On Android and Typography

A.™ 30 January 2012

A year ago ustwo™ released the hundred selling, million downloaded app for iPhone, HappySnapper.

HappySnapper was pitched as our “Anti-social Photosharing app”—a good half year before the original Color managed to make anti-social photosharing a $41 million joke without a punchline.

Our app encouraged users to take shots of their friends and “punk” them with goofy prop stickers and share them via Email, Twitter and Facebook.

Whilst HappySnapper never hit the critical mass we would have liked, its popularity exploded in Asia after we dropped the price to $0.00 and had it featured on FreeAppADay. This new-found popularity, coupled with the ever expanding Android userbase, led to us prepping an Android version.

Adapting the iOS UI to one which satisfies the Android HIG has been an enjoyable challenge, but a less enjoyable issue is the barebones approach to typography that the Open Handset Alliance has taken with Android.

HappySnapper’s unique selling point was for users to be able to edit text on stickers to humour their friends. Because of the variety of stickers available, HappySnapper relies on different typefaces for its charm.

Below is a selection of HappySnapper stickers which are customised with fonts included on every iOS device shipped.

Happy Snapper with fonts available on iOS

Happy Snapper on iOS uses Futura, American Typewriter, Arial Rounded and more without need for additional licences

Below is the same selection customised with fonts that we can expect on an Android device.

Happy Snapper stickers with Android standard fonts

In contrast, the same stickers with fonts distributed with Android

At last count, every iOS device has close to 40 Latin font families ready to use. Up until the recent release of Ice Cream Sandwich there were only three families guaranteed on every Android device, and all were variations of Droid—Sans, Serif and Mono. Ice Cream Sandwich’s introduction of Roboto has seen this increase to four, and this is only if Droid is included in the distribution.

Despite the merits of both Droid and Roboto, they can’t match the breadth of typographic variety Apple have included on every iOS device.

To deliver a similar experience to our Android users our options are to either pay to license the typefaces we need or to use fonts distributed under the Open Font License.

For an app which hasn’t yet made its keep it’s hard to justify spending even more money before we’ve made any, so Open Font Licensed faces are the way for us to go.

With all respect and credit to the designers who have made their fonts available via the Open Font License, these faces can range from fantastic original creations to low-rent versions of design classics to faces even more dubious than everyone’s favourite typographic piñata, Comic Sans.

Aesthetic qualities aside, the most important thing for our purposes is to ensure that the typefaces are robust enough to withstand real world use.

It is this robustness one pays for with professional quality typefaces. Type foundries make sure that the ‘f’s, ‘j’s and ‘k’s of a font play well with each other. They ensure that enough of the character set exists for the face to be practical. They see that the font has been properly hinted so that it displays properly at all sizes and resolutions.

By shouldering the license cost and bundling quality typefaces, Apple have cut down the potential bugs we might find if we shipped a product with open source fonts embedded. Whilst plenty of open source fonts are of a professional standard, without quality assurance it is difficult to tell which ones are robust before it’s too late.

Google are attempting to improve this, but as Matthew Butterick discusses they still have a way to go before the quality of their open source fonts approach their open source code.

The Open Handset Alliance would make Android a better environment for design-savvy developers if they followed Apple’s model and included in their spec a list of typefaces which can be found on any Android distribution, typefaces which cover use cases from a five year old’s party invite to signage for a blue-chip business instead of leaving it to the whim of the distributor.

The idea of open has many merits but for Android to be as attractive as iOS to designers and developers like us, we need a “gold standard” set of typefaces, strenuously tested and guaranteed to be installed across all devices bearing the Android name.

Tags: Android, Design, iOS, Typography

Discussion

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Inge Kuijper

Great article! Liking that eBook prototype, copying from the real world and / or nature can definitely be useful if applied the right way.
http://twitter.com/mutlu82 Murat Mutlu

Finally a balanced post with great examples. Totally agree with the final paragraph – it’s a designer problem.

A few people in the design community is acting as if users are going around saying ‘This leather is a farce!’. The reality is that they’re the only ones that really care.
I designed my first Windows Phone app a couple of weeks and from a designers point of view it was incredibly boring to do. Felt as if I could have done the whole thing in Excel.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Silje-Gabrielsen/579442024 Silje Gabrielsen

The Latte-art seems familiar
http://www.facebook.com/people/Silje-Gabrielsen/579442024 Silje Gabrielsen

Nice post!
I enjoyed the challenge of ripping a iPhone version of an app apart, to put it back together in a Windows app. I like the sliding of the Panorama with out getting lost. And the wonderful change of using a phone stripped down to what feels like a nice wireframe. But as you say, it still feels a bit cold and impersonal. And after a 2 months fascination I’m back on the iPhone.
Rod

But you really have to jump through hoops on iOS to get kerning to work. You have to use CoreText instead of UIFonts, which means no kerning on buttons, labels, etc. without a lot of custom work. Why?! Apple has shown so much respect to typography, and then no kerning? (Mind you, I’m not saying Android is better in this regard, since I have no idea.)
http://designedbygold.com Jon Gold

Personally I loved the skeuomorphs you employed in PingIt – nice work team
http://cl.ly/EF1m

Wait no, you didn’t.

