iOS web apps

gistfile1.txt

One of the projects I recently worked on is a mobile gallery for Viewbook, a professional 
web-based portfolio tool for artists and photographers. Here’s a video introducing the new viewer:

http://www.viewbook.com/weblog/2011/03/17/new-mobile-galleries-for-ipad-iphone-and-android/

What’s remarkable is that we’ve been able to create a web-based viewer with the same fluidity and 
responsiveness as a native iPad or iPhone app. You can try it for yourself with this demo version:

http://stuff.vandervossen.net/temporary/viewbook/dist/test.html

A neat thing is that it also works on the desktop in Safari and Google Chrome (I didn’t add 
support for other browsers as it wasn’t part of the requirements). You can drag the image to 
“simulate” swiping and it even includes keyboard support.

We’ve gotten really good at creating interfaces that take full advantage of what’s possible on a 
multitouch device while at the same time providing a great experience when used on the desktop 
with a traditional keyboard and mouse.

Another example of this approach is a tiny sketching experiment I created last summer which 
allows you to draw with up to 11 touch points at the same time on the iPad (use your nose!), as 
well as the mouse on the desktop. You can find it at:

http://stuff.vandervossen.net/temporary/sketch.html 

One of the technical challenges with the ViewBook project proved to be a limit on the amount of 
image data you can load in Mobile Safari on the iPad and iPhone. We did however manage to find a 
workaround:

http://www.fngtps.com/2010/10/mobile-safari-image-resource-limit-workaround

Being able to foresee these kinds of constraints and actually solve them early in the design stage 
has repeatedly proven to be a major advantage in my work. It allows me to make sure I deliver a 
design that not only looks good in theory but also works great when implemented within the 
constraints of the medium.

Finally, the whole thing is only 40Kb compressed so it loads really fast, even on a slow 
connection. A short load time and a responsive interface are both essential for a good experience 
in my opinion.