Here follow email exchanges with App users I hope you will find useful.
A HELPFUL SUGGESTION
User: Yesterday I buyed your app. I was waiting for her since I new about it. My question or request it’s about the necesity, in my view, of wide open the range of possibilities in the field “Family 1″ and “Add Family”. I don’t study famuilies as a site all the time, in fact, very few cases. May object of study are sometimes: groups (youngs, teens, etc.,), proceses or activities (the way people do something), places and situations (the way people (individual of a class, group, age, etc.) act in certain contexts. So, I think it would be useful to open the possibility of change the name of the unit of study to include more categories. Thanks and great job!!! Best SP, Anthropologist, from Santiago, Chile
UPLOADING TO PC
User: Hi there,
It seems I cannot upload this data I collect from my 3GS to my computer. I read the FAQs and it said there is no syncing capability. Is that what this means? If so, I would like to request that this ability be developed. I feel it is too lengthy a process to email everything to myself or others, and the information is disjointed when disemminated this way.
Siamack: Dear ADY
This will definitely be a 2010 Q1 update. However, in my defence, I prioritised the ability to collaborate ‘as live’ over syncing post fieldwork. Sending captured events to Camera Roll also slows things down.
The update will probably come in the form of a toggle to allow syncing or collaboration/email or both.
I really appreciate your feedback and please keep me posted on how you get along with the App.
Regards, Siamack
USER: Thanks, Siamack
The app is fun to use. I am not sure what the syncing capabilities would be like, but I think the ideal situation is to be able to get all the data I now email to myself (project, family, members, etc) easily into the cells of a spreadsheet for analysis to sort out later.
Great work, and I can’t wait for updates!
ADY
A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS…
USER: Hey Siamack,
A couple other small questions. Is there a way for a ‘project’ to live outside the iphone and on a computer?
A specific example of what I’m *hoping* to do as a fun experiment. We are taking a family roadtrip starting tomorrow and want to document the experience with my son for his kindergarten project about the holidays – but do so using the structure of this app.
When we are all done it could be a small presentation for his class - with themes, etc. brought to life in the way the app is designed. But to do this we’d want to present off a computer, not the phone. Is this possible?
The other question is I notice the video and pictures I take don’t find themselves in the iphone camera roll. Is there a way to get have video/pictures taken within the everdyay lives app to be included in the camera roll, also – automatically?
Thanks – enjoying noodling with this…
Siamack: Hi CR
The App is designed around email rather than syncing directly with a
computer.
So everything you capture needs to be sent (square with arrow coming
from it at bottom of page), saved or shared. This is the only way of
extracting your content to another computer.
Having content appear on the camera roll is something we explored but
would have meant images, audio, etc. being encoded twice – once
for the camera roll and once for emailing which would have slowed the
App down.
It was a choice between pushing email collaboration during fieldwork or saving to sync post fieldwork - we opted for email collaboration.
An important piece of news is that the edlAPP ‘cloud’ will be up and running very soon indeed. A couple of months I estimate. This way, still using email, all content will appear organised on your own company, skinned, pass protected site by the time you return to your desk from the field.
Hope this answers your questions.
MULTIIPLE QUESTIONS (SEE HIS DETAILED REVIEW IN ITUNES)
Q1 Google location accuracy
USER: The Google map link (in email) only goes to a generic Google map of the US and not where the picture was taken. I have location stitched on. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=%28null%29 One the second try it was at least closer: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.5274,0.0721
SIAMACK: OK – NOT SURE IF THIS IS AN IPHONE ISSUE OR SOMETHING TO DO WITH OUR APP. FEELING IS THAT IT’S NOT THE APP. I WOULD BE GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD KEEP ME POSTED ON ACCURACY.
USER: WIll do.
Q2 Distorted image
USER: In the email the image seems to be cropped or distorted.
SIAMACK: I NOTICED THIS TOO BUT WHEN DOWNLOADED IT’S FINE ISN’T IT? I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH DISTORTION…
USER: Mac mail keeps it square (distorted), but when you resize mac mail message window it shows the image in the correct aspect ration – Mac problem.
Q3 Slow App with 3G (NOT 3Gs).
USER: The app takes 5 seconds to display an image when you click on an image entry.
SIAMACK: NOT WITH MY IPHONE. IT TAKES THE SAME LENGTH OF TIME AS LAUNCHING CAMERA IN IPHONE. DAVID, BEN, ANY IDEAS WHY IT COULD BE TAKING 5 SECONDS ON ONE IPHONE ON NOT ANOTHER?
USER: 3G is a lot slower than 3Gs – There ins’t anything you can do about it as far as I know.
Q4 Slow to send on 3G (NOT 3Gs)
USER: Slow to send on iPhone 3G (20 seconds to move off screen)
SIAMACK: AGAIN – I AM SITTING HERE WITH MY IPHONE AND TRYING TO REPLICATE YOUR ISSUES – NOWHERE NEAR 20 SECONDS. BUT IT’S IMPORTANT WE UNDERSTAND WHY THE APP MAY WORK MORE SLOWLY ON DIFFERENT IPHONES.
USER: I have restarted my iPhone and re-tested. The delay is the same. Click on send, opened email interface, click Send – 20 seconds wait before the next act is possible. The actual mail can take minutes to send even over my wireless network connected to a 20 MBs connection.
Q5 UI improvements
USER: Text entries only show an icon in the listed view It would be better to show the first few lines of the note as you don’t want to write a description for a note. It’s better to show key facts in the list view as entering text on the iPhone isn’t great.
SIAMACK: ACKNOWLEDGED…
Q6 Send, share and save
USER: What does Save do? You say “Save will save the event to your device for later synching”. I have synced, but where am I supposed to find my data? I have looked in iPhoto and email (Notes). Where is the output stored?
SIAMACK: CORRECTION – THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT – THE APP CANNOT SYNC YET WITH ITUNES. THE ONLY WAY OF TRANSFERING CONTENT ACROSS IS BY EMAIL. SAVE WAS CREATED TO ALLOW USERS TO FIND A MORE SUITABLE LOCATION (3G OR WIFI) BEFORE SENDING.
USER: It would be beneficial to point this out in the app description and FAQ. As far as I understand save doesn’t actually perform an action. Am I wrong?
Q7: What do you do with the output?
USER: I have captured pictures, text, location, audio. However, it all sits in the application. Other than sending a entry per time, which is horribly tedious, I can’t see how I can use this application as the content is buried.
SIAMACK: EMAIL – EMAIL – EMAIL… WE ARE LOOKING AT SYNCING TO ITUNES BUT UNDERSTAND THAT WILL SLOW DOWN THE APP MUCH MORE BECAUSE CAPTURED CONTENT WILL HAVE TO BE RECORDED TWICE – ONCE TO EMAIL AND ONCE TO SYNC.
USER: The sync will be very useful. However if you create a web based service with some sort of security measure then this will negate the need for sync as the content will be synced online. I would use Evernote as the gold standard for this functionality.
SIAMACK: Can I use exerts of our emails (anonymously) on edlapp.com?
USER: Yes for sure.
USER: By thew way the new Jef Raskin book, The Humane interface is fantastic. Another is Designing with Video: Focusing the user-centred design process by Salu Ylirisku,Jacob Buur