2.0 Design Goals

Happy New Year! ? I hope 2019 is off to a good start for you. I’ve been slowly getting back into coding since my daughter was born, sneaking in 30 minutes here and there in the evenings after the kids are asleep. I’m hoping to get Snapthread 1.9 submitted soon; it contains bug fixes, rudimentary support for still photos, the ability to loop clips, and makes the app compatible with the new iPad Pro screen sizes.

That said, I’m already thinking about Snapthread’s big 2.0 update. I don’t usually do “major releases” because I prefer to get new features out quickly, but now feels like the right time to slow down and really do a lot of work and polishing. A big update also invites more press coverage, is an opportunity for marketing, and can get Apple’s attention…gotta work toward that Apple Design Award, you know. ?

My design goals for Snapthread 2.0 are simple and twofold:

  1. Improve accessibility. This will involve making my buttons even more button-y and using text labels in addition to icons for added clarity.
  2. Consolidate functions. Currently, every tool for editing a clip opens up its own modal view, with its own video preview. My goal is to make the clip editing interface more modular, swapping out tools below the same preview so that all editing (muting, cropping, trimming, looping, etc.) happens in the same view controller.

There are many more additional improvements that I’m hoping to cram into 2.0…but we’ll see. Some of them include: video transitions, the ability to add text to clips, Ken Burns effect for still photos, non-buggy support for time-lapse and slow motion videos, and auto-saving of recent projects to guard against losing work. I also want to continue improving the title card selections.

In order to finish 2.0, I’m going to need a good task management app. After watching the beta evolve over the past year, I believe Capsicum by Illuminated Bits may be the best app for helping me accomplish my goals this year. My next post will be all about how I plan to use it!