Show HN: Places iOS App – Find beautiful destinations around the world | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Places iOS App – Find beautiful destinations around the world

itunes.apple.com

40 pointshobonumber135 comments

Really nice design. Playing around with it now and want to offer some minor feedback:

1. Onboarding screens seem unnecessary. I've already read the description and decided to download the app. Unless you're teaching me something I don't need to be sold again.

2. The images in the tables seem slow to load for me. Are these being fetched from a server and if so would you not be able to keep the images for at least the first screen local? Also you need to implement some sort of cache as when I scroll and the cell is reused and I scroll back it has to reload the image (slowly, I'm guessing from the server).

3. When I click through to a category (e.g. South America) your table has an activity indicator and loading text plus there is a HUD with activity indicator. Only seems to happen when going form top level to next level. Doesn't happen on the third level.

Overall really nicely designed app with some good information. I'll be keeping it installed. Do you plan on making money from it?

Thanks so much for the feedback. This is why I love HN <3

To reply to your thoughts: 1) Good point. I'll consider removing it for the next release, but from my beta testing, some users felt that an onboarding flow would be nicer. I figured making it short and sweet wouldn't hurt.

2) The images are fetched from the server, because the entire app is very API-driven. You're right though - I could architect it so that the images for the initial page are stored locally and I could use some special category-key to fetch the right image.

3) Yeah, I realized that pretty late when Apple had already approved the app. Fix coming in v1.0.1!

Thanks so much for giving it a try. I do plan on monetizing it later. I replied below on how I plan to do that, but the most important thing for me is to make a quality product that people like using. That's what I'm tracking right now.

Re #2: Subclass UIImageView, add a -setImageURL: method, hash the URL and use it to lookup/store images in the documents directory. https://gist.github.com/cloudwalking/74a364e168b641e44482

https://gist.github.com/cloudwalking/66990a244b249c57f443

I'm using AFNetworking + UIImageView. I believe it does something similar, doesn't it? https://github.com/AFNetworking/AFNetworking/blob/master/UIK...

I recommend this project for image caching: https://github.com/rs/SDWebImage

It creates a cache keyed on the URL and deals with processing the image off of the main thread.

Some more feedback, in the Australia section you've put New Zealand as well. Maybe you should name it Australasia to be a little more accurate?

Good point! Done. :) That's the benefit of being API-Driven.

This is the first iOS app that I've ever made, so I'm pretty proud of it! Would love to hear what you guys think about it.

The first iOS app I ever made was also named Places. Except it was a Yelp client, before I knew there would be an official Yelp app.

Looks very pretty! Where do you get the images and content from? How are you monetizing?

Images and content are retrieved algorithmically from various places (Flickr, Wikipedia, etc.). Planning to monetize later by letting people purchase specific categories (like "romantic getaways"). Right now, all categories are free.

Well done.

I'm using the Flickr API myself for photo annotations - be careful to honor the licensing of those images. Quite a few are copyrighted, e.g. those in the Josha Tree section. Linking back is not enough, explicit permission is requried.

Example: https://www.flickr.com/photos/circleyq/8676353185/

You're right. I'm only using Creative Commons photos, and I include attribution inside the detail pages.

To be precise: The example was taken out of your app, I followed the link and pasted it above, so not only CC is in use.

I wanted to build something like this when I was at Travelocity but it never happened. I really wanted to do a calendar view, where you got a pretty location spread each day plus the ability to book a trip there if you wanted (of course). Or to allow you a little virtual vacation every day. Getting photos was hard however due to licensing issues and of course sending photographers is expensive.

Booking trips is a great way to monetize but then you start competing with Tripadvisor.

Nice work, very slick!

1. I couldn't figure out how to like a place

2. I was sort of expecting a bit more information when I clicked on a place. I mean this particularly with respect to the attractions section. I was hoping for more information on the attractions, like the ability click on it and learn more.

Yeah, the ability to click on attractions and view more information about them is coming in a later version of the app. That's something that I want too.

Also check out Hitlist for a similar offering, recently featured in new and noteworthy:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hitlist-cheap-flights-travel...

I got stuck on a weird screen that said No definition found with no buttons to get back to the app.

Interface is nice but app feels too sales-y and light on content.

Weird. I've never encountered that issue (and I've done a lot of beta testing). Could you explain how you got to that page?

Sorry to hear that the app was too sales-y :( What gave off that impression?

I agree that it feels light in content -- while the list of destinations is extensive, each description only scratches the surface. Then what?

Good stuff. Explore the use of custom navigation controller transitions. Tapping on a cell can expand into the new view rather than the default slide in animation.

That would look a lot slicker. I will explore that, thanks!

Very pretty app! Good work.

- how do you like a place? I couldn't figure it out.

- what UI element is the sort drop down?

To like a place, you can click on the heart. The dropdown is from REMenu (https://www.cocoacontrols.com/controls/remenu)

I like the app a lot. I couldn't figure out how to "like" a place, though.

Very nice app! Have you thought of allowing users to comment on destinations?

I have thought about it, but allowing for that would require some type of user authentication system which would increase friction when it came to onboarding. If I decide to go with user authentications, then I think adding comments is a no-brainer.

Only require authentication when the user wants to make a comment. You could also use Facebook/Twitter login systems built into the device so the user presses login, selects their account from an action sheet, and they're in. No username/password friction.

Good thinking. Sounds like v1.1.0.

Your app is not coming in results when I performed a search at app store

I think it's because Apple's search index hasn't been updated yet. Hope that happens soon.

Try now, it should work.

Nice icon!

Thanks! Photoshop. :)

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