A Million Times Pattrn

Pattrn is an unique wallpaper app for Android that gives you access to the huge collection of patterns created by the COLOURlovers community. It has been featured by Google on multiple occasions: on Google's Android Design in Action show, and on Google Play's Staff Picks, Pure Android, and Beautiful Design collections. In just over a year, it has been downloaded more than a million times with an active install base of ~300k users. In this talk, you'll learn a bit about the story behind Pattrn as well as some useful Android design and development tips that might help your app stand out.

Transcript

1. Pattrn
   A million times
   

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2. Hello!
   I'm Lucas Rocha.
   @lucasratmundo · http://gplus.to/lucasr
   

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3. Craft
   I build user interfaces.
   http://thelayout.cc
   

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4. Gigs
   Nokia, litl, Mozilla
   

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5. Open source
   GNOME, Maemo, Firefox
   

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6. The App
   

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7. Side project
   Spare time experiment.
   

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8. Premeditated
   More than you think ;-)
   

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9. Hypothesis
   Good design wins. Duh.
   

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10. Niche
    Personalisation is big.
    Google I/O 2011
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxU8N21wfrM
    

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11. Wallpapers
    Popular apps were #%*&!
    

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12. “BeeGee”
    

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13. “WallMag”
    

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15. Pattrn
    Wallpapers
    

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16. Features
    Browse latest & popular
    Auto-wallpapers
    Search
    Favourites
    Saved searches
    Android Beam
    

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17. Goal
    Take over 'pattern'
    Achieved after 7 months!
    

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18. Installs
    2 Sep 2012 30 Dec 2012 28 Apr 2013
    300,000
    600,000
    900,000
    1,200,000
    6 May 2012
    

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19. Spotlight
    Google Play
    Staff Picks
    Pure Android
    Beautiful Design 2013
    Android Design in Action
    Responsive Design
    Backwards Compatibility
    Beautiful Design
    Blogs and News
    Beautiful Pixels, TIME, Android Central, etc.
    

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20. Practicalities
    

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21. Fragments
    From day one.
    Be ready for responsiveness.
    

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22. Release often
    Learn and iterate fast.
    Use the Beta testing bits from Google Play.
    

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23. Comply
    But not too much.
    Aim for awesomeness, not pure correctness.
    

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24. Open source it
    Share your reusable code.
    http://github.com/lucasr/smoothie
    

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25. Feedback
    Make it simple and listen.
    Feedback menu item.
    

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26. Landing page
    Your branding, your way.
    http://github.com/lucasr/pattrn-landing-page
    

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27. Blogging
    A post per release.
    http://lucasr.org/tag/pattrn
    

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28. Community
    Reach out for feedback.
    The #androiddev community is on Google+.
    

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29. Get featured
    Best way to get noticed.
    Be ready when it happens.
    

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30. Design
    

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31. Unique
    Quirky, nichey, cool.
    Pattern wallpapers are not for everyone.
    

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32. Responsive
    All shapes and sizes.
    Pattrn is available on all form-factors.
    

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33. Behavioural
    Beyond the launcher.
    A new wallpaper every morning.
    

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34. Simple
    Do one thing, do it well.
    Simple navigation, small feature set.
    

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35. Visceral
    Be a bubble wrap.
    There's always something new to find.
    

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36. VISCERAL
    UNIQUE
    NICHEY
    QUIRKY
    BEHAVIOURAL
    SIMPLE
    RESPONSIVE
    

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37. Find a gap
    And take it over.
    

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38. Questions?
    

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