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The official Basecamp iPhone app

37signals.com

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Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#11

Post by jasonfried »

bobsy wrote: post #7

Looks good. Shame there is no mention of Android at all. The biggest thing I took away from this blog post was this. "NOTE: Basecamp for iPhone requires an account on the new Basecamp (released March 2012). Basecamp Classic is not supported." I wonder what % of users haven't switched over even after a year. I think this is a good lesson for anyone thinking about effectively launching a new product to replace one they…

There's no mention of Android because this is an announcement for the iPhone version.

We'll be addressing Android at another time.

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#12

Post by qrush »

bosky101 wrote: post #4

From a friend I saw logging in, it seemed like the oauth webview screen (that 3rd party apps use to interact with the API) has been ditched for something native as well. Something 3rd party apps can never re-create.

The login screen for the official app is a webview as well. Most of the app is!

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#13

Post by jasonfried »

DASD wrote: post #10

Seems a bit funny since just last September they blogged their mobile version and "no app required." https://basecamp.com/1679267/announcements/10 One of the reasons I recall this is that I saved this particular e-mail newsletter at the time. I thought it of particular interest they dedicated resources on making a mobile browser performant version and had eschewed a mobile application approach. So what has changed or…

There's still no app required. The app is completely optional.

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#15

Post by DASD »

jasonfried wrote: post #13
DASD wrote: post #10

Seems a bit funny since just last September they blogged their mobile version and "no app required." https://basecamp.com/1679267/announcements/10 One of the reasons I recall this is that I saved this particular e-mail newsletter at the time. I thought it of particular interest they dedicated resources on making a mobile browser performant version and had eschewed a mobile application approach. So what has changed or…

There's still no app required. The app is completely optional.

So as a confused customer, what option do you recommend and why are there two options if both are similar in function?

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#17

Post by ceejayoz »

DASD wrote: post #15
jasonfried wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's still no app required. The app is completely optional.

So as a confused customer, what option do you recommend and why are there two options if both are similar in function?

Try both for a few minutes and make a decision?

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#18

Post by rsinger9 »

tudorizer wrote: post #8

Simple, dumb questions: So what is the point of it being hybrid, actually? Speed of development? Multiple platforms?

Native views and web views are good at different things.

Native is good for high fidelity interaction, animations, responding to gestures. However the native APIs are bad for designing "documents" -- that is, layouts where elements flow within a container and push each other around. That means that things that are extremely easy on the web can be painstaking in native UI without much upside.

Web views have limited interactivity, but they have other advantages:

* Faster iterations. You don't need to push a build when a webview changes.

* Document-style layout, as mentioned above.

* Higher density. We found it easier to show more information on the screen with HTML/CSS than the native controls. Looking at other apps out there makes me think it's an attribute of the medium, not just us.

* No need to sync data or duplicate logic. Sending HTML down the pipe is simple.

Finally yes, we get the multi-platform advantages because the web views are also served to people who hit the regular mobile web version of the app without any wrapper.

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#19

Post by tudorizer »

jasonfried wrote: post #14
tudorizer wrote: post #8

Simple, dumb questions: So what is the point of it being hybrid, actually? Speed of development? Multiple platforms?

Both, and more. We're aiming to post a series of articles on Signal vs. Noise about the decisions we made.

I'd be curious about this topic, not because I'm pro or against this approach. I've worked on both sides of the spectrum (web app wrappers, full native and lately a hybrid, which is more complex than Basecamp) and it seems like a fine balance needs to be reached. You're "fortunate" that you keep the UI pretty slick and simple. And I say "fortunate", because I know this is actually a choice.

Re: The official Basecamp iPhone app

#20

Post by jfernandez »

tudorizer wrote: post #8

Simple, dumb questions: So what is the point of it being hybrid, actually? Speed of development? Multiple platforms?

Part of the benefits of being hybrid is that yes you can iterate slightly faster, at least if you're coming from a strong web background. Also moving to webviews allows you to bypass some of the issues with submitting/changing content to the App Store which involves on average about a week's wait to get changes out.
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