Archive for the ‘gratuitous’ tag
Why Another Tip Calculator?
With the release of Gratuitous, an obvious question is why another tip calculator?
At the time of this writing, there are around 23,000 applications in the App Store. With that number, there are very few unique applications. Indeed, there are several tip calculator apps on the market. We knew this prior to starting work on Gratuitous yet it did not deter us. Why didn’t we write an app that’s completely unique and new?
Design
We had been discussing writing software together as Uproar for quite some time. Regardless of the platform our ideas were intended to live in, there was always a common mantra: design is king. We both wanted our software, whatever it may be, to be driven by beautiful design. Of the apps that we use, admire, and strive to be as good as, the common thread is an incredible attention to design.
Gratuitous went through several design iterations (including a complete re-write of the UI) before we both were happy with the final result. We discussed and debated each and every tap, UI animation, and feature. Yes, we knew there were several tip calculators already out on the App Store but we wanted ours to stand above the rest in terms of look, feel, and usability. We wanted the design of Gratuitous to separate us from the pack.
Just What You Need
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
When we discussed the functionality of Gratuitous, we came up with every scenario we could think of. Then, we began culling that list down to the scenarios that are used around 95% of the time and focused on doing those really well. Some examples of features we purposely left out (many of these will get their own blog post later):
- Lots of intricate rounding options
- Complex tip calculation rules (eg, pre-tax, checksum)
- Complex bill splitting (eg, drinks, meal percentages)
- Settings for micro-customizations
For instance, we know some people really insist on tipping based on the pre-tax value of the bill. To each his own, but Gratuitous is not written for these people. Such oft-used features tend to complicate the design at the expense of the majority of users. As programmers, we try and include every option to satisfy all scenarios. As designers, we only include the options necessary to satisfy the most common scenarios.
Start Small
While both of us are experienced developers, Gratuitous still presented a lot of firsts for us. Our first time working together on a business venture. Our first foray into programming in Objective-C and the Mac development environment. Our first iPhone and iPod Touch application. As such, we felt it important to start small.
A tip calculator was therefore a great first application. Its purpose is fairly well defined, calculating a tip is something we’ve all done, and if done well, the application will provide value to those using it. Rather than try and swing out of the park, we stepped up to make a solid base hit.
How did we do? We’re pretty proud of our work and we hope others think we did well too. Let us know what you think of Gratuitous, we’d love to hear from you.
