Progress Report - Success Finally!

I have finally finished coding up my application. It does not meet the grandiose desires I had at the beginning of the term but let's face it, that was a lot for one person to want to accomplish in 10 short weeks without knowing Objective-C. My application does have a nifty application icon and splash screen, don't blink as it goes by, that I am pleased with. Once the application gets started it displays a table with a list of choices for calendars to display. Users can click on the calendar they wish to view and it will open a mobile version of the specified calendar in the safari browser. This step is were I find my biggest disappointment in the app I have created. When I chose to scale down my ideas I had every intention of displaying everything in the app but after weeks of struggling I gave up and went this route. I do have some ideas of how I could possibly go back and get this working and think I will continue to pursue it at a later date.

Progress Report - Double Argh!

I am still struggling with this blankety, blank app. What I am trying to do does not seem like it should be rocket science but evidently I was wrong. I feel like I have made little progress since last week at least nothing that I can show and I am definitely feeling the pinch of the upcoming deadline. At least if I have not been pouring myself into this heart and soul for the last few weeks I could pass it off as being ill prepared or misjudging deadlines and the complexity of the task at hand but I have been working on this religiously night and day for weeks.

I do think that I jumped in too quickly and tried to forge ahead before I had spent enough time learning. I put out a call for help with my employee who works with coding regularly. She has never used x-code but has done a lot with C++, PHP and ASP so she forged into the coding with me with a warning that she may not be able to assist. After a bunch of talking through functions and testing various areas of my code we decided that it wasn't working but that I had found the right location for what I needed and just needed to figure out how to call the data into the function given the code I had written. I walked away from the experience feeling like I needed to understand more about Objective-C but with more comfort in monkeying around in the code to test components.

With all of this in mind I decided to take twenty steps back this week and make myself learn again. I purchased the Objective C videos from The Pragmatic Bookshelf and took detailed notes while I watched. This really helped me understand a lot more than I have previously and I am just starting to plug away again to get my code on track. I really think that one of my biggest problems thus far has been that I hate to throw away any progress I have made away in an effort to go back and rewrite code from scratch given my new knowledge.

So I am going to forge ahead yet again and take the next two days off from work so that I can hopefully accomplish something before it is due. Wish me luck!

Progress Update - Argh!

I feel like this project is a constant battle of one step forward and two back. I think a lot of my problems come from being tired and feeling the pressure of time lines. I was so thrilled with my progress last week that I began forging ahead into RSS programming only to find myself reworking code I had already written because I was too tired and somehow accidentally wiped out a couple of days worth of work that I could not get to work again even though I thought I was doing the same thing. After banging my head against the desk for three days I decided to leave the project alone for almost 24 hours and work on other neglected work. I believe this was very helpful, not only did I make headway on my project for my other class but when I returned to the coding I was thinking much clearer and was able to get my coding back to where I had been as of class time last week.

Working with the RSS feed has been another challenge. Although I have been able to successfully get an RSS feed running in an application on its own I have been unable to mesh it with the coding I have completed thus far. For me it is important to get the application running as I envision it so that it will function properly and easily for the end user. So I am still plugging away but feel like I am moving very slowly.

Progress Report - iPhone App Creation

I feel like I have immersed myself in x-code the past few weeks. The first book I purchased seemed relatively good but I was really struggling to get through it and was not seeing the connections that I needed to be making in order to create my app before the end of the semester. I found some great video at the Pragmatic Bookshelf for learning how to do iPhone programming and I think they have been the key to jump starting my progress. There are five videos in the "Writing you First iPhone Application" training set. The videos are a bit fast at times so I have to slow them down, pause them or out and out rerun certain sections to make sure I have the steps right. Since I chose to code along with the video using this process of pausing and rerunning certain sections of the video I would often introduce unintended errors which would then need to be debugged before my app would run as the one in the video does. This process, although tedious has been one of the most valuable learning opportunities because you can never learn code better than by debugging it. I have been through all but the final one thus far but feel comfortable beginning work on my app.

