Running From and Running To

I listened to the latest episode of my friend's podcast the other day and its story really resounded with me. The episode tells the tale of a man who left his life behind to explore India and how that didn't really work out very well for him.

One of the key parts of the message was near the end: that running away from something because it's difficult is the easy way out. The difficult thing isn't taking a leap and finding yourself – the difficult thing is staying where you are and working to improve your situation. The point was that the man thought he was running toward something new, but he was really running from where he was.

I recently quit my job at an established Toronto startup and started a new job at a well-known digital agency. Since listening to the podcast episode, I've been reflecting on my choices, the actions I took because of those choices, and the motivation behind them. To be completely honest, I was running from a situation, but only after trying everything I could to improve it. However, I was also running to a company that I knew I wanted to work for.

I'm proud of the choices I made and how I handled the situation. That'll be my motivation the next time I have to make a difficult decision – any difficult one. Will I be proud of this decision in three months, or will I regret it?

Google Street View Hyperlapse

Today my coworkers in the Teehan+Lax Labs group launched Google Street View Hyperlapse that you should totally check out.

Imagine programmatically stitching together hours of Google Street View imagery to create moving time-lapse videos. Amazing.

The source is up on GitHub.

I feel so lucky to get to work with really creative people who would come up with an idea like this, and then execute it so well. This is the firsts T+L Labs project that I've seen from beginning to end, and it's been awesome to see the team work on it. Good job, guys.

Some Thoughts on Crowdfunding with Indiegogo

My Indiegogo campaign to raise money for my next book has reached its goal and I couldn't be happier.

I've got a couple of thoughts that are worth sharing. First, a lot of people asked why Indiegogo and not Kickstarter. The answer is pretty simple: Kickstarter doesn't let you fundraise from Canada. I didn't mention this in the Indiegogo writeup because I wanted them to hopefully feature me on their front page (to date, they have not).

People also wanted to contribute more. My perk contribution tiers were $9 for the book, $18 for early access, and $100 for a writeup in the book itself. Lots of people contributed $50, but didn't get anything extra for their contribution. In hindsight, I left a price umbrella of sorts. I'm still contemplating what I can do to thank people who contributed more than they had to to reach a park – I'm open to suggestions.

I was unabashed about sharing the campaign on Twitter to my followers, nor about asking influential people in the community to help me spread the word. Obviously, I didn't want to be a nuisance, but I had a lot of positive feedback from people I contacted about helping me.

Indiegogo's Field Guide has some suggestions for a successful campaign, including adding new perks. They point out that most repeat contributions are to gain newly added perks. I'm reluctant to do this just because it feels a little dirty asking people for even more money, especially where I've already met my goal.

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have launched on a Friday night and I would have included more perk levels – one at $50 and one at $250.

I'm incredibly grateful for everyone who has helped out, either by contributing or helping to spread the word. You all rock.

Springboard is a Success

Springboard, the podcast I launched only nine days ago, is already a success. I've bene overwhelemed by the response from the Internet. Thanks to everyone who's gotten in touch.

The show is a success in the one dimension that I care about: it's being listened to. The show's site receives over three hundred visitors a day. In contrast, it took years of blogging before my own site ever approached that figure.

I've recorded a number of episodes now, and it's been remarkable to meet with really interesting people and get them to share their stories with listeners. Absolutely fantastic.

If you've enjoyed the show, please consider rating it on iTunes, which would help new listeners find it.

I'm really excited about where this is going.

iOS Concept Designs

Here is yet another iOS 7 concept video. I want to talk about it a little bit, so give it a watch (mute your speakers first).

Here's the thing: iOS doesn't need a lot of what this designer is showing off. Quick access to bluetooth settings and airplane mode? No one needs quick access to airplane mode. Widgets? Please. Double-tapping home screen icons is a terribad idea.

