Steps+
December 27, 2013
I made a new app for iOS - Steps+, and I would definitely like to explain why I made it, and some of the decisions I made.
You might be thinking: “Wow that looks just like ‘Pedometer++’”, well…. yes – and it is *not* by accident – a lot about Pedometer++ is done right – but not everything. Even the business model is the same (take ‘tips’) – although my app is a little more subtle asking about it. I hope David Smith is not upset; I can’t imagine he would be. I just improved on his design/implementation.
Pedometer++ is a great app; you can see all the steps you have taken and it saves past days for as long as you use the application. When I first got my 5s Pedometer++ was one of the first apps I downloaded; and I love(d) it.
However, quickly I began to find faults in multiple things with the application. Annoying design things, and lack of functionality that I really wanted (and expected).
I decided to write my own; and I decided I would add calorie counting, the ability to export the data (later decided to export step data into the CSV format), the ability to have calorie goals as well as steps, a nice chart for viewing progress in last week, and a better design overall. Users can also share any individual day instead of just the current day.
One of the main things I dislike about Pedometer++, in terms of design, is the progress color is behind the cells. While clever, in practice it’s distracting and just looks strange given certain data sets. I also was wondering why Pedometer++ didn’t update in real time as I took steps while the app was running. My application does this, and there is an method that will call a block when new steps are detected, so it was very easy.
The second big design thing about Pedometer++ that really irks me is the choice of blue in the app, its not the default blue used on controls that have not been tinted – it is pure blue ([UIColor blueColor]) – and it looks terrible. So all my controls use the default blue, and it makes a huge difference.
If people enjoy it, I am thinking about adding an automatic backup option, a reset option, and much more.
I really do think Steps+ is awesome, hopefully you do as well. Let me know what you think!
Anyway, check it out on the AppStore.
You might be thinking: “Wow that looks just like ‘Pedometer++’”, well…. yes – and it is *not* by accident – a lot about Pedometer++ is done right – but not everything. Even the business model is the same (take ‘tips’) – although my app is a little more subtle asking about it. I hope David Smith is not upset; I can’t imagine he would be. I just improved on his design/implementation.
Pedometer++ is a great app; you can see all the steps you have taken and it saves past days for as long as you use the application. When I first got my 5s Pedometer++ was one of the first apps I downloaded; and I love(d) it.
However, quickly I began to find faults in multiple things with the application. Annoying design things, and lack of functionality that I really wanted (and expected).
I decided to write my own; and I decided I would add calorie counting, the ability to export the data (later decided to export step data into the CSV format), the ability to have calorie goals as well as steps, a nice chart for viewing progress in last week, and a better design overall. Users can also share any individual day instead of just the current day.
One of the main things I dislike about Pedometer++, in terms of design, is the progress color is behind the cells. While clever, in practice it’s distracting and just looks strange given certain data sets. I also was wondering why Pedometer++ didn’t update in real time as I took steps while the app was running. My application does this, and there is an method that will call a block when new steps are detected, so it was very easy.
The second big design thing about Pedometer++ that really irks me is the choice of blue in the app, its not the default blue used on controls that have not been tinted – it is pure blue ([UIColor blueColor]) – and it looks terrible. So all my controls use the default blue, and it makes a huge difference.
If people enjoy it, I am thinking about adding an automatic backup option, a reset option, and much more.
I really do think Steps+ is awesome, hopefully you do as well. Let me know what you think!
Anyway, check it out on the AppStore.