The past two evenings have been spent setting up the mainWindow.nib file and all the various functions in the appDelegate and ViewController files. When the application opens I now have a title bar and navigational listing of the different calendars I am going to offer on the calendar. Each of the items on the navigational listing only goes to a blank screen but that will be tonights project. I hope to begin placing the functions that access the RSS feeds associated with each calendar into the view. I have success modified and completed a previous tutorial that did this exact thing but have to figure out how to integrate that into the work I have done thus far so that I can control the way my app looks and processes. After that step is complete I will need to write the coding which will allow the user to delete calendars they do not what to use from their navigational menu.

Wish me luck tonight!

Steps in the Process: Interview with a Prospective End User

Now that I am starting to make some headway on my iPhone app coding (baby steps count) it is time to talk to a possible end user to see what his/her thoughts are about having an app for the college. It's always a good idea to conduct studies like this early on in the process to uncover what a user really wants or does not want before you begin coding and have to throw it away or start over again. I compiled a few questions and found a subject who was willing to participate. I felt that selecting someone who already had an iPhone or iPod touch would be helpful since they would already be comfortable with the device and understand its capabilities.

The Interview:
I have interjected my thoughts about the answers under each response.

Question 1.
If you could have an app on your iPhone or iPod touch about the university what would you like to have on it?

I would really like to have access to directory information (student, faculty/staff and departmental phone, email and address listings) as well as access to my email, PeopleSoft accounts, university stored file space. I would be nice to have one portal to access all of clarkson accounts in one spot.

My thoughts:
I had thought about adding an email link or functionality to the app at the beginning because George Mason's app had it on their when I did my initial review. I rejected the idea because I felt it unnecessary given that ability to pipe your email through the mail app itself. When questioned about this, my subject suggested that he would find it very functional to have all of his university interaction within one device.

Although this is now a consideration again I think it will be for a future version of the software and is currently beyond the capabilities that I have in the time I have to complete the project. I would have to do some serious exploration on security issues and interacting with the AD/ldap system that we use for authentication because I think just adding a link to access the email client with safari is pointless and less functional than just having be part of the mail app built into the device.

Question 2.
If you could download a university app that offered you access to the calendar on your mobile device would you like to see all the available options for calendars or would you like to be able to add and delete calendars based on your needs?

I would like to be able to add and delete based on my needs much like what I can currently do with the calendar version online.

My Thoughts:
I thought this might be a nice feature to have the other day when I discovered that there were functions that would allow such capabilities. I had not tied the functionality of this idea to the current capabilities of the online calendar though. It looks like I will have to continue to dig and figure out how to do this one.

Question 3.
Would you find a campus map of the university that offered additional information about buildings or landmarks useful?

It would be cool, specifically for incoming freshman.

I would really like it if it was interactive enough to help me find locations in building that are often hard to find. Some of the rooms in buildings on campus are numbered oddly and make it difficult to find my class. If I could click on buildings and view floor maps that would make it easier to find those hard to get to classrooms.

My Thoughts:
I had the same thoughts here. I think this would be the piest de resistance if I could pull it off. So far this has been much harder than I originally thought and I have been struggling through figuring out how to do it. I did find a ray of hope yesterday, The Pragmatic Bookshelf has some nice video tutorials that are only $5 a piece. I downloaded one on the mapkit and will see soon if it helps or not. I may end up tabling this until a future version as well.

Question 4.
Are you interested in news feeds from the university?

Not really. Some people would but they don't particularly interest me.

My Thoughts:
This didn't surprise me. I figured this will be a nice add to the app for content and some will like it and others won't care.

Question 5.
If an app had a few modules on it that did not meet your needs but one or two that did would you still use it?

Yes, I just wouldn't use the app portion that I didn't like.

It would be nice if I could move the modules around within the app to best suit my needs like I can do with the apps themselves. I would also like to be able to add links to some of my favorite university sites or others that I visit a lot.

My Thoughts:
I wanted to make sure having modules like the news or a campus map would not be a hindrance to users if the portion of the app didn't interest them. I'm glad to hear that it wouldn't matter. If it did I would have to consider making apps with a little more tailoring towards specific audiences. Moving modules around inside the app is a very interesting idea. I suppose it could be done since the main interface does it and I should be able to access any of the same functionality inside the app. The biggest hurdle to accomplishing this would be finding the functions to make it work. I think this is a bit beyond me at this moment but again would be something to consider later. If I could add the ability to delete a module this would also take care of the tailoring problem from question 5.