Of course metaphors afford familiarity, but these are awful. Visually, they’re kitsch. Critiqued solely in terms of their interaction design, they’re not used well.

http://www.ustwo.co.uk paz | ustwo

You’re right, Jon. Often applying skeuomorphs and visual tactility, just like any other decoration, results in kitsch. Kitsch in itself, however, is not a usability problem per se. It only becomes a problem for the user if it distracts visually or poor interaction design is applied. For instance if the UI replicates the physical constraints of the referenced object unnecessarily or if it hints at interactivity that the UI doesn’t deliver (like the code dial or the coffee cup in your example). It’s not impossible to use decorative elements that have no actual function though. Point and click adventure games made an art of showing intricate details to aid storytelling without offering opportunities for actual interaction. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the leather texture in Find My Friends other than that it may not exactly match the personal taste of a subset of users.

http://twitter.com/noallegiances A.

Thanks for the comments Rod and completely agree with you, I’d also add to that why the typography in iBooks is so atrocious!
http://www.madebypaz.com Paz

You’re right, Jon. Often applying skeuomorphs and visual tactility, just like any other decoration, results in kitsch. Kitsch in itself, however, is not a usability problem per se. It only becomes a problem for the user if it distracts visually or poor interaction design is applied. For instance if the UI replicates the physical constraints of the referenced object unnecessarily or if it hints at interactivity that the UI doesn’t deliver (like the code dial or the coffee cup in your example). It’s not impossible to use decorative elements that have no actual function though. Point and click adventure games made an art of showing intricate details to aid storytelling without offering opportunities for actual interaction. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the leather texture in Find My Friends other than that it may not exactly match the personal taste of a subset of users.
http://twitter.com/pickuniquename eugeniu clim

I have one question for “texturephobs”. It’s only a matter of time when the technology will let us simulate different surfaces on a “flat glass”. And then leather texture will feel like leather, carbon like carbon etc. What will a Metro-style solid black background feel like?
http://twitter.com/noallegiances A.

@twitter-27607791:disqus I’m guessing Metro-style solid black background will feel like glass
Alan

Interesting thanks for writing this.
How much of the low sales do you put down to the technology and how much to the product / market.
For example if you chose different authors / stories targeted at a more niche audience could it have got more traction.
What is next for the platform?
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jayaseelanm

this website looks good
http://freefallapps.com/blog Scott Bradley

We follow a similar approach but we don’t have such a strict rule for “never adding a feature to the release branch. Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where the master is not ready for release but the business need some small but urgent feature. In that case we make an exception and put it in.

We also use svn so I would love to see if git makes this process any easier. Merging with svn is really unintuitive.
http://www.facebook.com/gabriel.himself Gabriel Himself

Thanks for this awesome e-book…
really apreciate
Nikolay Verin

Now I can’t make some half-pixel crap, because I use Photoshop CS6 Beta and “Snap Vector Tools and Transforms to Pixel Grid” option tuned always on!

But thank you for Book, it gorgeous and helpful!
Thiago

Is there a PDF version?
http://twitter.com/roggedoggelito Roger Dean Oldén

Will be interesting to read
Toni

So.. how can I read this without an iPad?
http://twitter.com/AhmedElGabri Ahmed El Gabri

A PDF version will be great too
Rusty

If the file wasn’t zipped, readers could install to iBooks directly from their iPads by tapping the link. Would save a few steps and syncing.
Gyppsy

Thanks for the comments everyone, we’re going to put up a PDF and direct download link shortly
Daniel

Hey, what happens with the Kindle? I never seen this format before. If you use .epub you have ebooks fully compatible.
http://twitter.com/smackingg André

Great, mate! Thank you!
http://www.twitter.com/farinab Farina

Fantastic doc. Thanks!
chrissharp

Great work! thanks for taking the time this is super useful.
http://elmimmo.myopenid.com/ Jorge

How come you set Photoshop’s working color space’s RGB profile to the particular profile of each display instead of homogenizing all computers to a base standard, say, sRGB? Wouldn’t that cause color jumps between all computers in your team? The way I understood color management, display profiles should never be used as a working color space in Photoshop, unless you know fot certain that all users will be looking at your media using that particular display (which 99,9% of the times will not be the case).
Gyppsy

@openid-135431:disqus – it’s a matter of convenience for us: means no colour jumps when we move the images out of Photoshop into Preview/Mail/Keynote for instance, and trying to colour manage 50+ would be a nightmare for our IT guys. But ultimately it’s because we’re mostly designing for mobile devices, and so we extensively test how our designs look on their screens.
Alex

