DAY 87
Project 26, part three
Seth Godin – author and marketing genius – once said “surprise and delight and connection are remarkable.” We already looked at connection way back in project 10, Names to Faces, where importing user photos transformed our collection view into something far more personal – and thus far more important to users.
The accelerometer is an almost invisibly small component in iOS devices, but I hope this project has shown you that it brings a fresh dose of delight to our apps – and that’s even after you’ve learned about many of the other frameworks iOS makes available to us.
As for “surprise”, this is somewhere we need to be a little more careful. You see, users trust us with their data: our code is running on their phone, which is packed with their lifetime of photos, emails, chats, and more – it’s a really personal device. If your app does something unexpected – if it behaves in a way they weren’t expecting – it’s easy to lose some trust, and once that trust is gone it’s really hard to win back.
However, small amounts of surprise in safe places releases a little dopamine rush, making users feel good about our app. iOS is filled with tiny things like this: the way the flashlight button on the home screen grows with pressure then clicks with a physical bump, the smooth zoom animations seen in the App Store, or even the page curl reading effect in Apple Books. None of those risk user data or make the app feel uncertain, they are just tiny touches that feel great every time you interact with them.
Core Motion opens up a whole area of delight for us, but make sure you use it judiciously: if everything moves your users will feel queasy, but if you add a tiny touch here and there it’s just one more thing to help bring your app to life.
Today you should work through the wrap up chapter for project 26, complete its review, then work through all three of its challenges.
That’s another fun game complete, and one with lots of expansion possibilities – make sure you share your progress online!
Need help? Tweet me @twostraws!
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