Human Experience not User Experince

Posted on by Leonard Pham

“Your solution is not my fucking problem”

I can’t recall the author of the quote mentioned above, but it’s recently become my mantra. Too often product designers/managers/developers are looking to solve problems that don’t exist. Specifically, with regards to mobile, I have a growing concern that too many businesses see mobile simply as just another marketing channel. They invent products and product features just to have another way to target their consumer base and audience. This way of thinking is narrow minded and completely misses the point of what my handheld, internet enabled, location aware, time aware, motion sensitive, video camera, computer, media player, magic box is capable of. The devices we carry in our pockets are more than just a “smartphone” and more than just another “marketing channel”.

In many regards our mobile devices are a physical extension and force multiplier of our human abilities. And when you combine this amazing device with “wearables” and other Bluetooth or Internet enabled devices it does even more! It monitors and records my health. It alerts me when there’s a problem with my car engine. Unlocks doors. Finds lost treasure (my keys). My smartphone literally gives me superpowers and improves my human experience. That’s how businesses and marketers need to think about mobile. Why? Ponder this:

Prior to being sold to Google ($3.2 billion) Nest reported that in one year they had sold over one million thermostats at a price of $250/unit. A $250 THERMOSTAT! But a magic thermostat, that improved the lives of its users simply by learning their habits and providing a more human experience for its users.

iOS7 vs KitKat Adoption

Posted on by Leonard Pham

Full Disclaimer: Still an Apple Fanboy

That said as a developer of mobile and tablet apps, I live in both worlds so the adoption rate of new operating systems is of key interest for me.

According to mixpanel, as of this morning ~80% of iOS users are now running iOS7 (chart).

In comparison only 1% of android users are running KitKat. To be fair iOS7 was released more than a month before KitKat but the numbers are nonetheless staggering.

Happy Coding!

“I don’t like documenting my code. If it was hard to write it should be hard to read”
– Anonymous

Fortune 100 Study Demonstrates Limitations of Responsive Web Design | The Search Agents

Posted on by Leonard Pham

Fortune 100 Study Demonstrates Limitations of Responsive Web Design | The Search Agents.

According to this report from The Search Agents, the average load time for all Responsive Web Design (RWD) sites is over eight seconds. You can draw your own conclusions, but I think everyone can agree that something has gone horribly awry if you have to wait eight seconds for a website to load. Perhaps there was a distortion in the time-space continuum and these RWD were forced to load over a D-Link 56.6K external Voice/Fax/Data modem?

EIGHT SECONDS! My Keurig takes less time to make a cup of coffee!

My Jerry Springer Final Thought: Your mobile strategy has to extend beyond the device. And if you don’t have a mobile strategy well, “You see that flash of light in the corner of your eye…”

iOS7: Just go all-in

Posted on by Leonard Pham

Whether you’re upgrading an existing app or building a new app, my advice is to go all-in with iOS7. Like most things in life, it’s easier said than done, but the numbers support me on this point.

If you haven’t already heard, the iOS7 adoption rates have been astronomical. According to stats from mixpanel, in just over one week, almost two-thirds of iOS users have already upgraded to iOS7. SEVEN DAYS, and we’re already over 60%. So the $64k question is: Is it really worth my time, money, and effort to support iOS6? Probably not.

For the devs out there here are a couple of code snippets to get you moving.

That Pesky Status Bar

iOS7 brings with it, full layout (i.e. edge to edge) view controllers and translucent bars (nav bars, status bars, etc.). And because a view controller’s view now extends beneath the status bar, you’ll inevitably run into situations where the status bar blends into its background – making it appear invisible (don’t worry it’s still there).

Prior to iOS7 you could set the tint/style of the status bar with the following code:

[[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarStyle:UIStatusBarStyle animated:BOOL]

In iOS7 the statusBarStyle (among other things) is more or less handled at the view controller level. Thus depending on your view controller’s content/color you can dynamically set the status bar’s style so that there’s contrast. Here’s how you do it:

1. Implement the following method in your view controller

- (UIStatusBarStyle)preferredStatusBarStyle

2. And any time the method (above) returns a different value, make sure you call:

- (void)setNeedsStatusBarAppearanceUpdate

NOTE: If your view controller is part of a navigation controller’s stack, then you can change the tint of the nav bar and status bar simply by changing the UINavigationBar ‘barStyle’ and/or ‘barTintColor’ properties.

Hope that helps. Happy iOS7 Coding!

Finally, FDA tells mobile health app developers what it plans to regulate

Posted on by Leonard Pham

I hope this doesn’t stifle the amazing innovations that have occurred in this space. We’re so close to having an actual tricorder!

Ki Mae Heussner's avatarGigaom

More than two years after issuing its draft guidance on the regulation of mobile health apps, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally released its final guidelines.

By some counts, there are about 40,000 health-related mobile apps available for download on the iPhone, Android devices or other smartphones. The vast majority of these apps exist outside the scope of F.D.A regulation, but mobile health app developers have still been waiting for the agency’s final word on where it plans to focus.

On Monday, the F.D.A. said its oversight will apply to two broad categories of apps:

  • Those intended to be used as “an accessory to a regulated medical device” – for example, an app that enables a healthcare provider to diagnose a condition by viewing a medical image from a picture archiving or communication system on a smartphone or tablet; or
  • Apps that “transform a mobile platform into…

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