5 Great Apps Created Using Open Data

January 11, 2013

hardin Android, iOS, Madison, Mobile Devices, Politics, Software Development, Technology, Uncategorized Leave a comment

bright red and orange open sign

The city of of Madison launched it’s open data portal this week, and boy are we ever excited here at Hardin Design and Development! Madison, if you can believe, is only the second city in the country to pass an open data ordinance.

 

You might be wondering what the buzz is all about concerning open data and the Wisconsin State Journal has a great in-depth article explaining the concept, but basically it means the public will now be able to use data collected by the city to develop an app of their own design – for free.

 

With the copious amount of city-data now posted online developers will have plenty of information to dig and sort through to create an app, but where to start? To help fuel the creative juices we found five great apps created from open data portals from cities around the country to inspire the Madison area developers.

 

1. BusRadar (http://busradarapp.com/) Madison

A locally produced app that simplifies your bus experience. Allows users to see what buses will be arriving at any stop in the Madison Metro system. Tremendously useful to any seasoned or first-time bus rider.

 

busradar

 

2. Don’t Eat At_____ (http://donteat.at/) New York City

An app used on foursquare that allows users to receive an alerts when they check into any NYC restaurant that is at risk of being closed for health code violations.

 

donteatat

 

3. Chicago Works (http://www.2pensmedia.com/) Chicago

Graffiti on your store sign? Abandoned car outside your apt? This iphone app that allows Windy City residents to submit and track reports to the 311 Chicago city services department.

 ChicagoWorks-311

 

4. MomMaps (http://mommaps.com/) (Originality San Fransisco, now over 30 cities)

Helps parents find kid-friendly locations (children’s museums, indoor play areas, kid-friendly restaurants etc.) while on the go.

 

mommaps

 

5. Ottawa Biking Problems (http://ottawabikingproblems.ca/) Ottawa

A mapping website that allows cyclists to share information with the entire cycling community. Users provide data on specific locations in the city such as road work, busy intersections, poor bike lanes and more.

 

ottawa

To get started on your exciting pathway to open data app development click the link to the official City of Madison Data Portal featuring all of the current datasets available to the public. We can’t wait to see what our fellow Madisonians are going to develop using our great new resource – we do know that will be great!

Redesigning Outdated Android Apps: Not As Hard As You May Think

November 28, 2012

hardin Aaron Heinen, Android, Design, Uncategorized Leave a comment

 

In response to the negative feedback of the Microsoft Outlook App, our WordPress Developer and Android aficionado Aaron Heinen has provided some sound advice on how to easily revamp android apps.

First, is an article referencing how to do a quick re-design of an outdated app by following the Android Design Guidelines, in this case it is the same Outlook App that got horrible reviews.

By now the mighty 30 percent of users who are running Ice Cream sandwich and up have become accustomed to standards in their interfaces. There is a great article written about the Aesthetic-Usability Effect which summed up states that “people inherently believe well designed things function better”.

If your app is task oriented, it should use the font Roboto. It is the standard and Google provides it for free. Any other font will feel out of place to an Android user. The same goes for common UI features: Actionbar back button, Tabbed Navigation, List Navigation, even Text Input has a standard design that should be matched. Why? Users now recognize these designs and sub-consciously link the design to functionality, so it will just confuse them if your app tries too hard to be different and implement these standard features another way.

Another great example of an app that neglects the Android Design Guidelines comes from no other than ESPN.

The overall design for the Fantasy Football 2012 app  doesn’t necessarily hinder it’s functionality but the outdated gradient based buttons and the rounded corner interface screams Android 2.3.

So, next time you are developing an app, or critiquing a design of one, follow Aaron’s advice and avoid bad app aesthetics.

Happy designing!

 

Adobe Shadow

August 3, 2012

heinen Android, iOS, Mobile Devices, Software Development, Technology, User Interfaces 2 Comments

Gone are the days of the tedious workflow to test websites on a mobile device.

Before the workflow was

  1. Save and upload your (updated) files to a web server
  2. Navigate to the page from your mobile device, usually taking ~30 seconds to type in the URL every single time
  3. Check and wonder why things aren’t showing up correctly
  4. Fight off the urge to throw your device through a window
  5. Make some minor CSS tweak that probably isn’t the root of the problem
  6. Re-upload
  7. Re-Navigate
  8. Re-Check
  9. Re-Fight off the urge, etc.

The new workflow (after you have Shadow setup) is

  1. Save and upload your (updated) files to a web server
  2. Navigate to the URL from your desktop and have it automatically load on every device you have Shadow running on

    3. I only have to load the webpage on my laptop and it automatically updates WHAAAAA!!!??!?!

  3. Inspect the source of any device directly from your laptop

    4. “Inspect the element from your PC and your mobile device updates as if it were on your PC. BAM TECHNOLOGY

  4. Make Changes from within the developer tools and see them update instantly on your device
  5. Go golfing with all that extra time and headache you just saved yourself

How does it work!?

