PM UX: Blueprint for Success

The Smashing Cartoons by Smashing Magazine

A couple of weeks ago, we covered the success story of the Instagram app, which allows users to snap photos, add various filters and share over a plethora of social networks – including one of its own.

As Instagram gained momentum, climbing the App Store ladder all the way to the top, I started to see the magnitude of its potential. I knew it would only be a matter of time before I saw similar apps for sharing video. What I didn’t expect, however, was the incredible speed at which this new style of app-only social network would fully catch on.

Enter Viddy, a multi-celeb backed, Instagram-style app for sharing video that climbed to #1 in the App Store’s Top Free list in no time flat.

Viddy! The new Instagram for video

How it Works

The entire process, as well as the interface is very similar to that of Instagram. Users can shoot a video (or import from their camera roll), add a filter and then share the video with their friends over a number of social networks. Also like Instagram, Viddy is its own social network. Users can follow friends’ videos as well as popular and trending ones from across the entire Viddy network.

Cool Features

Unlike Instagram, Viddy gives users the ability to adjust how heavily a filter is applied to a video. Also, users are not limited to the pre-loaded filters. They can download additional filters within the app for free.

Moreover, filters come with their own corresponding soundtracks and users are given the ability to adjust the balance between those soundtracks and the audio in their recordings (so cool!).

Super Cool.

15 Seconds of Fame

One downside to Viddy is that it limits the length of videos you can record to 15 seconds. Also, any imported video has to be trimmed using the in-app trimming tool.

Having to trim imported videos in Viddy reminds me of having to crop imported photos in Instagram. I can’t help but wonder if this is mainly done to minimize file size for quicker uploading, or to keep things more uniform and consistent?

Nobody likes to wait!

Users can watch their videos instantly before applying a filter, but have to wait for the filters to be applied. As users don’t like to wait, especially on a smartphone, wait times should be minimized. Failing to do so will negatively impact user experience.

SO, to make the wait a little less noticeable and annoying to its users, Viddy encodes the video in the background and allows users to navigate elsewhere by tapping the minimize button. Users can always keep track of the encoding progress, as it will be displayed in the iPhone’s status bar.

While being able to complete other tasks helped, I never truly forgot that I was still waiting for something.

Interface

Viddy’s interface is polished and aesthetically appealing, but can sometimes feel a bit cluttered – especially when compared to Instagram’s interface. Although very similar in layout, Instagram’s interface feels less cluttered and distracting.

We all know that a simple, uncluttered and intuitive interface is extremely important to providing an overall great user-experience, particularly for new users trying to explore and learn an app.

You Heard it From Plastic:

An Israeli based company has created an app called Mobli, which allows users to share a combination of photos and videos. Mobli is gaining popularity and is building a substantial user base at a rate of 10,000 new users daily. Look for Mobli to be one of the next up-and-comers in this space.

The Smashing Cartoons by Smashing Magazine

Hey! This is the inaugural Plastic Mobile user experience post! Every Tuesday read about other mobile groups, apps, sites and general initiatives that are as devoted to on the end-user experience as we are (or close enough, anyway).

Today, check out “Clear,” a task management app that will actually manage your tasks – NOT add to your list of tasks by making you go to great lengths just to learn how to use it!

In its short life, it has received much love through great reviews and high praises from users and mobile experts alike –  even quickly climbing to the top of the App Store’s “Top Paid” list.

The first thing you need to understand about Clear is that it is not intended to compete or replace other, more detailed and complex task management applications – MEANING, it doesn’t support recurring tasks, scheduled appointments, due dates, tagging, searching, etc.

So what the heck DOES it do?

Clear offers is a brilliantly designed UI and a simple aesthetic appeal for anyone who wants a “to-do” list app that feels as simple and natural as a pen and pad of paper – archaic or genius? We think genius.

What sets Clear apart from the pack is that there are no buttons or conventional navigation menus within the app. Every interaction in Clear is done exclusively through finger gestures.

When you first launch the application, you are greeted with a few tutorial screens that outline the finger gesture controls, navigation levels and colour-coded priority levels. Once the tutorial is complete, you are well on your way to creating and completing as many tasks as your little heart desires.

There are only three navigation levels to get familiar with:

1. The top navigation level (Menu) gives you a choice of four options: My Lists, Themes, Tips  & Tricks and Settings.

2. The second level (Lists) is where you can create and name your various to-do lists.

3. The third level (Items) is where you can create individual tasks in your various to-do lists.

The finger gestures are very easy to learn and fairly easy to remember (nooo, there are no rude ones). The most original finger gesture is “pinching,” which allows you to reverse navigate from Items to Lists and then to the Menu.