Nice work lozz
lodge28

Epic writing and wondrous ideas, Bravo!
pecus

well thought and excellent production on the video. and kudos for not using QRcodes

i contend that the experience presented is very uniform and “modal”, while the current and normal usage of personal entertainment and communication devices is heavily fragmented: there are multiple applications open with the user switching to and from one and the others; push notifications, come in at all times, phone calls and instant messages/sms disrupt the task flow the user is following.

even in-flight, the availability of internet connectivity and of a personal device make for a very un-uniform experience, possibly confining the user experience of the service in very specific contexts, mostly situation driven: order a meal, prepare for landing and transfer from the airport, etc.

notably missing (IMHO) are tools and hints that drive community participation (even anonymously). closed environments are ideal places to build communities: people are in the same context, mostly with the same feelings/perception, must stay close and together for a few hourse, then disperse after landing. providing means for making people interact and play together for the time they share on the flight is intriguing.
Parry

Nice concept. I can see it in production within 1 year.
Julian

Awesome read, thanks so much.

Any chance we can get our mitts on your export scripts?
Matthias

Mind.Blown.
AG

You tried Fireworks?

- It fixes 90% of the shape layer issues you point out fixes for here.

- Page and state support in documents

- On click export of all pages to JPGs

- copy+paste from Illustrator

- Extracting logos are a 1 click operation in it

- Stackable/re-orderable glows/layer effects
http://www.facebook.com/barrylachapelle Barry Lachapelle

Guys this is excellent. Thank you so much. I can’t believe how much of this I didn’t know. Great stuff.
Yan

No amount of glossy PR will make for a three horse race. This is like trying to promote the lib dems. Stop eating your time.
Nick Bearman

I personally think that Nokia and Microsoft have created something that is fresh and appropriately unique when it comes to this platform.

In my opinion, the tech world is too obsessed with following trends set by certain ‘industry leaders’. I personally appreciate Apple products and what they have achieved with their no-nonsense design approach, but I feel their offerings (especially the interface design) are starting to be become a little stale.

This new Windows mobile platform shows that both Nokia and Microsoft are prepared to make bold steps in offering a more unique experience. Their clear understanding of what works when it comes to minimal yet effective design/motion is what should ultimately encourage people to ignore initial prejudices and start taking the new products seriously.
Liana Chang

Hi Yan, thanks for your comment. No glossy PR here–just honesty and constructive criticism. I’d rather see a race with many horses, not just two or three. I think competition is healthy and helps push mobile UI design to more interesting places and ultimately offers more choice to users. I know I’m not the only one who’s getting a bit bored by the iOS UI.
Charles Ward

Very TRUE breakdown of the pitfalls and gains to be found designing for Metro. Thanks Law and Anthony. Will be staying posted for more insights.
Ye olde ustwoer.
Charles @ Nokia
Guest

An account director talking about craftsmanship? Don’t make me laugh! You’re ‘profession’ is adept at at only trying to extort money from clients with with scant regard for the design and craft process.

How many projects get ruined by account directors too feeble to stand up to client demands, and from agencies too afraid to let the prople who create the work speak directly to the people who commission the work.
http://twitter.com/noallegiances A.

Thanks for the feedback to the poster below. I’ll be the first to agree that account directors are the first to prioritise speed over quality of delivery but I also know when you do find the rare account director who cares as much about craft and quality as a designer does you hang onto them and hang onto them good.

They do exist out there, keep the faith!
James

“You’re ‘profession’ is adept” It should be written “Your”, Just saying.
http://twitter.com/daaain Daniel Demmel

Guest, you sound like somebody working in the advertising industry… Don’t be bitter about it, maybe it’s time to move on?
In an agile studio Account Directors are not gatekeepers between the client and the team, but rather enablers who help team members to focus when they need to and keep track of things so they don’t have to.
Liana Chang

Hello Guest, I’m sorry to hear you can’t look past someone’s title. ustwo™ is a place where everyone from the Studio Managers, Finance Director, Developers, and of course Account Directors, have an appreciation for good design and their passion is respected and celebrated.

If we all did only what was on our job description this place would be dull and boring, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
http://twitter.com/glyndot Glyn Britton

I’ve always thought it weird when airlines
put their logo on the little packets of sugar. Are we supposed to think that
they refined it themselves? That, in addition to being experts at flying people
around the world, they are have time to be great at sweeteners? It’s
daft isn’t it?

Surely it’s now the same with IFE?
Airlines only got into the IFE business because of the need, as you say, to
pacify customers for long periods of time. It’s not core for them, and they’re
not really very good at it.

