The Pain of Previewing iOS Apps

We’re starting to roll out preview builds of our iPhone app at Wildcard. If you’d like to get your hands on one, sign up for access on our home page and we’ll add you to the list.

Distributing previews of iOS software is notoriously difficult and has gotten only incrementally easier over the years. There’s no method that anyone would call elegant or even low-friction, TestFlight, HockeyApp and corporate IT-brewed solutions included.

Worse, the logistical complexity of getting a preview build on a device that belongs to a novice user can often spoil the mindset of that tester. If you’re building an app that’s ostensibly trying to make life easier for someone, yet the very act of installing it on that person’s device is fraught with points of failure, you stand a pretty good chance of losing their faith in your product.

This happens so often that at Wildcard we decided that the least we could do was to explain how it works with much greater specificity, to try and fill in all of the gaps in the process. My colleague Steve Meszaros put together this preview installation guide, which includes detailed instructions and screen grabs from the key UI elements to be found throughout the whole, convoluted process. We revised it several times, and will probably keep revising it, as we try to make it as helpful as possible for our users.

Still, as we worked on it, we were practically laughing with incredulity that something like this was even necessary. It seems to me that Apple’s desire to keep developer-distributed software on a tight leash, which is at the root of the complexity in this process, is in no way inherently opposed to the idea that a test user’s installation experience can be simple, elegant, even delightful. Things should be much easier than this.

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Rick Poynor’s First Foray onto Pinterest

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Poynor is one of the most respected design critics working today, and he has a keen understanding of visual culture. He recounts his first week on Pinterest with the dry amusement of an academic examining a toy for the first time.

“It’s both exhilarating and curious to see this ceaseless torrent of deracinated images passing from hand to hand, admired and valued for their visual properties, yet often torn loose from the contexts that allow their meaning to be fully appreciated. That might be how private scrapbooks and wall-mounted pinboards operate, but Pinterest pins are both personal tokens and public communication. Taking pleasure in a picture doesn’t rule out the need for some curatorial precision. Amassing these collections is undeniably satisfying, though. When I have gone a bit further, I know I will want to write about Pinterest again.”

I expect his next essay on Pinterest to make this one seem unhinged by comparison. Read the full article.

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Coyote v. Acme

Ratings

3 of 5 stars
What’s this?

I was lucky enough to get a copy of Pentagram’s holiday card in the mail, which this year took the form of an elaborately detailed legal brief called “Coyote v. Acme.”

“Originally published in The New Yorker, Coyote v. Acme presents the opening statements of an imaginary lawsuit by Coyote against Acme for his personal injuries caused by the faulty devices, citing 85 occasions in which they ‘did cause him bodily injury due to defects in manufacture or improper cautionary labeling.’ Our holiday greeting reprints Frazier’s essay as a mini legal brief with Weil’s drawings presented as supporting evidence. Weil carefully considered the design of each cartoon product, making sure the contraptions would functionally work.”

Coyote v. Acme

I had a good laugh. More images from the book here.

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Thoughts on the New NYTimes.com

Earlier this week, my former employer The New York Times launched a major redesign of its Web site. There’s an interesting article about it over at Mashable, including comments from The Times’ digital design director, Ian Adelman.

It’s really hard, if not impossible, for me to offer any objective opinion about this redesign. I still have many friends at the company, including Ian. Also, perhaps as a function of having drunk its Kool-Aid as an employee, I still believe that The New York Times is something special, that it’s indisputably unique, and that comparing its actions with other news outlets or brands is often a counterproductive exercise. Finally, the most prejudicing of all reasons: I’ve seen what it takes to get things launched inside The Times, for better or worse, and this knowledge tends to make me alternately more forgiving and more critical than the average person might be.

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San Francisco MUNI Rebranding Concept

Ratings

3 of 5 stars
What’s this?

S.F.-based designer D. Kim worked with a friend on this superbly executed reworking of the MUNI logo, which no one would design from scratch today but that has achieved a well-loved, iconic status in the city. The new version upgrades the original to something much more aesthetically pleasing without sacrificing an ounce of its original spirit.

MUNI Rebranding Applications
MUNI Logo Before and After

See the whole presentation here. (Via Brand New.)

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SkipLock

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Last month I bought myself a Nexus 7 tablet to learn more about Android. I’ve been really enjoying it (I’ll write more about it soon), but honestly I haven’t found too much in the way of software that’s unique to the platform.

There has been one gem, though: SkipLock, a nifty utility that does something I’ve wanted on iOS for a long time: it lets you identify trusted wi-fi networks and, when the device is on those networks, it allows you to bypass the password screen. I use a pretty lengthy and complicated password, so being able to modify the default behavior in this way makes life much easier. SkipLock also provides similar behavior when your device is paired with a Bluetooth device; as soon as the device is out of range, it automatically locks.

If you have an Android phone or tablet, get SkipLock here.

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Fake UI

Ratings

3 of 5 stars
What’s this?

One day, an incredibly illuminating secret history is sure to be written about the many naïve aspirations and cynical assumptions hidden in the fictional user interfaces (FUI) that TV and movies have been putting in front of audiences for the past thirty years or so. The first step is to start identifying the specimens and collecting them so that we can see them in aggregate.

This tumblr blog, Fake UI, does a decent job of keeping abreast of recent entries to the genre. There’s also Kit FUI, which catalogs these examples into an IMBD-like database. Also see Andy Baio’s trove of 1,200 screen captures of FUIs from 47 movies, which he wrote about here and which can be browsed here.

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The Atlantic: How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood

Ratings

4 of 5 stars
What’s this?

This article is just fantastic. Writer Alexis Madrigal unravels the mystery of Netflix’s uncannily specific “altgenres,” those categorizations of movies like “Witty Comedies Featuring a Strong Female Lead” or “Critically Acclaimed Dramas Based on 20th Century Literature.” He deduces that there are 76,897 of these classifications, apparently, and until now they’ve been evidence of an unprecedentedly extensive structured-data approach to understanding film — hiding in plain sight. Madrigal details his approach to understanding the scope of this system, and then manages to trace it to its godfather, Netflix vice-president of product Todd Yellin, who sat down with him for a one-on-one interview.

The article is a wonderful example of scrappy, code-centric investigative journalism (albeit lightweight, admittedly). But what I like most about it is how it seeks to understand Netflix as more than just an innovator in video distribution. By examining the way the company thinks about the data it collects from us and presents back to us, Madrigal is touching upon the far-reaching implications of Netflix as a new kind of entertainment company, one that is practically restructuring our very idea of what filmed entertainment is.

Read the full article here.

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