Launched the initial version of the E Number Knowledge App. Download it from the Google play store here Already had some good feedback on it. 1st update will be to make it possible to move to the S.D Card, which was a feature that was overlooked during the initial work.
Really impressed with how much the Google Market has improved recently and now changed to Google Play. The tools available to developers and the possibilities for adding promotional materials are better as well.
Being more of a developer rather than designer it can be easy to forget how important the first impressions of a product are. All the icons and Graphics used in the Google Play page were a bit of an afterthought,but am quite pleased with how they turned out. For the word cloud image I managed to find a Word cloud generator and used the Wikipedia E numbers page as source text then played around with the various options until something pleasing came out.
Being more familiar with Google play now will mean I can start to think of the various things that are needed when publishing to Google play earlier and make sure the work is top notch in the future.
Anyway make sure you install E Number Knowledge and give feedback so it can be improved
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.happycaffeine.enumberknowledge&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsInVrLmNvLmhhcHB5Y2FmZmVpbmUuZW51bWJlcmtub3dsZWRnZSJd
I’m writing this blog post off line as my internet connection has been off all day and doesn’t look like it will be back on for another couple of days. Fortunately this hasn’t interrupted my work too much. Most of the day has been spent working on the next App that will be launched under the happycaffeine brand and the first one that will be marketed fully. It’s going to be a E Numbers information App that I started a while ago but for several reason it never got finished. The absolute basics are just about working but there is still a bit left to do to turn it in to a decent product.
As my internet was off I spent the day workng at a friends house and I don’t know whether it was the change of scenery or the need to try not to rely on having the internet access that did it but a few problems that I’d had with the App were overcome and rather than adding loads of code it was actually fixed by removing and refactoring the code. Making things better by makeing them more simple always makes me happy.
The next job will be to improve the User interface and add some graphics to make it more user friendly and easier on the eye.
**Update**
Internet came back on line not long after writing this, phew
As 2011 draws to a close and 2012 is just around the corner its time to kick things off again with Happycaffeine. Although the web site hasn’t been updated for an age that doesn’t mean that things have been quiet. Quite the opposite in fact.
A lot of time has been spent doing the groundwork that will lead to new products and projects. This work has meant that time has been spent learning new skills and improving existing ones, to ensure that future work is of the highest standard possible.
So what happened to the next Version of Roller Derby Timer? For so long now I’ve been promising a new version of the Roller Derby Timer App. When I re-visited the project I decided that the existing work had to be scrapped and that it was better to start again. So there is still a new version of the Roller Derby timer App in the pipeline,but it will be completely re-written rather than a minor update. This re-write allows makes it easier to implement further upgrades so once the base product is finished minor upgrades can be rolled out more consistently.
Not wanting to be selling a product that I wasn’t completely happy with I decided to remove the existing Roller Derby App from the Android Market until the new version is ready.