In the age of onboard WiFi and media
servers/caches, surely it’s time to give IFE back to the entertainment experts?
Enable Netflix, Hulu, iPlayer, Xbox Live, whatever. And stop pretending Air
France is a ‘curator’ who is good at knowing what I might want to watch?
Ankur

This is just awesome. Thank you Guys.
Simon

Well spoken!
http://twitter.com/woodenwoody Scott Wooden

Great Post! the subtlety of humour in some apps is enough to keep the user on their toes and it allows an unspoken connection between the user and the people behind making the app. It’s a great way to remind people that the app was built by people for people and knowing that makes users more engaged and entertained.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=515950537 Jordan Sheldrick

Fantastic
http://twitter.com/llahnoraa Aaron Hall

Fantastic article!
http://www.facebook.com/jakub.furicka Jakub Furička

Hi,
really nice topic. i’m really curious about how did you made “A diagram showing ustwo’s GIT branching strategy”. Is there any tool for it? . Thank you, Jakub
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Meg Porter

What a fun concept! I have been working in healthcare UX design for a while, a very content RICH sphere. While at GE, our team was pairing up with a team from Microsoft and looking at some ways to incorporate the metro UI content-as-control concept into a data-rich display that supports interactivity and deep-diving by medical users.

What would you say to a designer doing data-rich displays about moving in a content-as-control in their design?
Chris

Qantas has now announced that it will be replacing its in-flight entertainment units with iPads. http://www.macworld.co.uk/ipad-iphone/news/?newsid=3371185&olo=rss
http://www.facebook.com/lilyana.latiff Lilyana Latiff

Thank you very much for this simple yet extremely precise explanation. My team too is going through very similar development scenarios and it’s the first we are using git (we used svn before). Your post helped to clear up many of our questions. Lily
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Danielvlopes

Thanks a lot, the ibook format is awesome.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Silje-Gabrielsen/579442024 Silje Gabrielsen

Well put, Anders!
Wilsondavid398

nice post..excellent information!!
http://twitter.com/oh_cripes Joseph Bain

Interestingly the save icon is disappearing for another reason. In many web and smartphone apps saving is automatic, and backups go to the cloud without any extra action from us. Google Docs is a prime example, I constantly find my self looking for the Save icon and rediscovering the “Every change you make is automatically saved” message.

But I think you’re right, as our interfaces become more reactive and less based around separated, segmented apps and functions, we won’t need icons to prompt us. And increasingly I think it’s hard to find icons to represent some of the more abstract functions, see the almost ubiquitous share icon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Share_icon#ShareThis), which has no real life equivalent, and so becomes a reduced mathematical graph.
http://www.facebook.com/maurelio.campos Marco Aurélio Campos

i think interfaces will now try to find equilibrium between content and icons, as icons still are faster in most of the cases to recognise than words.
Russ

Fantastic article, I think a few icon classics will outlive me though, the floppy disk for save for example.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=563043302 Tobias Andersson

Great post Paulo! Agree on everything. When designers and developers work close together and have a good understanding and respect of eachother, that’s when you can create truly amazing products!
Jacob Walton

“Anyone with a Dreamweaver trial from a Computer Arts CD was messing around with code” – So true!

As a developer with a love of design I see my role like that of the fairy in Pinocchio – we bring the artisan craftsman’s work to life!

Great post, thanks for sharing.
http://www.facebook.com/hesssammm Hesam Gh

gfhdjglb;po uo;o;yvot 8tviol86tg t.t
http://www.facebook.com/hesssammm Hesam Gh

test
http://www.facebook.com/goredani Dániel Góré

Interesting post! The cause of the difference between a designer and a developer lies in their different personalities, (like left and right side of the brain) although there are some guys who has these abilities in one person. I think a good project manager can reduce these differences and complete the whole project without serious conflicts.
fallentreegames

Interesting thoughts, Tony. I could never have imagined how much of my mobile games art-work would be resizing and re-formatting for various screens and resolutions.

I now try to do as much work as possible with Photoshop’s vector tools to allow for easy-resizing. Smart Objects have proved invaluable in this regard, also.

Lewis Boadle
Art Director
Fallen Tree Games
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=717106340 Simon Ward

Interesting points. Sounds like great news for the icon production team. But ironically does it also mean a scaling down of manpower in the icon production team? If there are less icons needed perhaps it becomes a one man job.
Matt Gypps

@fallentreegames:disqus - yes, we love Photoshop’s vector tools here as well, especially since we can design at Retina resolution and then easily scale down by 50% to get non-Retina size (just have to remember to make everything an even measurement so it scales down to whole pixels).

@facebook-717106340:disqus - all the designers here work on both icons and UI, so they love having their time freed up from production to work on the fun stuff!
Lodge

Amen to the last point.
http://twitter.com/wheatcreative jeremy wheat

Thank you this is really great to share with design teams
http://twitter.com/antoniopratas Antonio Pratas

I really like the black version you purposed, but I guess the “pull-to-camera” and other similar actions aren’t really an improvement. If the user wants to take a picture and he’s way down on his timeline, then he’ll have to scroll up to the top of the timeline just to take that action. I guess that actions that should be accessible at any time in the user workflow should also be easily available at any time. Either ways, both redesigns are fresh, and something I’d most definitely like to see instagram doing.
http://twitter.com/youngontheroad olivia fabreschi

You are so creative, this is very impressive. I would easily use the play-doh version. It is like tailored for me =) (AKA 19 year old female – target group?)
Guest

Love them both – great stuff. I did a similar redux when studying interfaces for my nutrition app, focusing on Instagram’s UX and how it can be improved.
Jgeijer

Confusing
http://about.me/ravicious Ravicious

It’s a really great, solid design! However:

> I approached this brief as a reimagining of Instagram for more serious photographers on the Instagram network.

