Gotcha with TestFlightApp Live

Recently, TestFlightApp service launched the Live dashboard where you can see in real time statistics about your application usage. As soon as the service went live, I visited their web site just to find out that all my apps counters were at zero event if all of my applications are currently shipping with the current TestFlightApp SDK built-in. Why?

Well, it appears that in order for the Live dashboard to work, your submitted application to the App Store must be using the exact same build number as the one you have on TestFlightApp. In other words, before submitting your production build to Apple for review, you should submit the exact same build to TestFlightApp. Voilà!

Want to share or discuss great iOS app designs?

If you are like me and really love when you stumble upon a great iOS application with a great user interface design, why not join my new Flickr Group: iOSAppDesigns. This group is a place where you can submit your own great discoveries. Just post iPhone or iPad screen shots to share with others. Want to discuss a topic? This is the place to go too.

Designs that I like - Moving from Posterous

As you may already know, Twitter acquired Posterous last week. The way I (and many others) understand their public press release is pretty clear: we should expect Posterous to close in the near future. Many Posterous users are already moving from it to other places. So I decided to stop publishing on Posterous. I must move to something else.

As of today, you should update your bookmarks and your RSS subscriptions according to the following new addresses where I will continue to publish abour iOS designs that I really like.

First, you can look at all my past screen shots directly on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/buildingiphoneapps/sets/

I will now use Flickr to post screen shots of iOS apps that I really like.

Also, you can follow posts on Tumblr: http://iosappdesigns.tumblr.com/

I will now use Tumblr to publish different things related to great iOS app designs. So bookmark this URL too.

This change is now in effect. Thanks for following me! Please, share.

ITC Status Reports arrival times

Want to now about iTunes Connect (ITC) reports arrival time? Look no further than AppFigures reporting page which is awesome.

iOS application prototyping on the go - what I'm using

As I prepare to leave home for a week, I wanted to get prepared to be able to do application UI prototyping while on the go. In this blog post, I want to share with you what tools I'll be using as well as write about a very impressive application that I find more and more useful for the iPad: iDraw.

So, I'll be leaving home with these on hand: my iPad, a stack of paper and pencil. I'll be using three apps in order to create the first digital prototypes of my first iPad application: App Cooker to simulate the application interaction, iDraw to draw UI elements and Eraser to create transparent background of pictures.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of App Cooker (my App Cooker review) but this application is not a complete drawing application. Recently I came across iDraw for iPad and fall in love with it. In summary, I would say that this is the most complete vector-based application for the iPad. For 8.99$, you get all what you need to draw UI elements: canvas control, all shapes, fills and gradients, layers, undos/redo, precise placement, precise sizing, copy and paste, export, etc.

In the previous picture, you see the basic grid view of my iPad application that I'm currently working on. Once complete, I can export this in the Photos.app then start App Cooker, import it and add the iPad UI elements to get the following view.

As you can see, I can get a very basic UI design running on the iPad very quickly and easily while on the go. No computers required!

Eraser is used to open a picture, set a transparent colour and then save it in order to be able to re-import it in iDraw or in App Cooker. iDraw export doesn't support transparent background. Eraser isn't universal but works perfectly on the iPad.

As you can see, with these three iPad applications, prototyping iOS applications on the go has never been easier en enjoyable.

A mostly complete iPad app description

Along the lines in my previous blog post: Preparing a full description my first iPad App, here is a mostly complete description of my first iPad app that I'm planning to build and sell on the App Store.

Application goals
The goal of this application is to browse pictures on the micro blogging platform Tumblr.

Design principals

• Pictures are at the centre of the user experience and occupy all the space available.
• Look at other iPad photo browsers for inspiration.
• Prefer a dark theme to make it look like a dark room experience and make pictures stand out.
• Design the application toolbars or spaces for later feature expandability (like allowing the liking of posts, re-bloging to followers, etc.).
• Provide a quick browser mode and a closer view design mode and think about the way the user will switch between modes.

Interaction metaphor

• One display mode: a grid view but each picture will allow a close up view for each picture.
• By default, in the grid view, pictures are shown with a 4 x 3 grid with rounded corners and nothing else. Tapping with two fingers to toggle buttons or overlaid picture's metadata.
•  A variant of this grid view could be added later: grouped view: all pictures organized by image's source instead of the timeline).

Application features

• Support the two basic iPad orientations (portrait and landscape).
• User will be able to browse pictures only (the application will skip blog posts with other media types);
• User will be able to browse Tumblr without being authenticated (if the API allows it, otherwise the user will be presented with a view background asking him to sign in).
• iOS 5 only required to support integrated Twitter client. 
• Share picture link on social networks, send links by mail or save picture into the photo app.
• Authentication process details starts from top toolbar (when application is first started, the app background will provide a visual cue to the user asking him to authenticate to the Tumblr service).
• Authenticate the user to the his Tumblr Dashboard.
• Users with multiple accounts is supported (sign off then sign in).
• No settings available in Settings.app, only inside the application:
• In-App settings: Configure Twitter sharing;
• In-App settings: Configure Facebook sharing;
• In-App settings: Configure Save image: as seen or full res
• In-App settings: Configure a PIN
• In-App settings: Allow grouping of picture by sources or timeline only (in a future version)

In the next blog post, I'm going to expose the visual details of this application textually and I may include one on my first application sketch. Stay tuned. 

Cocoa plotting framework for Mac OS X and iOS

Here is Core Plot 1.0 for those looking for a plotting framework in their iOS application.

Preparing a full description my first iPad App

As you know, I'm in the process of creating my first iPad app. My current goal at this moment is to create a well documented application description which will state the following:

• Application goals: why the application exists?
• Design principals: what is behind the choices that will be made in designing the application visuals and interaction metaphor?
• Interaction metaphor: a ten thousand feet above the ground description of the application interaction metaphor.
• Application features: what the user will be able to do with the application?
• Visual details: details, details and details about the application's visual elements.

The goal is to have a very complete application description that could be given to any iOS developers and designers so he could start building the application right away. My next blog post on the subject will be to provide each portion of this description. Stay tuned. 

By the way, I'm following this very good article: From Idea to Market: How we built Gradient.

Want to start developing iOS apps?

Here is an interesting Quick Startup Guide from Apple: Start Developing iOS Apps Today. A must read if you are just starting your endeavour.

Interesting App Store stats

According to an App Annie's blog post, here is a summary of interesting App Store stats.

• Revenue per download: 37 cents in Norway, 22 cents in US, 4 cents in China
• Fastest growth of downloads: China +298% with revenue +187%
• Apps with In-App purchases monetizes at 2.2 times more than those without In-App purchases.
• iPad download increases at +200% growth compared to iPhone at +70%
• iPad generates 2 times more revenues than iPhone

In other words: build iPad apps with In-App purchases and make them localized for China and Japanese.