Adventures with Doodlebuzz

So yesterday the app that was accidentally created along the way to developing Doodlebuzz for iPad got submitted to the app store. Whilst it's a fairly simple app that makes use of the UITableView for its interaction, I've added a few little tweaks to just play with the flow of the UI. For instance I didn't like how the list of articles "popped" onto the screen when the data was loaded, so I added a much nicer alpha fade. Now it's nowhere near as brutal. I also did the same with the display of topics and the article itself. The app now feels very gentle in its flow, which matches the muted colours of the graphic design. I've always felt that it's these little touches that make all the difference.

The other thing that I've found to be important is testing within the context of its use. As I've been developing the app I've been playing around with it here there and everywhere. On the train into work, what happens when there's no signal, or what happens when I'm going through a tunnel and I'm trying to load an article? How does it work on a really slow connection at a friends house? You get the idea. I found it best to actually forget that I had made it and tried to just use it as a user would. It definitely threw up some things I had to fix during this process. Not just technical connection type things but also UI issues. For example when you tapped in the search box there was actually no way to come out of it without initiating a search! What felt natural to me was to tap the background to remove the keyboard. The code to do this, on a touch gesture was simply:

A simple little line, but it makes all the difference.