Game Tracker 5.0 iOS app
Focus
iOS native
Responsibilities
Concept, Design, Coding
Timeline
Late 2012
Thoughts
And then there was 5.0.
Game Tracker, at this point, had been around for 5 years and had tens of thousands of users. I always included a “feedback” mechanism in the app and almost all of the messages I received from users were positive. In fact many of the adjustments and future features came from those emails. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I stepped out and decided to redesign in an entirely new direction.
With the power of the devices Apple now had available it was time to step out and do something a bit more sophisticated. From the ground up I spent almost a month on feature and flow designs, then another month on graphic mock-up. Finally, the chosen designs for version 5 were polished, sophisticated and more responsive than ever before.
Some of the social features were brought in from Gamer Book and a whole new rating system was introduced. The tricky “cheats” with live auto-bookmarking was brought over and a full data backup mechanism was introduced. It was a huge rewrite, but well worth it.
Design
Okay. Lots of wood. Skeuomorphism at its height. This version followed an established pattern of collections set by Apple iBooks — with a bit of extra gloss. I also borrowed the popover concept from iPad with great success. Bookshelves slid and snapped into place, box art updated and cached at multiple sizes, the web integration was even tighter and more meaningful in this product.
Iconography was well established by this time so other than the stylization things remained common. And our Game Tracker orange was becoming a constant.