Who are “more serious photographers on the Instagram” for you?

One of the things I hate the most about Instagram are people who upload photos from DSLRs. If that would be the main point of this service, the process of uploading photos would be a little easier, don’t you think?
http://twitter.com/nunosans Nuno

@ravicious:disqus
For me, more serious photographers on Instagram are people who use the network to showcase photos freshly taken with their phone that and go beyond snaps of drinks with friends or food. These users might use the filters, but put effort in taking an interesting snap. Some people do this and have talent. Serious photographers on Instagram are not people uploading their edited SLR photos days or months after they were taken like this is Flickr.

Yes, the process of uploading photos process should be easier, and more integrated. But then again, I want people to feel like the photos should come from the phone camera. So, camera gets a higher priority. What do you think?
Pawel

It’s awesome. How do you created those prototypes? Did you used some special tool for interactive prototypes?
http://twitter.com/joelblackmore Joel Blackmore

Hey Nuno, fantastic article and work. I really like the hidden options when sliding left, or right, on the image itself. I love the feel of sliding a photo around to see more info on it. It feels more like a natural movement, and less like an enabler for more options. I try and do this on all my photo-based apps now, even though they don’t have the functionality – that’s a very good thing. Have been showing this off left and right. I would have loved to see the camera button reflecting light based on accelerometer movements.

Congrats to both you and ustwo for producing this type of blog post. I love the open nature of sharing knowledge. It was truly a brilliant read and insight into how you work. Do more please.
http://twitter.com/nunosans Nuno

Hi @8e6b40d1b48def4d3277c250efcb979a:disqus , I build those prototypes using mainly the jQuery / jQuery Mobile libraries. There’s also a lot of HTML5 and CSS3 goodness, but it is not based on any frameworks. I code with Sublime Text 2, which I consider the most powerful and beautiful text editor. http://jquery.com, http://jquerymobile.com, http://www.sublimetext.com
http://twitter.com/nunosans Nuno

@twitter-1151731142:disqus I would not say so, I quite like the play-doh one. It feels fun and fresh every time I see it. It’s particularly beautiful on the bright display, and more in tune with Instagram than the dark theme.
Pawel

Thanks Nuno. Two last questions:

1) In what application did you launch your prototypes to test them and show functionalities? I would like to test your source code but really don’t know how.

2) What books & websites about designing UI you could recommend?
Rodnei A. Ribeiro

Thank you for the material. The world and Brazil thanks
http://twitter.com/nunosans Nuno

Hey @8e6b40d1b48def4d3277c250efcb979a:disqus

I tested them on the iOS Simulator that comes with Xcode. I usually setup a local vhost on my laptop, develop on Sublime Text 2 with the desktop browser in view and live reloading the page, and every now and then test on the simulator. To show it to other people on my phone I either access my local vhost via my IP address or deploy it to a test site. Does this make any sense?

The book apart books are pretty good. I am currently reading the manual, which is a good read but not so technical. Learning how to program, even at a basic level, also helps somewhat. I read mostly Apress books. I also find it easier to memorise when reading from a print copy. When it comes for visual style… I usually look for inspiration, absorb it and then don’t ever look back at it once you start sketching. I also mentioned that I watched the Icon Resource screencast because my Photoshop skills weren’t the best.

Here’s a dump of links
http://superfancy.net/php-mysql-apache-in-mac-osx-leopard/
http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/
http://www.sublimetext.com/2
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/xcode/id497799835?mt=12
http://www.iconresource.net
http://thenounproject.com
http://designspiration.net
http://friendsoftype.com
http://dribbble.com/search?q=interface
http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=interface
http://butdoesitfloat.com
http://ffffound.com
http://www.formfiftyfive.com
http://www.baubauhaus.com
http://www.uiparade.com
http://pttrns.com
http://contentandchro.me
http://panic.com/transmit/
http://alwaysreadthemanual.com
http://www.abookapart.com
http://siteinspire.com
http://photoshopsecrets.tumblr.com
Pawel

Yes, it makes sense. I’m not a Mac user but I will try to install iOS SDK and Xcode on Windows 7. It’s possible with virtual machine. I found alternatives so I will also test them (intelliJ IDEA, MobiOne Studio, etc.). Now I know what to look for.

Thank you very much! As you can see I am total newbie in this area and you helped me a LOT. i really appreciate it.

All the best!