Don't get me wrong – it's a well-done video and the designer presents some intriguing ideas, but I can't help but feel like they didn't think a lot of these things through past the "oh this would look cool" phase.

For example, has the designer thought about what double-tapping home screen icons would imply, technologically? The OS would need to pause after every single-tap to make sure you aren't about to double-tap, delaying every app launch by a half second and slowing down the apparent responsiveness of the OS. Is that worth having widgets?

Several of the tap targets I noticed throughout the video look far too small. Controls should have a size of at least 44x44 points to provide a visual affordance to the user that they can be tapped.

Design doesn't exist in a vacuum. Think about how your design is going to fit within the technological ecosystem that it'll live in.

Don't get me wrong – iOS is not perfect. It has a lot of room to grow and is even being surpassed in some ways by other mobile operating systems. But don't go out and grab every feature from every OS you care to riff off – mobile and desktop – and call it a good concept video. Let's be sensible about what we're asking for from Apple, because who knows – we might end up with it.

Springboard

I've launched a new podcast: Springboard. It's a show for newcomers to iOS software development.

My inaugural guest is Matthew Bischoff. We had a great conversation about getting started with your first app, some awesome tips and tricks, and how to get featured by the App Store. Definitely subscribe and give it a listen.

Software Accessibility Goes Beyond Screen Readers

Software accessibility is about more than just making software accessible to people who can't see. Visual impairments are common, so making software accessible to users using screen readers, like VoiceOver on iOS, is key. However, lots of other impairments exist and it's important to take that into consideration when designing your software.

Consider the scrolling indicator colour. When you're designing your mobile web site, Safari uses the background colour of the body tag to infer the colour of the scroll indicator (light or dark). If your body tag is light, but it's covered by a dark div, then the indicator is going to be dark – on top of a dark div. Users with visual impairments are going to have a hard time seeing the indicator, rendering the scroll indicator completely useless to them Furthermore, users with cognitive impairments aren't going to be able to rely on that visual affordance either, possibly confusing. Don't betray the user's expectations – it will only make them more likely to leave your site.

Part of making good software is making usable software. Software accessibility is just a specific form of usability. Keep that in mind the next time you build something.

We Need to Grow

I'm over half way to my funding goal on my Indiegogo project to fund my next book. One of my primary goals in this project is to attract existing developers working with other languages and ecosystems into the iOS world. I believe that we are sitting at a crossroads between stagnation and evolution. We need diversification to continue growing.

Why?

I sit behind an iMac all day and I happily code iOS apps. It's all I know. I'm sure I'm not alone. We specialize in iOS because we want to be great at it.

The problem is, we sit a little too close. We lose perspective. We don't know the right kinds of questions to ask.

We need new developers with other perspectives in our community because they will ask the right kind of questions. For example, they'll ask "why doesn't Objective-C have a package manager?" And then they'll make one.

A more diverse iOS developer community will make us better by forcing us to re-evaluate our assumptions. Things change, especially in the tech world. If we want to keep from stagnating, it's incredibly important to constantly question everything we know.

But that's impossible to do on our own. We need the help of iOS newcomers to force us to ask the uncomfortable questions we don't want to know the answers to. As Shunryu Suzuki wrote, "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few."

We'll get better tools. We'll get broader perspectives. We'll grow instead of dying.

Sounds good to me.

This project isn't just a book – it's a tool for making us better. Please help spread the word.

5 Things to Know When Designing for iOS

For my first contribution to the Teehan+Lax Blog, we have 5 Things to Know When Designing for iOS.

Well, they also aren’t using a mouse. Instead, all interactions with your app are made with a far less precise instrument: a finger.

I had fun with this one.

iOS and Objective-C for Beginners

My friend Andrey helped me record this video for my Indiegogo campaign. Check it out.

I've been overwhelmed by the response online. In only a few days, we're 30% of the way to my goal.

This isn't just about writing a book. This is about providing a community resource to help make us all better at what we do. This is going to be awesome.