Category Archives: Android

GPS Widget

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I just released my new app “GPS Widget” on the Android Market.

This widget simply shows your current location in numbers. Latitude and Longitude are received from the GPS location provider or from the network location provider if GPS is not available.

The altitude is queried from open MapQuest API which yields in a more accurate result than receiving the altitude by GPS. So this widget is also interesting for hiking.

I have implemented TapJoy to enable the user to donate indirectly. TapJoy is an ad-network like AdMob or InMobi. The difference to these networks is that with TapJoy it is allowed to directly ask the user to take action while an action is either downloading an other app, watching a video or something similar. After completing this action the user gets points as a reward (e.g. resources like gold in a game). In my case the user gets some “Good Karma Points”.

You can download the free widget here.

The Importance of a nice GUI

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The first GUI of the "Wiener Würstel-Kompass"

It’s now more than a year I have published my app “Wiener Würstel-Kompass”. I developed the app under time pressure because I wanted to submit it to the “A1 Challenge for Apps 2010”. As a result the first GUI was very ugly.

After some months I found the time to redesign the GUI. I tried to pimp it a bit. Unfortunately I’m not an artist. All I can do is programmers art ;-). I’m sure there is still a lot of room for improvement but in my opinion it looks much better than the old GUI.

 

 

 

Wiener Würstel-Kompass Screenshot

The redesigned GUI.

And luckily I’m not the only one with that opinion. Look at the diagram below. It shows the number of active installs over time. Guess when I published the app with the new GUI!

Right! (or maybe not… I don’t know what you have guessed). It was published in the end of May.

Before the app was released with the new GUI, the active installs stagnated. After the release the number of active installs increased noticeable.

My conclusion: the GUI design is a very importand part of an app. It should definitely not be undervalued.

 

Active installs over time