As a first step, we decided to take a step back and re-evaluate our approach. We want to make Twitterrific quick and light with a focus on content and usability rather than feature count.  We will continue to add necessary features and updates to Twitterrific, but we’ve decided to only add features that will enhance the experience and avoid adding them because it’s easy or just because we can.

To give some insight into our design process and reasons behind the overhaul, I’d like to share a couple of examples:

The Timeline

The timeline has always been the heart and soul of Twitter so a natural starting point was to make sure tweets had enough breathing room and were easy to read. The result of this re-organization is a drastic reduction in the complication of the toolbar:

One of the biggest challenges was balancing a simple layout with the need for about 10 possible actions on each tweet. It’s very easy to send the interface spiraling off towards the black hole of over-complication. In the previous versions of Twitterrific we’ve relied on a selected state for tweets before you can perform an action. This design led to needing an action button in the toolbar, which after we thought about it, seemed unnecessary since the main reason you’d select a tweet was to perform an action on it. So now actions have been separated into two main categories: actions that affect the timeline and actions that affect only you. This gave us a logical way to divide the actions among two buttons with the addition of a star for easy access to adding a tweet to favorites. Tapping any avatar will also bring up a user’s profile so we no longer needed an explicit button for profiles.

Settings

The source list has been converted into a subset of your account for easy access to different tweet streams that you may be interested in. The previous design ended up being overwhelming for normal users (and even some experienced ones) and became very confusing for people with multiple accounts since it was unclear which account was performing a search or looking at trending topics. There were also three different areas to set preferences and many of the options in the preferences were unnecessary and confusing to most users so they were avoided or left to defaults anyhow. So we took a leap and removed the preferences completely, only adding them back in when we found something that absolutely needed it. This screenshot will more quickly illustrate just how drastically the application settings have been simplified:

To date, we’ve only needed to include a handful of preferences and we’ve decided to put them in the external Settings application since most users will never need to see them.

We’re also being smarter about only showing preferences when you’ll need them, for example, when you want to attach a photo to your post, options for choosing the media upload service will be available within the uploading interface. If a photo fails to upload you have quick access to changing the service rather than having to stop composing your tweet and paging back to the settings section to change the service there so you can try again (and hope it works this time).

Search

Searches should be quick and simple and this just wasn’t the case previously.  Searching has been redesigned to be easily accessible from within an account and we removed the extraneous settings for it. If you want to search, you just type in your term and go.  If you want to save the current search, you tap a single button and it adds it for easy access later (it also adds it to your account so it will be accessible from anywhere you access Twitter).

Compose

The compose section has also been redesigned to provide clarity on what kind of tweet you are posting. The tabs we previously had were only adding unnecessary complexity to usability and code, and in practice, they were rarely being used. Removing the tabs will assist with direct messages staying private, replies being associated to the correct tweet, and less distraction while composing.  With the extra space gained, the text of a tweet you are replying to can be shown in the compose window so you have a constant reference while you are typing out your reply or message.

Contact List

Having an address book within Twitterrific was a very useful feature in concept, but due to limits of the Twitter API, it’s impossible to always keep a full list of your Twitter contacts up to date or easily search and sort those contacts. We would love to have this included, but with the current limitations, it felt broken and frustrating to use so we removed the feature until it can be properly implemented.

Filtering

Twitterrific uses a unified timeline to show you all your content in one list so you don’t need to constantly swap sections to see the different types of tweets you receive. However, there are some times when you want to view tweets separately, such as when you’ve launched the application after a long period of time being away and you want to see if you’ve received any replies or messages. It’s also useful for companies or products that primarily use Twitter as a way to collect feedback and announce updates. In cases such as these, we have a way to access only certain types of tweets, but our previous design brought up a panel of icons which, above an already crowded bar of icons below it, was unintuitive and confusing as well as a pain for people that want the application to always launch into viewing only replies or messages. So we moved these filters into sections that you can access in the account section of the application, making it just as quick to access as the previous design, but much more clear as to what you’re viewing and how to get back to where you were before.

