companies.

I don’t think it’s an issue of who wins or loses here as the article perhaps tries to indicate. The main point from the article (to me) is that iPhone applications are becoming a standard component of interactive marketing budgets, that’s great to see. And a lot of small developers will be building these apps for companies.

WWDC Party List

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:17:00 -0700

WWDC Party List:

Brandon Kwaselow has poted a listing of various WWDC 2009 parties and related events. I would also encourage you to check Upcoming from time to time using this Upcoming WWDC search.

Watch a time-lapse of artist Jorge Colombo designing the cover...

Mon, 25 May 2009 23:25:00 -0700

Watch a time-lapse of artist Jorge Colombo designing the cover of The New Yorker magazine using the iPhone app, Brushes.

Installation for Invisible Shield

Sun, 24 May 2009 16:19:00 -0700

Installation for Invisible Shield:

ZAGG (maker of the Invisible Shield) has opened a number of mall kiosks around the country which sell product and provide installations. A nice offering! I have my iPhone and MacBook Pro protected by the Invisible Shield. The ZIP code search doesn’t seem to support proximity (huh?), so just scroll down to your state and see if you have a location nearby.

Waiting for the Macworld 2009 keynote to start. Perhaps my last...

Sun, 24 May 2009 10:19:00 -0700

Waiting for the Macworld 2009 keynote to start. Perhaps my last year with a press pass and early access to keynotes (hence all the empty seats at this point). Then again, who is going to keynote Macworld next year?! It won’t be anyone from Apple.

Video footage from the iPhone Intelligence party at Macworld...

Sun, 24 May 2009 10:08:45 -0700

Video footage from the iPhone Intelligence party at Macworld 2009. I hope you’ll join us for a repeat of this party at WWDC 2009 on June 8th. For more information, please visit the party page.