You need the Adobe Shadow “server” running on your PC.

You then need to download the Chrome extension to install and manage your clients from

Last but not least you need to download the “Adobe Shadow” App on every device you will be testing from. Once it is downloaded and the Server is running your devices will recognize the computer and give you a passcode to connect. 

Enter the passcode into the extension

and BINGO. You are now a wizard.

 

Downside?

It doesn’t work locally. – I can’t hold it against it but for all you CSS Wizards out there:

ICS ContentResolver Sync Changes and Fix

June 14, 2012

heinen Android, Mobile Devices, Software Development Leave a comment

Nowhere in the Android documentation could a fix be found for the issue we were encountering on Ice Cream Sandwhich, Android OS 4.0

We got feedback from a user saying upon the first login the app would not stop syncing, even after he let it sit for 30 minutes. However, Once the app was closed and re-opened it synced perfectly.

The app would hang here making the user think it just took forever to sync when in reality it was just hanging because the account did not have sync permission

 

We were able to narrow the problem down to the account not having the sync settings turned on even though in older versions of Android it worked properly.

Dialog when Sync button was pressed

The Account was added to the sync settings but not activated

The code we were using to start  the sync was simply

ContentResolver.setSyncAutomatically(application.getUserAccount(), MyStyleProvider.AUTHORITY, true);

This, strangely enough, worked fine on all Android Phones that did not have Ice Cream Sandwhich. We searched and searched but could not find an answer. We tried adding more permissions to no avail. The fix came on a whim when I saw there was a MasterSync property. I could not find any documentation to back that this needed to be true for ICS phones but setting it to true solved the issue and the sync works great!

ContentResolver.setMasterSyncAutomatically(true);

Weekly Roundup – May 25

May 25, 2012

heinen Android, iOS, Mobile Devices, Social Networking, Technology, User Interfaces, Weekly Roundup Leave a comment

Facebook has its eyes set on the mobile horizon

It is a well known fact that the Facebook app / mobile experience is lacking.

This image sums up the majority of my experience with Facebook’s mobile app. I know I’m not the only one. Facebook has been rumored to be working on their own smartphone and even if this is not true I think they should be.

Imagine if the Facebook Mobile experience could be as seamless as the desktop experience. That is why it is a big deal when rumors of an Opera acquisition start going around. While Opera isn’t the most popular browser it does boast an extremely impressive mobile market with over 168 million (mobile) users in March alone.

Whether or not this deal will transpire is beside the point that Facebook needs to improve their mobile experience. It doesn’t do much good to wait ~20 seconds for a news feed that I want to check for ~10 seconds while on the go.

The full story is available here

“Facebook officially declined to comment.“

 

 

 

Siri-ous problems

IBM bans Siri from Employee phones

It was released this week that all the data you have ever spoke to Siri, incidentally, has been recorded by Apple.

Full Story

Siri changes answer to the “Best Phone Ever” question

Apple may have noticed, from all their data tracking, that the question “What is the best smartphone?” was being asked by many users. Prior to this week Siri did as it should, answered honestly from a search of customer feedback.

While I personally wouldn’t agree that the Nokia – Lumia 900 is “The Best Smartphone” at least it provided an honest answer. This is what you will see now if you ask Siri what the “Best Smartphone” is.

This answers seems a bit more subjective…

Siri was also updated to include a sarcastic response “You’re kidding, right?”

Gamerchanger of the Week

The Moai, Easter Island giant head statues, have … wait for it… buried bodies!!

Pictures of an Excavation

 

Google ‘Plays’ With Fire

March 10, 2012

heinen Android, Mobile Devices, User Interfaces 1 Comment

Google playfully decided to change the name of their Professional and well respected ‘Android Market’ to encompass additional devices, ie. GoogleTV. Despite the obvious complaints about the decision of the new name ‘Google Play’, Google really could not have made the conversion worse if they tried. Granted when you opened the ‘Market’ there was an obvious pop-up that told users the store was being ‘upgraded’ to ‘Google Play Store’ which they had to agree to before entering the store. This takes into account that users read pop-ups before hitting accept. Where Google really went wrong was by not replacing the ‘Market’ Icon with the ‘Play Store’ Icon. It was just gone. This sparked a whole plethora of confusion with users outraged, spouting things like a virus deleting their market to, my personal favorite, blaming their child for deleting it.

Angry Users

It’s well known that people largely don’t read click-through text. It’s simply a usability issue. It’s something that pops up and blocks the user from what they want to see or accomplish. The (average) user instantly does the logical thing and dismisses it (agrees to it) ASAP so they can get on with their task. You can’t even blame the user for this response, Google needs to take this opportunity to learn from this experience. From now on when they are going to make sweeping changes that require a user to click ‘I accept’ they should also blast an audio file “THE ANDROID MARKET IS NOW  GOOGLE PLAY. THANK YOU FOR NOT FREAKING OUT AND CALLING TECH SUPPORT”

Also, I was quite excited to rent movies directly on my phone for $0.99. It is cheaper and much more convenient than redbox. Then there was this:

While the decision to offer rentals to rooted users isn’t even within Google’s control, it’s a backward model of control. It is denying users that WANT to pay for a rental. If a user is going to torrent, a user is going to torrent. By blocking rooted users over the fear of them copying the file to their phone they are really just turning down paying customers.

