Feedback requested

Been working on this project for my current employer (MV Transit...and its my last day as I write this) and I was hoping I could get some feedback on a particular page for a Windows Phone 8 app I have been trying to finish before I leave.

In the image, I am using a grouped LongListSelector. The groups are Stops that the shuttles, well, stop at. The items in each group are the shuttle route names. So, given this context, its a list of stops with the routes that stop there and the next time those routes do stop there.

But I don't think that is obvious. Its almost hard to explain as well.

Anybody got any good ideas or feedback on making this more obvious?

Thanks in advance!

Intuitive User Interfaces do not have to make sense

Disclaimer: This is not a defense of Windows 8. I am just using it as an example. I am not a Microsoft employee although I do use Microsoft technologies in my software development. I may be biased in some regard but I hope my views come out in an objective nature.

User interface and experience design is a tough and tricky situation these days. It seemed like everyone readily knew that in order to operate your desktop, laptop, smartphone and even refrigerator, all you had to do was use the obvious iconography along with menu systems arrayed across the edge of the display. And then Microsoft had to come along and screw it all up.
One of the biggest complaints Microsoft's Windows 8 receives is that it is "unintuitive". It is unintuitive because static icons are missing. It is unintuitive because the Start Menu is gone. And it is unintuitive because nobody would know, without some training of any kind, that the charms bar exists, or all installed applications can be found with 2-3 clicks, or any number of other little gripes one may have. And when asked why it's unintuitive, chances are its because it "doesn't make sense...".

Common Sense is limited by what the person knows
I could go on a large rant that would take up the rest of my day on what a fallacy the notion of Common Sense is. Common Sense said the Indians were just on the other side of that large ocean. Common Sense tells us all the time that the shorter line at the grocery store is the faster line (and we all know that isn't true). And Common Sense said that if this woman weighs the same as a duck, she's made of wood and therefore...A WITCH!
The problem with it is that we don't know everything but accept the little that we do as being accepted and truth. This sort of notion plagues American politics and economics today. In our disastrous two-party system, both sides claim to have Common Sense while the other is stupid and uneducated. And yet neither have proven to actually have a positive affect. But this isn't a political rant.
The other major problem with Common Sense is that it's limited to what we're used to.

Intuitive User Interfaces do not have to make sense
Microsoft's Windows 8 has certainly had it's critics. And largely for good reason. As an owner of 3 PC's, all with Windows 8 and only one with a touch screen, I can say that I whole-heartedly prefer the touch screen over mouse and keyboard. And that was what it was made for. Swiping the edges with a mouse doesn't feel or work as well as intended. Navigating the "Metro" (and yes, I'm still calling it that as well) Start Screen doesn't work as well with a mouse and keyboard as it does with a simple swipe.
I use it well enough; hot keys and mouse wheels play heavily in my usage. The average user base, of which I am not, may not be that savvy though.
But one of the most interesting solutions to this is to put back the start menu from Windows 7 and older versions. Again, we are limited to what we know when it comes to Common Sense, but this doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm missing a piece of the puzzle as to why a small menu in the corner and a full screen menu that achieves the nearly exact functionality is so vastly different and inhibiting.
I get that there isn't a tutorial on right-clicking the start screen and then clicking the All Apps icon in the corner that achieves the same action as clicking the Start Menu and scrolling to the Programs tab from previous OS's. That's cool and I appreciate it. But once you learn that, and know its practically the same thing outside of presentation, does it still seem unintuitive?
Or how about no tacit knowledge that in the Start Screen, you can start typing and it automatically searches your installed applications? Such as "Ste" will display Steam for all the gamers out there. That is, if you hadn't already pinned the application executable to your Start Screen.

Time to bring it all in
Merely because it doesn't look like the user interface which we have learned to use doesn't mean it is "unintuitive". PC users using a Mac for the first time will complain of unintuitiveness and may be lost. No Windows key for hot keys? Where's the Start Menu...oh, its the Application drop down that takes you to a folder with all of your applications installed. But it takes some getting used to and education in order to become a productive user.
So why is Windows 8 so "unintuitive" then? And why doesn't it make sense? If we can learn to use an iPhone, switch from PC to Mac or vice versa, be enthralled with the Kinect, create the automobile and expand our society to fit roads, realize that yes we do revolve around the sun and generally accept that the morons on the other side of the aisle are bent on destroying the USA, why is it such a brain numbing, productivity destroying failure to change the game of OS design?


I wish I had more time to dive into this more as I know I left things out and wanted to expand on more. Would love to discuss it with anybody in the comments. Thanks!