BTW: I checked your portfolio and your works are clean and fresh. In your designs (brand ID and apps UI) you use some grid and layout templates or placing all the elements is based only on your artistic intuition?
http://twitter.com/natcl Nathanaël

Nice project !
If you want to test the groups api, I implemented it in my library:
https://github.com/studioimaginaire/phue

I tested the groups API myself and it’s not very stable, there is a lot of lag when changing parameters of a group which is probably why Philip’s own app isn’t using this API yet.
http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

Theoretically vine does everything I want in a video tool as it would allow me to capture a wider share (for example showing off the studio vibe etc) but something just holds me back and I default to instagram. Maybe there is something too real in vine. I seem to like the fact the viewer has to make their own motion up in the stills…
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http://baronpixel.com/ Axel Olsson

Officially the weirdest app demo video I’ve seen.

ianbytchek

+1

deniszarubin

I have a question – why do u always need to wait like 15 minutes to get pics?

And I think you need to add this – ability to reply to a photo to the same user. It will be more like chatroullette, but without penis stuff ) I think it will be much more fun, when someone from the other side of the planet sends u a pic^ and then u send him a reply, a then he can do the same. It will be like a chat, but only buy photos!

deniszarubin

I know you want to make this app “anti-social”… but it won’t be so much fun. Especially when you wait a lot to get new pics. Please let me know, if you going to add this function…

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

That’s a different app really.. this was about freeing ourselves from the social part.. but still getting a glimpse into another humans life…
http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

interesting post here.. http://www.cowgirlapp.com/anonymously-send-and-receive-photos-and-see-how-long-the-boys-can-play-nice-rando/

pojmasta

The other thing I think most weather apps are missing is a comparative to yesterdays weather ‘Much colder’ / ‘Much warmer’ / ‘About the same’

G
http://twitter.com/mimeArtistLtd mimeArtist

I wish there was a simple way of letting me know if the forecast has changed significantly… a simple button on the forecast would be really useful so I don’t have to recheck
http://artsvit.com/ Svitelskyi Artem

Another great weather app Available on AppStore!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ow/id596100553?ls=1&mt=8
http://twitter.com/davide_mariani Davide Mariani

love the idea but please fix the many connection problems, or at least give users the chance to resend (a nice retry button would be great) unsent randos. i’ve already lost so many potentially beautiful randos!

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

we are fixing this in future updates.. thanks for being patient.

Sam

Really fun concept guys… I think your blocking is a bit strict though… I’ve been blocked already, for uploading a very appropriate piece of childish phallic graffiti? When does it stop being art and start being offensive?
Eloi

we want this app in Android!!
Nicolás

I love the concept, but i’ve been having problems with the app. I’ve sent “successfully” three pics, but i have not received any.

Just me or is a common problem?

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

does it work better now? we optimised the server

http://twitter.com/jlferron Jessica Ferron

I’m actually loving this app! The “peephole” view is a fantastic aesthetic. Unfortunately, about 25% of the photos I receive do not respond to a double tap so I never get to know where they came from. Other than that, I think this is a great start!

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

sadly we cannot control when people choose to not share location – new update dropping this week.
Fabio

Oooohhhh……., you are so beautiful.

Jake

Loving the app, and it’s a fun insight into other lives.

I think the app itself is just right – simply a few bugs that need ironing out – frquent crashes and a filter to eliminate 100% black photos: You feel a bit cheated when that’s all you get after sending a carefully composed picture out.

I would like to see one additional feature: The ability to keep you own Randos.

PS Any plans to create a massive gallery? Or perhaps you don;t keep the images at all!

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

- seems some people have started their own galleries ! http://sorando.tumblr.com/archive

- your rando’s are kept in the library but in the new update they will save circular.

jason jason

yes, but how do you save the photos that you receive? iphone.

t3d

Love it, Love it, Love it !!! Five suggestions:

1. What about swipe from the right to delete? Swipe from the left mostly brings up the help screen which then you have to dismiss to get the delete button. Ugh!!!

2. I think geo-location should be mandatory. I want to know what part of the world the image came from. Not the specific city, just the general area. Or those that block their location should only get Randos from others that have also blocked their location.

3. People that send black images should get those images sent right back to them, instead of polluting the Randoshere. They take without giving.

4. Wish there was a way to save my sent images

5. Wish there was an easy way to delete multiple photos.

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

1. we have a new version in the next update
2. Legally we cannot demand
3. it’s a bug that is fixed in the new update.
4. they save to your library. (in the new update they will be circular)
5. good point. will backlog that

Solange Hai

i’m using the android version and can’f find my sent images.

xuso

Me neither.

will10

please please develop for Windows Phone as well, we already are waiting for instagram

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

we are on it

Dustin Tavenctytek

I was so happy to see that there already is the Rando app on WP7. Sadly it’s a random numbers app… :-/
Hope you’ll finish it, thanks!

http://twitter.com/millsustwo millsustwo

blown away by @robocat and their new physical thermo addition http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robocat/thermodo-the-tiny-thermometer-for-mobile-devices

http://www.madebypaz.com Paz

Really? I had this backed originally but just cancelled my pledge today. It’s seems so utterly useless when you think about it.

http://twitter.com/ingah Inge Kuijper

Great post, lots of potential here! Any chance we can see a larger version of those screen designs here?
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JIMSY