Question 6.
What are your favorite apps and why?

I use the mail and Safari most with the rest of my downloaded apps being games. I do have an app called RemotePad which is a touch pad for your desktop. It works as a mouse for your desktop. I like it because I got used to using the touch pad on my laptop and miss it on the desktop. With the wireless capability it allows me to use the controller anywhere without it taking up space on my desk.

My Thoughts:
I asked this just out of interest and to see if I could glean any information about how this user uses their mobile device. I figured through a better understanding of this I could tap into this need to make my app more useful.

In the interest of time and the difficulties that I have had getting started I am going to focus on creating the calendar module for now and if time permits I will move on to the map.

Digital Natives

I think that the first real generations of digital natives are just coming into being. Palfrey and Gasser talk about digital natives as those who were born in the 80s and grew up using computers throughout their formative years. Although this generation grew up when computers were beginning to become commonplace in homes they are only mildly on the cusp of what a digital lifestyle has and is becoming.

While I was reading Born Digital and particularly the chapter on digital dossiers I could not help but think about my children and how many digital documents must exist on them already. They are only 5, 4 and 19 months and I myself have already posted about them on blogs, Facebook and Twitter. My daughter's pre-K class has a web site and the teacher posts regular pictures of the kids doing activities for parents and family to see. We recently switched doctors and I noticed that the new office has digitized all of our previous physicians records and keeps everything digitally they do digitally rather than using pen and paper. I don't have a problem with these methods because I myself am comfortable in this environment but my children are unaware and out of control of the information that is being pushed into the world about them.

The text has really made me think about what I, myself post and how I present it. I'm not sure I will change what I am doing because I don't feel a few images are not that harmful but with sites like the wayback machine in existence my children are clearly living a life as a digital native whether they like it or not and have minimal control over the impression that others have of them based on this information.

Mobile Device Users: Different or the Same?

Do all mobile device users use their devices differently or the same?

The question is an easy one to answer, absolutely not. My husband and I both purchased our iPhones at the same time but we each have completely different uses for them. While I have an abundance of apps and am in a constant search for more to make my life easier he only has two or three beyond what came with his phone. He is quick to tell you that he loves his phone for the iTunes, he has roughly ten of his favorite songs in a playlist that he listens to constantly. He also uses it for the phone, address book and web browsing capabilities but that is about it. He asked me to upgrade his phone the other night and teach his how to use it and what it could do. When we got to the app store he had no idea what to look for. He didn't want to pay for anything and had no idea about what he would want to make his life easier. In the end he continues to happily use his phone that allows him to surf the net, make calls and play music.

I think we are a clear example of direct opposites when it comes to the use of the phone. I use mine for everything. If I could order an external keyboard for it I would problably spend as much time on it as I do my laptop.

Mobile Device Interface Design Awards

Hmm. I feel like I am dolling out awards thus the title for this post. Since I felt like this I wondered if there was such a thing and did a short google search for "mobile device interface awards." Second up on the list was Global Mobile Awards 2009. This is a pretty interesting site with various mobile categories. Even though the google inquiry had interface in it these awards did not focus primarily on interfaces.



If I was to design a contest for a Mobile Device Interface Designs I would have to develop a couple of criteria.

1. The interface needs to be easy to use. In a matter of a minute or less the user should be able to figure out how to use the application in a limited capacity.


2. The interface should be easy to navigate throughout the screens without confusion or frustration.


3. It should be visually pleasing. Although aesthetics is not a complete make or break item on the list it does go a long way to make an app more pleasing and marketable to the end user.

Although I am sure I could come up with many more I will use these three criteria to browse a few of the apps on my phone and access them.

I recently downloaded textPlus to give it a try. The set up is relatively simple and the interface uses standardized icons used by various programs to display information like settings and information as well as how to compose a message. This standardization and simplistic styling made it easy to get up and running in the app. The information screen provides easy access to more information if you were unable to figure it out quickly.

Twitterific is one of the most frequently used apps on my phone. The interface on this one is relatively simple as well and deploys some of the same standardization that textPlus did. A bonus for this application is the sources button in the upper left hand corner. I often click this and feel disjointed because I didn't het what I espected. I veliece a precious version of the software had something on that screen for adjustments but they are now another screen away.

