Datasheet

13
Chapter 1: Creating Killer iPhone Applications
These are the three dimensions of what I call “zero degrees of separation.”
We (at least most of us) are social animals, and we feel a need to stay con-
nected with friends, family, and yes, even business associates. What’s truly
amazing about the iPhone is that its feature set — its hardware and applica-
tions — enables this connectivity seamlessly, ranging from the phone itself to
SMS to FaceTime (the iPhone’s new video chat feature) to the built-in camera.
Add to that the social networking applications available for your iPhone and
your separation from other people reduces even further.
Although one could argue that our present ability to always connect could
mean that we have too much of a good thing (especially when it comes to
business associates), I’d say that the annoyance factor is a result of the lack
of maturity in how we’re using technology. If you think about it, the technol-
ogy hasn’t really been around all that long, and like most teenagers, it will
mature over the next few years.
Many of the applications I’ve just mentioned have long been available on the
desktop; what a device like the iPhone does is add mobility to the party. Not
only can you connect from anywhere, but so can all the people you want to
connect to.
This ability to run applications on your phone wherever you are makes it
possible to have the information you need (as well as the tools you’d like to
use) constantly available. But it’s not just about the fact that the application
you need is ready-to-run right there on your phone; it’s (as important) about
how the application is designed and implemented. It needs to “work right,”
requiring as little as possible from you in terms of effort when it comes to
delivering to you what you need.
So, having the app is one thing, but having an optimally designed app is
another. These first two dimensions are about what I call content — what an
application actually does. Another aspect here, of course, is that the poten-
tial pool of stuff a user wants to be closer to depends on the context in which
he’s using the application — where she is and what is going on around a user.
In that respect, I like to think of the here-and-nowness — the relevance — of
the application and information. In plain terms, this means that you want to
do a specific task with the help of up-to-date information, which the iPhone can
easily access over the Internet through a cell network or Wi-Fi connection. You
may even want the information or tasks tailored to where you are, which the
iPhone can determine with its location hardware. To use a concrete example,
a guidebook application may have a great user interface, for example, but it
may not give me the most up-to-date information, or let me know a tour of
Parliament is leaving in five minutes from the main entrance. Without those
added touches, I’m just not willing to consider an app compelling.
05_879962-ch01.indd 1305_879962-ch01.indd 13 8/30/10 8:28 PM8/30/10 8:28 PM