Back in July 2007 Blue Flavor released its first product (or rather, suite of mini-products), Leaflets. Leaflets are small, mobile web-based applications you access from Safari on your iPhone.
The concept behind Leaflets came from a quick brainstorming session, where we had the idea of merging web standards techniques with mobile design principles. We wanted to showcase an amazing mobile user experience, leveraging existing applications that we found both fun and useful. The iPhone, with its newness, great support for standards and, well…hype, gave us just the opportunity to tackle this exciting project.
With few exceptions, we completed the entire project on our own time. We had a couple of hiccups, like having to scrap our initial designs after actually getting our hands on an iPhone. As well, many of the navigation metaphors weren’t consistent with the iPhone interface, and while we wanted to create a unique experience for the iPhone, we also wanted users to feel right at home with our designs.
But this background doesn’t really explain why we decided to make Leaflets.
There are many answers to this question, depending on who you talk to at Blue Flavor (or at what point in the development cycle we were). One might say we wanted to showcase what is possible on a mobile device. Another might say we wanted to highlight the use of web and mobile standards. Another would say we wanted to demonstrate the importance of the mobile context and the differences between the desktop web and the mobile web. Or maybe we just wanted to have some fun.
Or maybe we did it to kick off the ‘mobile web revolution’.
The revolution we have in mind won’t be started by Apple or the iPhone, but by people who will realize the benefit of having immediate access to relevant information. Over time, their perceptions and expectations of what mobile technology can do will change, which will lead to changes in how we interact with information altogether. The iPhone is the first device to capture people’s imagination in this way. The bar has been set high, so whatever comes next will only enhance the mobile medium.
Being a part of this revolution, if even in our own small way, is the most important reason why we created Leaflets.
The best way to learn more about Leaflets is to check them out yourself, at http://getleaflets.com.
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