A name change, another iteration: The app is morphing again

Dave and I were playing around with the name of our app last night. Initially, we were going to name it after its hierarchical function. After a little thought and some trolling through the app store we decided to focus on the app’s purpose rather than its features. Once the name changed, it was clear we needed to modify the design. As if that’s not enough, we’re also toying with the idea of changing how users access the camera function as they move through the screens. Changing where and when the camera button appears might interfere with the expected functionality because of the human interface guidelines.

We’re basically back to wireframing again.

Human interface guidelines are Apple’s set of rules about how they think the apps should function–it’s their best practices on app UI. HIG is the design and architecture principles that are based on the way people think and work–not the capabilities of the device. So, we’re asking ourselves: for a productivity app like ours do we need to have the camera function available on all screens? Or, is it dis-intuitive that a user will use the camera function on any but one point in their creation of a record? If the latter case is true then using precious space for the camera on all screens is a bad idea.

Clearly, my mind is spinning a web and I would give my left arm for some real market research.

In addition to rethinking our human interface we are reworking the design to fit better with the new name. So much for all that time spent on what has become a handful of truly elegant screens.

We’re treading carefully here. That last thing we want is a clumsy aesthetic. The drawing board is calling.

Columbus founders may finally get an incubator

Last month I had lunch with an old friend. He moved to Columbus from the West Coast a few years ago when his partner took a job with one of the hyper-hip retail brands in town. I remember chatting with him during his first year in Columbus about his impressions of the city, its people, and potential entrepreneurial options he was considering. He had taken a sabbatical from his big-time ad agency job and  wanted to find a new way to contribute.

Years later, as we sat over our Pad Thai at the local market he laid out his plan for a new kind of start-up incubator in Columbus. I say “new kind” but what I mean is one-of-a-kind. Our city doesn’t have any start-up incubators.

Coming from a large city, known for its young crowd of start-up geniuses, his insights have always weighted heavily with me. If there’s going to be a successful incubator in Columbus, he’s the one to create it. Since moving here he has become a major presence in the city’s small business community. He found his way as a founder and his business already has a cult following. He’s chairing the board of a project poised to reinvent the city’s creative community and he owns an amazing space set up to support start-ups.

When I was trying to break into agency work he was a mentor to me. And I often thought, as I went through the funding process, how proud he would be if I built something of my own. As we talked about his incubator, I felt excited for the first time since finding out we weren’t getting the Y Combinator funding. Could this be the first grumblings of a connected, local start-up community? Would I be able to carve out a place for myself in this warm, comforting nest?

I don’t know that my place in this burgeoning incubator community is as a founder, but I do have skills founders need. As founders swallow the lumps of rejection it’s important to remember that there’s more than one way to contribute. My goal has always been to be a part of building a new machine–it doesn’t necessarily have to be my machine.

Is this blog a liability?

Recently, I added a link to this blog on my resume and web portfolio. More recently, it occurred to me that someone considering me for a position may not like what they see here. All this talk of evolving the work environment and my rebel soul peeking through. During what could be a major growth-phase in my professional life could these rantings…err…thoughtful philosophies become a liability?

I would hope anyone reading this blog would see a person who believes in something–that being their intellect and ability. After all, no one wants a troop of soulless drones creating and maintaing the personality of their brand, right? Marketing requires real people, individuals. And, this is a place for me to record my unique ideas about work. Look at Seth Godin. He’s all about radical concepts and it’s what has placed him and all the brands he touches ahead of the pack.

I’ve considered taking the link to this blog down. But, that would only serve to homogenize me–and that’s not what I consider professional growth. So, liability be damned. The link stays up.

Us 3: I’ve been daydreaming again

Slogging through the snow and bitter cold Monday morning I felt a little warmth in my belly. As my body went numb my mind surged. I thought back to a couple of months ago when Dave and I were preparing our Y Combinator funding application, I was so inspired. Hope was gushing out of my pores and no matter what absurd corporate nonsense was slopped on my plate I was happy. It’s easy to be contented when you believe something better, more meaningful, is just around the corner.

Since we got word that we didn’t get the funding I’ve tried to stay hopeful. Dave convinced me that starting small, building our first iPhone app was a way to stay in the founder game. Logically, I understand PopCornLabs was too ambitious and bite-sized side projects are the slow and steady path to fulfillment. But, my logical mind often bickers with the fire in my belly.