The Role of the Interface for Mobile Devices

Steven Johnson in the text Interface Culture when talking about change ushered in by the digital age make the following statement:

"We will come to think of interface design as a kind of art form -- perhaps
the art form of the next century" (p. 213)

I tend to agree with this statement especially as we move to more mobile devices where real estate is limited and time to make an impression is critical to success. Since getting my iPhone I have downloaded a number of apps for various reasons but most to make my life easier. The last thing I want to do is rumage through various screens or menus to get to the information that I want. I have noticed that I respond and find interfaces that are streamlined as well as visually pleasing to be the ones that I use the most.

With the limited real estate available on the screen of mobile devices interface design is going to have to be an art form in order to accomplish everything that needs to be done in apps and still appeal to the end user. Appeal and use does not end with the visual representation. We will need to write concise and appropriate messages that work and assist the user.

Currently, unless the user increases the size of the information the text presented to them is the size of small scribbles. When the user increases the size of the information they are then forced to move the screen backwards and forwards to read the information. For many this makes reading and using a mobile device difficult. Applications that have been designed to increase or decrease the typography's size on the screen without forcing the user to scroll left or right are often ideal for handling this problem but can also be addressed through the practice of writing itself. If those who plan to write for mobile devices plan their message and write clearly and concisely those who seek the message will leave the application a satisfied user.

iPhone Apps - My Favorites

I was extremely excited when I saw that ENGL5376: Online Publishing for Mobile Devices required me to have a web enabled mobile device. At the time my old Motorola Razr was hardly keeping a charge and my contract had been ready for renewal since October of 2008. I had been looking for a while to decide what I wanted but had yet to get something.

I picked up my iPhone in April about a month before heading to May seminar and started playing with it to learn the interface and of course make it my own. It didn't take long before I was hooked. In my sad little organized world I have of course organized my iPhone screens. I have screens for everyday tools (main screen), educational, social networking, work related, music and television, food and exercise (finding locations, tips, cooking), games, the hardly ever use but can't delete apps and those I am research for the app project.

I have downloaded 64 apps to date that have allowed me to save and waste time in vast amounts. Some of these have not been worth the time that I sunk into downloading them and others are worth every penny I spent purchasing and downloading them.

My Favorites:

• Amazon Kindle - I think this is the app I clearly spend the most time with. I downloaded all of the books for my classes this summer that I could for the Kindle so that I could have them always at my fingertips. This has worked out well for me, especially the day I had to go to the clinic and wait three hours to get in. I got lots of reading done. I also use this at night since I like to read in bed for a while before drifting off to sleep. I don't have to hold a clunky book and a flashlight anymore in an awkward position so that I can turn pages and not wake up my husband. I just sent the app to display the text in white which make the background black and I am set to read until I start drifting off to sleep.
• Twitteriffic & Facebook - I have bundled these together because I probably spend equal time in each. I think I am drawn to both of them because of the community and connection they provide to things other than what I am doing at the current moment. Through each of these I feel much more in touch with my friends and relatives than I was previously.
• iThoughts - I absolutely loved this app until yesterday. I have been mapping out ideas for my dissertation since May seminar and had a lot of great information flowing together until I must have pushed a wrong button the other night and ended up losing all of the leaves I had created off my main trunk of ideas. I think I still have most of it in my head and can restore it but have yet to do so because I am a bit gun shy. All in all I learned a valuable lesson and will be constantly backing it up once I do reenter the data.
• Notes - I am always typing into the notes app, 28 notes saved to date. There are items to purchase, things to do, thoughts about my dissertation, future projects and things I am reading. Luckily because it takes me a while to delete items this is also were I will find a lot of the data that got wiped out of the iThoughts app.
  
• Amateur Surgeon - I have to admit I have become addicted to a game. This game has grabbed my attention on more than a couple of occasions when I need a break from reading but am bored and what something to do. I had to recently ban myself from playing it so that I can get more work done.

