iPhone App Development

Case Study: Work Rights

The Work Rights iPhone app allows you to self-diagnose employment problems. It covers issues of unfair dismissal, discrimination and pay claims. The Boffin Lab developed the app for the barristers at 36 Bedford Row Limited as a marketing tool for their services in the employment law sector.

The main part of the app consists of a set of simple questions. Based on the answers given relevant information relating to the users situation is displayed and the user is given the option of contacting chambers for further assistance if appropriate. Due to the complexity of employment law there was a delicate balance between ensuring that the questions were concise and simple while still gathering enough detailed data to provide useful information to the user. The question text and flow therefore required several iterations to get right. We designed the app to enable these changes to be made using configuration settings rather than requiring lots of code changes, this meant that the changes could be made quickly and reduced the risk of introducing bugs into the app.

Incorporated into the questions are links to reference information that was required to help the user understand various terms used in employment law. As the application was developed and the reference information database was expanded it became apparent to us that this was a useful resource for the app user in its own right. We therefore suggested to the client that another section was added to allow users to access this information as both a categorised and indexed dictionary.

Testing the app was a key part of the project lifecycle to ensure that the app reflected the high quality standards of the client. Tests were created as the app was developed to ensure that the app logic functioned correctly. Complimenting this automated testing the app was regularly made available to experts at 36 Bedford Row to test so that they could iron out the question flow and ensure that the legal information given to users was correct and detailed enough to be helpful. The final phase of testing was to bring in members of the public to use the app and make sure that it was usable and understandable to the target audience.

Testimonial

The Boffin Lab proved to be the ideal partner for us to build our first app.  They worked closely with us to take our initial ideas and develop them into the Work Rights app. This is the first iPhone app that we have had developed and the early access they gave us to a prototype really helped us to nail down the app workflow and evolving content.

Their rigorous and professional approach allowed us to concentrate on ensuring that the legal aspects of the app were clear and simple for users of the app without worrying that it would function as we had specified. The finished app both supports our brand and gives us an excellent tool to help people going through the difficult process involved with employment rights.

I would enthusiastically recommend them to others and look forward to collaborating with them on future projects.

Jonathan Kirk QC

Recent Reviews

"The developers have done an outstanding job of making this App easily accessible to the masses", appcritic.co.uk (link)

"Very Detailed, yet easy to use", Pete Goold (5 Stars)

Case Study: Time to Roast

Time to Roast allows the cooking time and oven temperature for a roast joint of meat to be calculated. A cooking app for the iPhone is certainly nothing new, in fact this category of app is quite congested ranging from free offerings including hundreds of user submitted recipes to pricey offerings from celebrity chefs. To be noticed in the crowded App Store the Boffins were asked to create a really polished interface that was incredibly easy to use.

The design of this app was focussed on keeping the functionality it offered well targetted on the app's primary task and not falling into the trap of adding more and more functions. This in turn meant that the app had to present what it did well both in terms of ease of use and visual style.

The diagram below shows some of the designs for the meat selector screen of the app. Design 1 shows a simple design that was used during the first stage of the development. At this stage the primary focus was in creating a functioning app that could capture the user inputted values and then show the correct timings and instructions calculated for these values.

Designs 2 and 3 show interface mock-ups that were created as part of the iterative development process used by the Boffins to refine and polish the user experience. The final styling Design 4, was based on the controls of an oven, after all this is the appliance the app revolves around using. The user experience refinement was not limited to visual flourishes, but also focused on presenting the final information to the user in easy to use forms providing both a tabular summary of the cooking timings along with clear textual instructions.

Have a look at the app on iTunes App Store where it continues to feature in the UK lifestyle chart.

More information is available here on the Hemingsby website.

The app has been featured:

• In the Apple iTunes 'In the Kitchen' feature during March 2011
• As an 'App of the Month' in T3 magazine, Christmas 2010 issue.
• In the Apple iTunes 'Festive Cooking Apps' feature during December 2010

The app has been getting some great reviews:

• "Perfect roast (5 out of 5), Great app, makes it easy to calculate a perfect roast" by Insortediaboli
• "Great app (5 out of 5), Very useful and easy to use - does exactly what it says it does!!" by SueRich
• "Just what I need (5 out of 5), No more burnt dry chicken, great app" by Christopher Porter
• "An incredibily helpful app that all amateur chefs should consider downloading", Apps Magazine, January 2011
• "It has a simple as pie interface, with direct, easy to read instructions, and is sure to guide you to making the best roast of your life", 148apps.com