Marketplace Screw up

I recently did some updates to My Animal Age Free which changes the ad network from AdDuplex to Pubcenter. I got issues resolved and a working copy published Feb 27th. I updated manually that day.
Feb 28th, I received an update along with the much discussed Twitter update that reverts it back from the recent major UI update. Intrigued and curious, I updated my app. It reverted back to a "broken" published version where the ad fails.
If you're one of my users and wondering what the most recent update was about, it is this revert update. If you care enough, you can uninstall and reinstall the app to get it back to the intended functionality, which will provide me the miniscule amount of revenue from the ad network.
If you're a Windows Phone Microsoft person that can report this as a problem, please do so. This is obviously affected a number of apps. And I'll be losing ad revenue because of it.

Listening to others, or else.

When I was finished with My Animal Age, my wife mentioned to me that I should allow the user to input their age once and then show the animal ages for every animal. As it stands now, the app requires the user to put in their age for every animal.

After it was published, I was discussing apps with an Irish man who made something similar. He mentioned something very similar: allow the user to input their age once for all animals.

I chose not to update the app and change this.

I have a myriad of reasons. It would take time to change the user flow. I never intended to gain anything but education and fun from making it. I never expected any real money or notoriety. I could go on, but you get the point.

Obviously the app has never taken off. The paid version, so far, has only been purchased 15 times, including by myself. The number of trials are around 150-200. The free version is much larger but the ad network (Ad Duplex) isn't a revenue driven one but a discovery based one.

I find it interesting and fun to take a look at the statistics I built into the app to see how the trial version gets used SO MUCH, sometimes with people using the two trial animals upwards of 50-80 times. But those appear to not find it fun enough to purchase.

Then I met Terry Meyerson, head of Windows Phone division at Microsoft, at the Windows Phone 8 fan meetup before the release event on Oct. 29th. We talked and I mentioned my app. He asked to see it. And guess what he said?

"You should let the user enter their age once for all animals."

I never felt like running straight to my computer to write code as much as I did right then.

I am in the process of updating My Animal Age, mostly to understand the differences between 7 and 8, but I am taking the opportunity to incorporate this change in user interaction.

I also wonder, if I had listened to my wife and the Irish gentleman, would My Animal Age have received far greater purchases and prestige? Did my inclination to not listen to user advice possibly kill my app's chances? Is this the reason I received a 1 star review from Brazil?

I think this applies for everything we coders do. We always need to listen to our potential customers, fellow coders and, despite our best desire to believe we only know the best for our software, it's usually not.

So keep an ear out and be opened minded, OK?

My Lucky Morning.

I really haven't spoken of this yet, but yesterday (Oct 29th, 2012) I was invited to attend the launch event for Windows Phone 8 here in San Francisco as a "fan" (as opposed to press). From 8:15am to 9:45am, I got to mingle (as much as an introvert can) with many other "fans" (some, I discovered weren't so much fans but people interested to see what Microsoft had to say in person). There were lots of Microsoft employees who worked directly on the platform there to mingle and get feedback from us.

During this time, I had drinks, got a t-shirt and did some talking, including meeting and showing my app to the head of the entire Windows Phone division, Terry M. (can't remember how to spell his last name). Steve Ballmer addressed us in a great and jovial fashion. The alcohol was tasty and so were the mini pancakes.

We were then ushered into the events room and took our seats before the press showed up. We all sat behind the press, but it was still easy to see the stage. Joe Belfiore gave the presentation and it was exciting in person.

Jessica Alba came on stage for a bit to give it a bit of celebrity love. She seemed thoroughly happy to be there, though shy. It certainly gave the whole presentation a great extra love for the product.

Joe B.'s kids came on stage briefly to show the wonderful Kids Corner feature. That is the ability to bypass the locked screen to reach a special area that can have designated apps, games and features accessible to what you want your kids to reach. And in an extra fashion, security-wise, don't include email and other stuff and it can't be accessed either. I will be using this a lot.

Steve Ballmer came on last to give a good delivery (much, much more canned than the very personal and funny speech he gave to the fans before the presentation). Although his presence wasn't diminished in the least.

And then we got our surprise. At the end, after Steve, Joe and Jessica gathered on stage to do a quick end photo-op together, Steve says, "Oh, and I forgot to mention. Everyone here gets one of these phones." The sliding video columns slide away, the back wall pulls up and behind it is revealed to be a full back lounge area with all of the Microsoft employees hanging out and girls with trays full of HTC Windows Phone 8X's walking onto stage.

Needless to say, the fan part of the audience erupted in major applause and yelling.