So out of 64 these are my favorites. Many of the others are used but only on a casual basis like Aim, YahooIM, Jott, LogMeIn, CanMoo (what can I say we live in the country and the kids love to call cows to the fence to look at them this is great for that), BabySitter, and WorldCat to name a few. If I was ever to loose my iPhone now I think you would find me going through withdrawal and having to rebuild most of my digital life since so much of it has become encapsulated in this tiny little hand-held device.

Pie in the Sky Ideas for an iPhone App

While I am making my way through my reading for ENGL5376 and ENGL5369 I am still taking a few minutes here and there to do some research from my final project for Online Publishing. After exploring a number of the university based apps I think I have a good idea of how I want to progress and what I want to do. I have decided to set a goal for a final ideal pie in the sky app with all the possible bells and whistles I might like to create but then start small working away on the components a piece at a time.

The pie in the sky project will be to create an app similar to iStanford. I was very impressed with the design and elegance of the app. It is packed with a lot of components that I like some of which I would like to integrate now and others that would be possible list items once I become more proficient. If all goes as planned my final app will include the following components:

1. News Feed - using an RSS feed we already have established on the Clarkson news site.
2. Events Calendar - using an RSS feed provided from the current off site product we subscribe to
3. Athletics Feed - I have to check and see if we have RSS feeds for our current news information. I'm not sure that we do since these pages are handled by the athletic department and site development and hosting is handled by a third party off site.
   
4. Maps - input the current map images and use localization coding to allow for GPS location while on campus.

I think these four items will provide a pretty good start for the app with the map being on of the most difficult. I have a couple of other items I would like to include in the app but am not sure how time consuming all of the above will be so I am prepared to add more at a later date if I find the ability. I plan to start with the RSS feed and figure I will work my way down the list from there. I found what looks like a nice tutorial on building a simple RSS reader but will have to wait until this evening to check it out since I didn't carry along the Mac today. We will see how the process goes from here but I better get back to reading since I still have a lot to get finished before class on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Carried Away in a Blobject

Wikipedia's definition of a Blobject as written by Frances Raven in Wittkower's iPod and Philosophy "is most often a colorful, mass-produced, plastic-based, emotionally engaging consumer product with a curvilinear, flowing shape. This fluid and curvaceous form is the blobject's most distinctive feature." Raven went on further while defining a blobject to quote from Steven Skov Holt the originator of the term. I noted a key word, "streamlining" and a phrase, "the blobject is the smoothest, sleekest and swoopiest of all our forms" from Holt's definition that brought some particular thoughts to mind. Later in the chapter Raven adds the word minimalist to the mix. All of these points are essential to my exploration of what a blobject is.

Blobjects don't have to be round or curvilinear, much like the iPod is more of a 'squircle' with it's rectangular curved edge shape that does not fit the blobby curvilinear definition. I believe the important part of the definition is not the appearance of the object itself, although it does factor into it I think it is more about the terms: minimalist, streamlining, smooth and sleek. These terms are synonymous in my mind with something that is modern and simplistic but yet advanced in its use.

Raven contends that the moment of the blobject has passed but I am not sure that is the case. As I look around my world I still see blobjects. 

I took yesterday off from everything I needed to do and spent a much needed day with my family away from books and computers. We had a wonderful time. So much so that my four year old son woke up this morning and wanted to go back again. All I could think of this morning was the pile of reading that I needed to make my way through and the number of responses I needed to write. Against my better judgement I found myself out-ruled by the family siting in my car on the hour long trip back to camp. As we were rinding along I was thinking about the definition of a blobject. I realized I was being carried away in one. 

My car, a Toyota Prius is very much a blobject. It is mass-produced, emotionally engaging, smooth, sleek and swoopy vehicle with curvilinear flowing lines. Much like the VW Beetle the Prius fits the blobject definition. My Prius is a 2006 but it's based on the design originally produced and released in 2005. One could argue that this design would have been going through the design stages during the age of the blobject as Raven suggests but I think blobject is something more than the objects themselves. I think that we as a society go through a period were we are looking for modernization in our lives. We are tired of the old boxy, boring designs that manufacturer after manufacturer give us. For our generation cars like the VW bug and the Prius exemplify it as does the iPod but years ago I think it might have been the refrigerator. 

