Students create smartphone apps

By Cathernine Zende
zendec@mytjnow.com

Seniors Alex Miles and Aaron Rich work on their project for VCOM 462, Interface Design in Alternative Media. They are creating a game application that is similar to the classic Simon Says game. Photo by Catherine Zende • zendec@mytjnow.comMany students have cool smartphone apps, but very few can make their own smartphone apps. A small group of digital information design majors have such an opportunity thanks to a class here at Winthrop.

VCOM 462, Interface design for alternative media, helps students develop applications on a variety of alternative platforms, formats, and devices. ““It’s [designed] to get them introduced to the programming environments they work in and look at some of the design issues that come up with the smaller screens,” said Gerry Dersken, associate professor of design.

Derksen believes the class is made up of designers and developers. “They are either on the design side or they are on the development side,” Derksen said.

Designers deal with the usability issues and how people interact with the app, while developers deal with storing information and working through functionality.

Karissa Martindale, senior digital information design major with a concentration in web apps, believes the class may help with future opportunities. “Mobile app development is where everything is going,” Martindale said.

“It’s [VCOM 462] geared towards new forms of media. Its good to have a variety of understanding of what you’re going to be designing for the real world,” said McKenna Brandon, senior digital information design major with a concentration in interactive media.

“Everything’s moving towards smaller screens” Brandon said. Because of this shift, many websites must be altered to work with smartphones.

The first project for the course involved making applications for preexisting websites. Martindale explained that the project was designed for “making sites more mobile friendly.”

Next, students worked on developing apps for the Android platform. The project required using one of the phone’s features for a game. Brandon developed an app for a zoo that tracks animals closest to the user using the geolocation.

Martindale also took advantage of the geolocation feature on the smartphone and developed a geocaching app that helped gage the distance to the nearest geocache.

Creating smartphone apps has many obstacles. ““We have a big hurdle with software and development tools,” Martindale said.

One of the biggest obstacles for the class is finding the equipment for testing. “Half the class doesn’t have a smartphone, so when we’re developing for a smart phone it makes it really difficult to actually be able to test the application,” Martindale said.

For Brandon, another challenge has been designing for smaller screens. “People handle the phone differently. Just the way your thumb moves the screen versus your pointer finger changes things,” Brandon said. 

Derksen believes the biggest challenge for the course is keeping up with the technology. “Their SDKs [software development kits] change,” Derksen said. He had to learn a new SDK known as Corona in order to help the students in the class.

Currently, the students are developing game apps for the iPhone. Like the previous project, the iPhone platform has presented certain obstacles. Once the students finish the apps, they can upload them to the platform.

“Now we’re developing for the iPhone, which one person has,” Martindale said. She explains that people can’t upload apps onto the iPhone without a license.

“For Android, it’s literally a file so you can just drag and drop. But for the iPhone, you have to buy a license to download in on your phone,” Martindale said.

According to Derksen, the submission process for the iPhone is more difficult because of Apple’s high standards. “Apple has very stringent rules on how they want things to function,” Derksen said. 

While the submission processes for Android and iPhone are different, the development is fairly similar. “In terms of development, it is about the same,” Derksen said.

Despite obstacles with submission and development, Derksen and his students are aware of the benefits of the course.  “There are not too many interactive media designers. Even if I don’t end up pursuing a career in it, it’s helpful to know it,” Brandon said.

Martindale believes that being able to show apps she has made to potential employers will be an advantage during interviews.

“We knew right away that this was going to be a big market for them [students],” Derksen said.

 “We had a person from IBM Skype into another class and say that now they only develop for smartphone platforms, then workup websites from that,” Derksen said. This alters the typical model, which is to build the website then create a mobile version.