Serendipity rules. An app that values social sharing rather than spamming it. Love it. Awesome stuff guys!
http://twitter.com/___Daria boing boom tschak

if not possibility to answer, you should at least make ‘thank you’ button. I think many users would love to thank senders of really beautiful randos, not legs, noses, lamps
t3d

Love the new update, thanks!!! Double-tapping to delete is perfect.
Instead of grey dots on the side that change to red dots in the middle, what
about grey dots in the middle that turn red when you’ve got a new Rando?
awesomesheffield

Can you use this validator framework with IOS storyboards? Thanks Great work!
mandello

would love to have a queue to send a rando – sometimes you are in a spot where it’s costly to send over cell network – a queue would send as soon as wifi is available. Or to be able to select from camera roll?

Also a map of locations sent to, or received from would be awesome. Also support the idea posted about chat via reply with pic
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http://twitter.com/BobbyBags Rob

A 100 years worth of pure gold being given away, thanks Dones. Also that guy on the cover is hot… just saying…

Gyppsy AKA Tony Dones

I know, he’s got to go!

http://twitter.com/rich_hall_ Richard Hall

Love the app. Just over the weekend, there’s been a huge increase in the speed at which you get a rando back.

When I open the app, there always seems to be network activity when I’m scrolling through saved images in Rando. Are you caching the images on the device?

If not, and you’re already using CocoaPods, why not add JMImageCache or something similar?

https://github.com/jakemarsh/JMImageCache
http://twitter.com/MarcOlle MarcOlle

Just waiting for the Windows Phone version. With a app simple as that, it won’t take long to reach WP, right? Do you plan to release on this plataform soon?
http://twitter.com/SharonAronBaron Sharon Aron Baron

I love Rando! I wish there was a way I could see where my photos go on my Iphone. My husband sees this on his Android. BUT….he doesn’t get to store his that he sends on his Galaxy Note and I do so I like that. Also his Android, so many come up with no locations. It’s sort of a rip-off when a photo has no location as half the fun is seeing where they come from. I prefer the photos from the Europeans and find that I enjoy taking mine in the morning so I get one in return from someone in Europe. Just my preference as I’m an American and find they put more thought in some of theirs! Or maybe some of them or just more interesting to me lately.

t3d

Your photos are in your Camera Roll in Albums.
jason jason

you have to go into your settings>privacy>photos then turn on rando. after i did that then rando started saving to my camera roll. i don’t know how to save the photos i receive though. if anyone figures it out post it here.

if these guys can do then it’s obviously possible:
http://sorando.tumblr.com/archive

jason jason

i love this app! one thing i would like to see though is an option to keep my photos (iphone). and also how do i save the ones i receive without having to screen cap them? needs more documentation on how to use it for sure.

jason jason

ok, i figured out how to save the pictures i take by going into my settings. now my issue is how do i save the pictures i receive into a separate album on my camera roll (or save them at all)? also, is the location service being on draining my battery!!! i charged it the night before and when i got home that day my battery was dead!!! (iphone4).

jason jason

how do i save the images i receive without having to screen cap (iphone)?
Peter Emery

Be good if the confirmation email would be sent out.
Jill Tiedeman

Help! Why can I only take two Randos and then no more till the next day?
http://twitter.com/Kalms Rasmus Kalms

This is a great round up. Thank you for this!
jason jason

do something about preventing people from sending blank images. they should immediately be banned/blocked.
jason jason

i would also like to be able to see specifically where received randos come from like the information does when i get a notification instead of a generic placement on a map afterward.
http://twitter.com/misterjorgensen David Jørgensen

I really want this to work, but it crashes whenever I try to upload a picture. Such a shame.

http://twitter.com/misterjorgensen David Jørgensen

Have cleared out a load of space on my phone in case that was the problem, but nope.

http://twitter.com/misterjorgensen David Jørgensen

Problem solved by restarting my iPhone. This is apparently a good rule to remember for any apps that appear not to work. Looking forward to getting my first Rando back now…

amanda

you really helped with restart thing. tanks a lot

http://twitter.com/abschiedsbrief Natty

I LOVE this app, but sometimes when I tap the recieved Rando to view the location it came from, it’s just a dot in a sea of green.
Is there a way to make the map better? To be able to zoom in and out on it or something like that? It bums me out to get a beautiful picture and not be able to tell where it’s from.
(There’s so much ‘guessing-by-the-shape-of-that-lake’ that one can do.)