Don’t piss off your market app or it will be deleted off your phone by itself.

Designing and Developing Applications in an Ever-Changing Mobile Space

January 5, 2012

hardin Android, Design, iOS, Jon Hardin, Mobile Devices, Software Development, User Interfaces 3 Comments

I recently gave a talk to the Middleton Chamber of Commerce about mobile application development, especially related to fragmentation of devices and operating systems. I thought it would be worth posting here, so here it is:

Android Update Alliance?

December 16, 2011

hardin Android, Jon Hardin, Mobile Devices, Software Development, Technology Leave a comment

At Google IO 2011, a very important announcement was made: The Android Update Alliance was setup in order to insure that Android devices in circulation would not become subject to fragmentation, and that older devices would receive timely OS updates if their hardware allowed for it. The website Android Police had this to say about it in an article they published at the time:

This is huge. Like, massively huge. Probably the best thing to come out of Google I/O so far this morning huge. I’m talking about the Android Alliance and the solution to a problem that has plagued Android users since the beginning of time (okay, maybe not that long).

The Android Alliance is a special task force dedicated to delivering Android updates quickly and efficiently to all devices for 18 months after they’re released. Among the companies involved are Verizon, HTC, Samsung (imagine that), Sprint, Sony Ericsson, LG, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Motorola, and AT&T – which basically covers most of the Android world.

This is some of the best Android related news that we’ve heard in a while, as this is the solution to the biggest problem in Android: fragmentation. It seems like the top-notch, practical solution that we’ve all been waiting on. Instead of getting a tighter grip on Android and compromising its open nature, Google decided to join together with those responsible for releasing the needed updates. It’s a genius plan, and I’ve never been happier to be an Android user.

6 months or so into the process though, many outlets (such as Slashdot and PC Mag) are reporting that the process isn’t going nearly as well as advertised by Google. PC Magazine went and surveyed all of the Android device manufacturers and carriers in the US, and the results weren’t pretty:

Motorola: ”We are planning to upgrade Droid Razr Motorola Razr, Motorola Xoom (including Family Edition) and Droid Bionic by Motorola to Ice Cream Sandwich. As we add other devices to this list, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop.” They ignored our specific question about the Photon 4G, the Atrix 2, the Droid 3, the Droid X2, and the Admiral, and our follow-up question that if not, how Motorola would reconcile this with the pledge it made back in May.

Samsung: ”After reviewing various factors such as system requirements, platform limitations, and partner-related issues, we will consider upgrading Galaxy devices to Ice Cream Sandwich. Specific upgrade plans will be communicated separately. Samsung will stay committed to responsibility for its customers as much as possible.” Our question about the Samsung Captivate Glide, the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, the Samsung Conquer 4G, and the Samsung Exhibit 4G was ignored, as was our follow-up question about the company keeping its Google I/O pledge.

Sprint: “Sprint will begin to rollout Google’s latest version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, to our customers in early 2012. Ice Cream Sandwich will be available via an over-the-air update to a variety of devices, including HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and other key products in our line-up. Please stay tuned for more details and exact timing.” Our question about the Motorola Photon 4G, the LG Marquee, and the Samsung Conquer 4G was ignored, as was (you guessed it) our follow-up question about holding to the Google I/O pledge.

T-Mobile: We asked T-Mobile about the myTouch 4G, myTouch Q, LG DoublePlay, and Samsung Galaxy S II. “T-Mobile is coordinating with Google to deliver Android 4.0. While we don’t have any information to share regarding the devices you noted … we’ll let you know when we have more details to share,” a spokesperson said in response, but T-Mobile did not mention anything about Google I/O, either.

Verizon Wireless: A spokesperson confirmed two existing upgrade announcements for the HTC Rezound and the Droid RAZR, but couldn’t release any more information at this time. Our questions about the Samsung Stratosphere, the Motorola Droid 3, the LG Revolution, and the HTC Droid Incredible 2, and the Google I/O pledge in general all went unanswered.

This is somewhat discouraging for Android users, although it clearly hasn’t slowed down the sale of Android devices. What it means is that for developers, fragmentation continues to be (and likely will continue to be) a major problem. While Ice Cream Sandwich and Honeycomb have many awesome features such as hardware accelerated graphics, when designing an app you have to be prepared for it to be running on Gingerbread, or potentially even older devices. As developers, we at Hardin are particularly conscious of this, which is a unique challenge that we don’t face to nearly the same degree when developing apps for a lot of other platforms (iOS, for example).