So, on that cold morning I began to fantasize about a small marketing shop. I would call it Us 3. It would consist of me (the writer), a well-rounded designer, and a jack-of-all-languages programmer. We would all be strategic thinkers and like-minded in our pursuit of good work for smart clients. I felt warm all over.

As I floated up the escalator and quietly smiled through the long elevator ride to my dim corporate office, I imagined the tag line: Small shop, big work. (That’s not my final–I was just word-playing.)

By lunch the warmth had worn off and I was distracted by the work of the day. But, it seems no matter how many waves hit this pebble the edges never smooth. The desire I feel to work a new way, to put quality ahead of tired complacency, to be productive and good never leaves me. Am I cursed, or is the opportunity to live a better work-life out there?

All I Want for Christmas is a Programmer

My wish list goes something like this:

1. A competent programmer, with lots of object-oriented C++ experience.

2. An ambitious young programmer who (in theory) can develop in object-oriented C++ and will work for cheap because he has no experience.

3. A cheap C++ programmer who works cheap because he’s half-way around the world in a country we’ve never even heard of.

4. One of those awesome mop-vacs that sucks up dirt and pet hair and then sanitizes with super hot steam.

The above this is in order of importance.

We’ve set a deadline. It’s about as hard as a deadline can be when you’re working on a project in your spare time while raising an 8-year-old and working demanding full-time jobs. For now, let’s say it’s January 1, 2011.

The real deadline is probably more realistically February or March. See, it just so happens that I may have an FF(F) investor on the hook. This person, we’ll call him Mr. Money Bags (I mostly call him Dad), will be coming into some funds in late winter. I’m working on my five slides for funding and hope to present my business plan in the coming weeks. Of course, he has no idea how the iPhone works, nor would he ever presume to understand the needs of an app shop start-up. But, he believes in Dave and me and thinks we’re both super smart. In other words, he’s the perfect investor.

Honestly, it’s great if we can get a little Friends, Family, and Fools money to help with the programming costs. But, the reason we chose this app as our first venture is that it’s completely bootstrap-able. We won’t require outside funds.

Meanwhile, Dave’s latest screens look amazing. They’re elegant and hyper-intuitive. The openness of this app lends itself to the user’s whims and unique needs.

Our next big milestone is the icon design. So many good, useful apps fall by the wayside because of poorly designed icons.

I’m working on the app description. I only have 3 lines, tops, to “sell” the app to users. This is no easy task. Maybe if I do a really, really good job Santa will bring me the programmer of my dreams this Christmas.

 

I will not measure out my life with coffee spoons

This is my favorite creation. I say creation, because it isn’t just my favorite poem.  It is, in my mind, the most moving thing ever created by a human. It’s funny how it’s words and meanings are coming to life during this time in the creation of our project. We have had a hundred visions and revisions.

 

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;	25
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;	30
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.

 

For any of you who are creating something, you will understand the desire to measure your life in more meaningful strides. The urge to make a bold declaration and follow it with decisiveness and passion.

If you are a creator and you grow weary or afraid, read this. If nothing else, you may push on for fear of becoming like J. Alfred Prufrock.

Punch it Up

Three loathsome words to anyone who has ever worked as a creative: Punch it up. What the hell does that mean? I’ve seen a half-dozen eyes roll in perfect synchronization when those words come over the speaker phone during client conference calls. Now, I’m saying it.

Dave and I are knee-deep in the design process on our app. We plan to work mostly within the Apple framework. But, the best apps have that little something special. That something that somehow makes the iPhone feel more elegant in your hand when you’re using a particular app.

Dave has been scanning dozens of apps for comparison, while I try to come up with a visual metaphor that is both functional and pretty.

I’ve also gone through your color suggestions. I have to say I already have a favorite, but it will be a matter of how the colors play against the framework. Rest assured, there are some tasty treats coming all of the commentors way–we recently downloaded the Martha Stewart Cookie app for iPad.

As we toil away on the design for our app-in-progress the ideas for other projects continue to percolate. We have a few other app ideas and I’m still trying to figure out how I scale PopCornLabs down for a beta version. There has to be a way to convert the grand network idea into a social layer that aggregates all the disparate founder resources that are already out there.

As these possibilities scuttle around the back of my mind I try to remain focused on the design of the app that is almost in-hand.

Instagram is a perfect example of punch-it-up design–even Justin Timberlake thinks so.