Bathchat

An iOS app similar to Snapchat. Final project for CSCI-4440 "Software Design and Documentation" at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Spring 2014. Released the same day that Snapchat launched Chat. http://tjphilli.com/projects/bathchat

Derek Schultz, Theo Pak, Trevor Phillippi

http://github.com/bathchat

Transcript

2. Bathchat is for the people. CSCI-4440 Software Design & Documentation
3. 1. Motivation 2. Visual Design 3. iOS Development 4. Team Dynamics
4. What is Bathchat? Product iOS app for iPhone 4 and greater (iOS 7.1) Value Proposition Bathchat facilitates non-committal multimedia communication while bathing via an iPhone app, for software designers and developers. Market Segment People who both use and inform design trends
5. Why Make Bathchat? WhatsApp/Messenger/SMS want to be your only form of communication. Snapchat is a niche medium. Baths are an underutilized niche within the Snapchat niche.
6. Visual Design Trevor Phillippi
7. Objectives for Visual Design Since Bathchat itself is a fun and immersive product, we wanted the visuals of the product to reflect this. We selected Lato to be used for the typeface since it evokes a sort of playful and inviting feeling The light colors further communicate the approachableness of the product.
8. Style Guide
9. xCode Autolayout How do you solve the problem of multiple devices/screen widths that could be running Bathchat? xCode Autolayout was introduced specifically to solve this problem.
10. Contraints By opt+dragging in xCode, you can create a “constraint” A “constraint” defines a layout value of a UI element in relation to another element. This can include UI elements as well as screen boundaries.
11. iOS Development Derek Schultz
12. iOS Software Design Practices • MVC • Delegation • Singleton • Polymorphism
13. Core Services • UIKit • CoreLocation • CoreGraphics • Parse • FacebookSDK
14. Model–View–Controller • Models: Parse • Views: Storyboard • Controllers ◦ Login ◦ OutOfBath ◦ Inbox ◦ ViewImage ◦ SendPhoto ◦ etc
21. Team Dynamics Theo Pak
22. Team Derek/Trevor/Theo Strengths communication, tolerance, experience-driven design Weaknesses collective lack of impulse Challenges Faced Our fourth member left RPI
23. Exhibit A • Messenger • Slack • Snapchat • Drive • FaceTime • Trevor hates SMS.
24. What Worked Scrum Framework, 2-week iterations Subsystem Ownership, Multi-Developer Workflow Common Vision
25. Scrum
27. Fred Brooks, 1986 “No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering,” 1986 Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_Brooks_IMG_2261.jpg, 2012 There is no single development […] which by itself promises even one order of magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.
28. Mills Baker, 2014 “Greg Jorgensen: 'Why Don't Software Methodologies Work?',” 2014 Photo: https://flic.kr/p/buizyF, 2012 The natural conceptual integrity that results from a really well-selected group of colleagues who "just click" with each other cannot be over-valued; it […] makes methodology a lot less important. So while we're Agile, we try to be much more than that
29. Common Vision + Crunch Time == Bathchat
30. Lesson Learned: Pitching We had trouble explaining Bathchat to our friends. Sometimes your pitch needs to start with the pain point and then introduce the solution. A pitch is not simply the value prop. Better: Messaging someone is such a commitment. What if the act of sending a message was ephemeral? vs. Worse: Bathchat conversations are non-committal. This is unique and fun.
31. Lesson Learned: Move Fast Jan 23 — first class of Software Design & Documentation Feb 2 — “Hey let's make Bathchat.” Feb 19 — Facebook acquires WhatsApp for $19b Apr 24 — Bathchat beta woo! Apr 28 — Facebook ships Messenger 5.0, uh-oh May 1 — Snapchat ships Chat, godammit May 1 — “Ok now Snapchat is better than our MVP.”
32. Thanks Derek Schultz, Trevor Phillippi, Theo Pak CSCI-4440 Software Design & Documentation Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY, USA