You can create a to-do item or to-do list in one of three ways: pull down gently from above an existing list, tap gently below a list or use two fingers to pull apart two items if you want to insert a new one.

To mark a task as complete, you simply swipe it to the right. And to completely remove something from your list, they take a page out of Beyonce’s book and swipe it to the left, swipe it to the left…okay, maybe not. But, remember: complete = right, delete = left.

This app may not have all the features some people look for in a task management app, but the simple, intuitive and interactive UI makes for a very pleasant user experience. It is perfect for creating simple to-do lists or shopping lists, where a more complex and cluttered app now seems frustrating and unnecessary.

Try out Clear for yourself and tweet us your thoughts @plasticmobile.

Courtesy of our sensational team here at Plastic Mobile, a new and completely redesigned AIR MILES App is now available for iPhone and Android.

As the first coalition loyalty application of its kind in Canada, AIR MILES’ mobile app version 2.0 was announced today.

The coolest new feature? Definitely the Check-in Challenge (on now until April 30, 2012). The Check-in Challenge is the first ever AIR MILES mobile game that ranks the number of Check-ins Collectors do at AIR MILES Sponsor locations against other Collectors each month. At the end of the month, the top 50 Collectors with the highest number of Check-ins will get a Check-in Bonus – 2x the reward miles they earned that month at the Sponsors they Checked in at.

Collectors with Android and iPhone devices can now also get on-the-go access to AIR MILES Reward Program information such as account balances, improved browsing of the complete dream rewards catalogue and in-store bonus offers at sponsor locations based on GPS.

“We really wanted to enhance the user experience with the new AIR MILES app. By simplifying the process and adding the Check-in Challenge gaming feature, we believe collectors will not only find the app more useful in their day-to-day, but also enjoy the experience of earning more rewards,” said Melody Adhami, Plastic Mobile’s President and COO.

For complete app intel, visit our made-for-media page, complete with a video, photos and all the answers to your questions (we hope!).

Or, download the new AIR MILES App on Android or upgrade or download the app on the App Store to see just what we are talking about.

We’re all a Twitter about the new app, so tweet us and tell us what you think @plasticmobile.

April 4, 2011 — Pizza Pizza and Plastic Mobile Delivered a One of a Kind Pizza Ordering iPhone App.

Plastic Mobile has joined Pizza Pizza, Canada’s leading pizza chain, as their mobile agency to help build and launch an iPhone application to make ordering and delivering pizza both convenient and fast. This free app is available for all iPhone models, the iPod Touch, and the iPad. The app will let users build the pizza of their dreams; a half order of ham & pineapple and the other half Italian sausage, extra mushrooms, no cheese, and easy on the sauce? Looking to order a gluten-free pizza? Pay through your application or when it arrives. It all can be done with the Pizza Pizza iPhone App.

This innovative application will fundamentally change the ordering experience, making it fast, visual and convenient for the customer. By using location-based services (LBS) to locate the nearest Pizza Pizza restaurant, as well as allowing users to simply pay within the application, the app provides a seamless experience.

The application, delivered by Pizza Pizza and Plastic Mobile, can be downloaded from the App Store on iTunes. For more information on this app visit http://www.pizzapizza.ca/mobile.

Check out our news release here.

Happy Birthday to the Mac!

Apple introduced the very first Macintosh on January 24, 1984, beginning an era that is still going strong 27 years later. Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Macintosh on January 24, 1984 and received wild applause from the crowd of 3,000 people. It was originally introduced simply as the Apple Macintosh and was re-branded as the Macintosh 128K when its big brother, the Macintosh 512K, was introduced in September 1984.

Apple has evolved it’s business beyond the Macintosh computers and has revolutioned the music and mobile industries with the introduction of the iPod, iPhone and iPad. In the latest earnings release, apple revealed that their new iPad device has sold close to $15M.

The iPad is definitely a hit based on the reports & iPhone sales are coming in ahead of estimates. In addition to these, Apple’s App Store has just posted its 10 billionth download, just two and half years after the store opened in July 2008.

Up to this point, consumers have largely driven Apple’s iPhone & iPad growth, and these technologies are said to be creeping into corporate world.

For those that want to relive a piece of history, here is the demo of the first Apple Macintosh by Steve Jobs. Demo of the first Mac computer by Steve Jobs