You must be wondering how I got from the iPod and cars like the Prius and VW Bug to a refrigerator. Our camp is a place that is lost in time because it has no power, running water or other luxuries that many are used to in our lives. While there today I looked at what was around me. The refrigerator caught my attention in this time forgotten world. It had a number of the defining principles that blobjects have but was created years ahead of when the term blobject was coined. This old propane refrigerator (pictured to the left) in it's time represented a modern age of simplicity and technological advancement that revolutionized the home. This made me wonder if the moment of the blobject actually comes and goes or maybe just lays dormant for a few years and waits for designers to revisit it when the old is no longer new and we as consumers are looking for something fresh and interesting. 

Checking out the Landscape

I have started browsing around to explore what other colleges are currently doing with iPhone apps. I have always found exploring the landscape to be helpful in the process of getting started. It is always nice to learn from those who have gone before me and discover some of the best and worst practices out there so that when I am done my apps can hopefully live comfortably among some of the better practices.

What I have found so far (worth noting):

• iStanford - Cost: FREE
  This app offers a directory, athletics, maps, events and courses.
  
  My Thoughts:
  This is a pretty nice app with lots to offer given the price. It has a nice clean and professional design far above most that I have seen within the few minutes I have been searching.
  
  The individual components of the app have their pluses and minuses. The directory must only work on the Stanford network or I am missing the login screen for it. The athletics looks like it is feed from RSS feeds which is a bonus if ours are handled that way as well. Maps, events and courses also seem to be pretty basic and reasonable to implement. So far I think that this will be a model I can use to work from.
  
  
• Ohio State University Map - Cost: $1.99
  A map of the Ohio State campus that allows users to zoom in and out and use the GPS functionality to find there way around.
  
  My thoughts: I'm not sure I would pay $1.99 for a map of campus even if I was a visiting student. If I got seriously lost a lot and didn't want to continue to look like a fool when I had to call my friends to come find me, maybe but I clearly think this type of app should be free.
  
  I think this is a neat and possibly doable idea for my class project if I can get the localization coding down and mesh that with our current flash maps. If I want to go in this direction for my application I need spend speed up my iPhone App lessons and get to Chapter 17 on localization in the text.
  
  
• Penn State University - Cost: FREE
  Basically an application for providing Penn State news to your iPhone.
  
  My Thoughts: Seems very basic and hopefully easy. This should be easily handled by inserting the RSS feed from our news site into an iPhone App. THe text I currently have does not seem to cover this so I did some quick searching on the internet and came up with this auto conversion program, AppLoop. I should be able to figure out how to do this. With a little more research on the coding I came across these links which I will explore further later: How-to: building services into iPhone Applications, How to put twitter updates in your iPhone Apps (info on the NSXMLParser function)
  
  
• ACU MindWire - Cost: $ .99
  Abilene Christian University is using this app to offer education content.
  
  My Thoughts: I am intrigued by a universities use of an iPhone app to extend learning beyond the classroom. This is very forward thinking. I'm not sure that this is something I am ready to progress into for this class but it is something that I might consider working on as a value add for my students in my classes. I will have to think about this one further. It's disappointing that I can not download it and try it out to see under the hood and kick the tires.
  

I have also downloaded the Go Huskies App from Northeastern and IMason from George Mason University. Each of these are free and look interesting but I have not had time to review them yet. So more to come at a later time.

On a quest to learn programming for the iPhone

Well I have secured everything that I need to begin to learn how to code apps for the iPhone.

1. iPhone - Check, purchased one in April and am completely hooked now
2. Guiding Text - Check, ordered Beginning iPhone Development Exploring the iPhone SDK from Apress by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche
3. Mac Computer - Check, Thanks to JohnDan Johnson-Eiola I am borrowing a Macbook for the summer. Knowing me I will more than likely be hooked by the end of the summer and want one of my own so I will have to put in a lot of hours on a freelance job to be able to aford one.
4. iPhone SDK Software - Check, I downloaded the 2.2.1 version yesterday and have successfully run through my first interface lesson in the text.

I also have to sign up to become a registered iPhone developer if I hope to do anything with the apps I create. For now I just have to keep plugging my way through the text and make some headway. So far the process was pretty easy and I look forward to continuing. I forsee lots of late nights in my future. I will keep you posted on my progress.