On Android, by the way.
http://twitter.com/vsxed Eduard

Any chance to re-upload it anywhere else? Getting a 504 every time :/
(Talking about the PDF)

Gyppsy

Try this https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12118986/PPP%E2%84%A2%201.1/PPP%E2%84%A2.pdf

feedmebaby

great! thank you!

jason jason

ok, i apologize for spamming this thread with my thoughts. i am seriously requesting a queue setting. if i’m out and about i don’t need to be sending tons of data through my data plan. give me the option to set up a queue and send images off when i’m at a wifi location.
weeeee

1. how to turn enable location access?
2. can you change the file type of the rando saved to the gallery to .png ? i’d be grateful if you colud do that

oh right sorry for the bad english im not from us/uk
amanda

I love Rando, but… stop sending hands and feet!

jason jason

no shit!!!! i realize that we’re all unique and amazing but how incredibly lazy

amanda

hands and feet (and tv’s…) are the same all around the world. unless you have 6 fingers, so this will be interesting to send.

otherwise, it would be much more fun to receive objects, places, things that we think is very common in our place, but in the other side of the planet can be amazing.

http://twitter.com/tchizbeurgueur airway

Have you tried Partly Cloudy?
It just miss the cloud cover, but the circle concept is really good to understand the evolution of the weather.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/partly-cloudy/id545627378?mt=8
Ken Ruiz

Hi all, having trouble getting the sample ibook on the iPad. I am using an iMac to complete the download but every time I attempt to view via iBooks I get the prompt “The document “PPP” could not be opened. The file isn’t in the correct format. The file might be corrupted, truncated or in an unexpected format” please suggest to resolve. Thanks in advance. PDF works fine.

http://www.facebook.com/gyppsy1981 Matt Gypps

Hey Ken, can you download straight to the iPad by viewing the page in Safari and clicking on the iBook iPad Download? BTW there’s a new version 2 of the PPP™ out today http://www.ustwo.co.uk/blog/the-ustwo-pixel-perfect-precision-handbook-2/

Ken Ruiz

Hi Matt, I am attempting to do as per your suggestion, however it is taking forever; granted it is 18 Mb, but 2.5 hours so far seems a bit long. I will attempt to do the same on home WiFi and see if my results are different. Post up the results soon.

Ken Ruiz

Hmm, worked on my home iPad 3 so not certain whats going on. I will check in with my office’s IT guy to learn if there are file size restrictions with the WiFi.

Worked great, thanks.

Jessica

I have not been able to connect with the Honk app on iOS for about a week now. Please fix Honk! It is my favorite messaging platform right now!
Alice

It would be really nice if there was a timeline of photos sent and the ability to check the location that they’ve been sent to! A simple notification is kinda useless especially when I’ve sent more than one photo in a row..

Oh and if it was mandatory that everyone share their location I would have loved Rando more! But maybe you are not allowed to do that.
Olaf

Hi, I’m looking forward to the update. I really liked the old one and find it very useful. Thank you for that

But none of the download links sem to work. They all give a 504 error.

http://www.facebook.com/gyppsy1981 Matt Gypps

Hey Olaf, try https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12118986/PPP%E2%84%A2%202/PPP2.pdf for the PDF and https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12118986/PPP%E2%84%A2%202/PPP2.ibooks for the iBook version.

bzle

Fantastic handbook! Loved the “naughty” and “nice” comparisons. There are definitely some best practices that I’m going to implement, such as the file naming/versioning. Love how organized it is!
Dave Offerman

The app doesn’t seem to my full function of the camera on my iphone 4 ios6. No option to choose a saved photo either. why no access to the flash for low lighting pictures? Plus, it seems even in daylight, the pictures taken using Rando are very poor quality compared to taking a picture with the built-in camera app.

Very cool and fun idea though.
http://twitter.com/Blend_Marketing Blend Marketing

Wow. This is one of the most generous contributions to the design world I’ve seen. Great work. Can’t thank you enough.

http://www.facebook.com/gyppsy1981 Matt Gypps

You’re welcome, we’ve learned loads from other resources out there so wanted to give something back!

SAT

Check out http://www.weathertone.net
http://www.facebook.com/aender.ferreira Aender Ferreira

Wonderful e-book, thnks a lot!
aurel

Great work. I especially liked the typography section as that is the part that I have trouble getting right, I never can get my web typography right from the start.
thanks
RichardL

Really useful thanks!
http://twitter.com/simpletea Tom Simpson

This is a fantastically simple way to instill good practice in new starters. But furthermore it’s a beautifully designed piece that gives just enough detail to allow creativity to flourish still. In my opinion this is exactly how ‘guidelines’ should be! Have shared this with my team!

Matt Gypps

Great! That’s exactly how we wanted it to be: a gentle reminder of things to consider rather than a huge wordy document full of strict rules.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrea-Giocondi/1474355871 Andrea Giocondi

it’s really brilliant, nothing to say
just one thing: please introduce a save option for received images.

i don’t think it’s a good idea reply to some user with other photos, it’s not in the rando’s philosophy.
there’re many social network in which you can have follower, but rando is a different way to shot and share.
Juan

I like the app and the concept, started using it yesterday. I noticed I can´t see my sent Randos and where it landed. I know Rando sent me that information via notification center, but I can´t see which picture landed where?
Steve Burrows

Thank you for your hard work – a really useful guide!
Ingo A.

This is great stuff – especially the color add system! Thanks a lot for sharing

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