I spent the next half-hour breaking open my new deep blue 8X, getting it running on a temporary sim card (it's a micro sim, compared to my full size one in the Focus), and then walking around, hitting NFC markers for apps that they had placed on tables all over the venue.

I talked to the woman who emailed me the invite. She helped me get some things set up. I held a Nokia 822 briefly. I seriously considered grabbing a drink and some of the delicious lunch they had put out for us. It included Ahi Tuna sandwiches and a rainbow of cookies and cakes arrayed on a table. I don't know what else there was to eat.

Unfortunately, I had to get back to my children who were being watched by a hotel sitter. So I made my way back through a not-so-great part of San Francisco (which reminded me how much it's suffering from this economy downturn) and relieved the sitter of her duties. Fortunately for my children, she was lovely and they took to her wonderfully.

Regarding the phone, I won't lie. I was hoping to get a Nokia 920. The low-light images and exclusive apps are something to desire. Considering how much I spent on the sitter, I won't be getting one for some time (although I still have a discount upgrade waiting). That said, this phone is, pardon my language, fucking awesome.

The pictures I took have been fantastic. Never perfect, that would be a miracle of any phone, but significantly better than anything I've used EVER. Below is an image of San Francisco City Hall.

Especially compared to my old Samsung Focus, this thing is a polished piece of work. It feels better. It looks better. It performs better. Windows Phone 8 OS is a vast improvement over 7.5. The added features of Kids Corner (already used) is phenomenal. The multiple sized tiles are going to be a good headache trying to figure out how I want it to look. And the OS isn't technically the final product either, since it hasn't been officially released yet.

All in all, the event was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me. I will probably not ever be able to attend such a spectacle ever again and consider myself exceptionally lucky for doing so. I don't say this thinking it was necessarily better than attending an iOS launch event or anything. But I can say that I can imagine what it would feel like to be an iOS fan attending one of those.

Don't get me wrong. It is just a phone. But in this day and age, it can also be an extension of who you are. It can be an extension of accessing those things that are going on around you and staying connected to it all. And frankly, with experience with iPhone and extremely little experience with Android, I think Microsoft's Windows Phone fulfills that want.

To Tweet or not to Tweet

On October 29th, 2012, in sunny San Francisco, Microsoft will be holding an event for the latest Windows Phone version, Windows Phone 8

I was lucky enough to win a ticket from a contest that Ben Rudolph (of Smoked By Windows Phone fame) and other Microsofties held to allow some Windows Phone fans a seat at the event. I am really, truly excited about this.

So here is my question, provided I get told not to divulge anything I see at the event, would my twitter followers like to see me live tweet from the event? And not just speaking of items that will be replicated across the techno-journalism sphere, but from a fans perspective? Maybe include a hashtag like #wp8fan

I love Windows Phone 7. I think the whole new UI interface (Modern? Microsoft Design Style? or the old Metro?) is a bold risk that I happen to enjoy over others. It's certainly not without its faults, but the few of those are almost entirely in the app ecosystem which is slowly but surely being whittled away as more appear. So what they are doing with Windows Phone 8 is taking that a step further and going all out on this design choice that could be a part of the make-or-break future of Microsoft.

Let me know if people will enjoy this live tweet from a fans perspective. Thanks!

Soooooo...what is wrong with My Animal Age?

I was thinking about the performance of my only app on Windows Phone 7 and why it doesn't seem to have gained any traction whatsoever. It is sitting just under 180 downloads (including trials) with 15 users actually purchasing it.

Couple that with some analytics that I put in, I see some users have used the Dog and Mouse over 50+ times on the same device. The majority are down around 1-2, and that is fine. But there are a large amount that have 10-20+ uses of the trial animals. And only 15 purchases?

What is wrong with it?

I can only speculate until the end of time. On top of a couple of 5 star reviews, it's received one 3 star review that simply said, "Too few" and another I just found from Brazil, translated from...Portugeuse(?) that...well, translated says "A drug is not worth" but I'm thinking that means it's not worth the $.99.

WHY?

I get "Too few" and it's something I would rectify if I knew it was worth the time and effort. But without any additional reviews or more in depth feedback, I'm not sure if its simply worth it.

If you've used my app and enjoyed it or hated it, why not review it with maybe more that 3-5 words? How about hitting the email link in the app and sending me something more substantial? I would love to make this fun for kids and maybe even adults...but I need to know HOW it can be better.

Images of the app are in the link here. Is it not pretty enough? Does it not jump and dance around like the others? How about the top animal noises app that has about 3X as many animals but does nothing else?

I get the feeling I'll never know. But if you do, I would appreciate being told!