I hope that gives an insight into all the thought and care we put into all of our software. When you’re using an app everyday and multiple times a day, any streamlining and removal of frustration makes a gigantic difference so it’s never a bad idea to sweat the small details and make sure things are just right. Twitterrific is available on the iTunes App Store and you can find additional information on the Twitterrific website.

There are also related posts from Craig Hockenberry on the addition of features to software and from Gedeon Maheux on the tough choices we faced while redesigning Twitterrific.

For drawing in photoshop, I also have a time-lapse video this video from when I was working on Pickin’ Time.

The Ollie character and the vinyl figure were designed by me and produced by the Iconfactory through StrangeKiss Toys. Head on over to the Iconfactory store and to order one!

Now, the last couple of winters have been getting more harsh on Bill, and he’s had to scavenge some clothes from local farmers. But come the spring time, Bill has himself a nice backpack to keep his clothes in so he keeps cool and his clothes stay clean.

 

Above you can see the pre-production drawing of the turnaround for Bill. It was pretty challenging to design everything in my head so the clothes would actually go on and off with ease and also fit correctly in the backpack. We’ll see if I’ve gotten it right soon enough.

We’ve also just gotten in the second round of the main sculpt for the toy. The first round had some minor things that needed to be adjusted; the arm positions were a tad high and the fur on his upper chest was slightly blocking the rotation of the arms. But now that’s all cleaned up and we’re pretty much at the final sculpt which you can see here:

 

The next step will be the wax molding and some clothing samples. From my side, I’ll be working on the packing design and promotional graphics. Personally, I can’t wait to see it all come together!

More information on session can be found here.

The wax model will be used to produce the production molds that the vinyl will be injected into.  So we’re getting very close to having a final product!

 

I’d also like to announce that in addition to the normal and loving Zog we all know, designer Frank Kozik will be creating a limited edition colorway of Zog’s slightly more evil twin. Everything is about balance and you can’t have something sweet without a little sour:

 

And lastly, just a reminder that I’ll be at the San Diego Comic Convention this year in StrangeKiss’ booth #4637 so here’s your official invite to stop by and say hi!

Now I can definitely say that I haven’t been this excited since Christmas morning when I was little. I could barely sit down for a few hours after I saw how the sculpting was coming along! They hit it spot on and I doubt there will be too many tweaks needed at all, although it’s still a bit weird to see something you’ve made cross from 2d to 3d.

Here are some pictures of the wax sculpture so far, I hope you like them as much as I do!

 

 

 

Thanks to the insanely huge help of Strangekiss, Zog has started his journey to become more than just a drawing. In not too long, you’ll be able to hold his rotocast vinyl body in your hands and chase your own marshmallows around the floor. So, to celebrate this great news, I’ve put together a sneak peek of concepts and production art to share.

To first prep Zog for his new voyage, he needed a few things, most importantly was a backside. Not being a sculpter myself, this is an good thing to have so that the professional sculptors can do their job. So I started a turnaround sheet where all sides, sizes, colors and options can be accounted for. I mostly envisioned Zog as being a like a large water balloon, very weighted on the bottom so he can keep his balance while traipsing through a vast swampy wilderness. This was quite a fun step in the process and you can see the results below (click the image for a closer look).

As you can see from the picture, he’ll stand about 7 inches tall and be a bit wider than that. With that planned out, I could move on to doing some packaging design. It’s still fairly preliminary, but probably developed enough to give you an idea of how it’ll look. The little white rounded rectangle will be a window so Zog can see out and doesn’t get too claustrophobic during traveling.

And lastly here’s a zoom in on the official Zog logo! Shockingly, it looks just like him: purple with a mini eco-sytem on his back and a little scruffy.

I hope that you like what you see so far, and I’ll be sure to keep updates with the progress as it moves along! A big thanks to all my visitors, I’ve really had a blast making things to decorate your surroundings with and hopefully this will be another way to make your home or office all the more fun.