It’s Labor Day, so I worked. It’s a national holiday, but there’s something nice about three-day weekends. It really helps in making progress on big projects. For the last three days, the focus has been on adding customization to the Widgets app. This task really needed that level of concentration. It’s a mix of design and development. The various inputs need to function, but they also need to look nice too. After three tough days, the results are quite nice.
Currently, there are 20 different settings. As more widgets are added, and more features are added, this number will only grow. That’s why I had been dreading this task. Not only was it design and development related – it was also tedious. There was so much fuss. The code has to be right, the order of the code has to be right, the colors have to be right, the look has to be right and I had to do that 20 times over.
Was it worth it? See for yourself…
I wasn’t planning to add customizable images for the “Slide Puzzle” widget for launch day. There was just too much work to do. But while working on the settings, I was really enjoying myself. The app started to feel more real. Customization is a critical feature of Widgets. Otherwise, there are plenty of free alternatives. That’s when I realized, “Hey, why not use the app icon?” The end result is hysterical. Well, I find it funny…
That looks like a significantly challenging image for the slide puzzle. Serendipity is the reason for humor. I was just testing out the settings. I didn’t expect to see the app icon like this. After scrambling the tiles, the difficulty was apparent. It’s not impossible, but definitely harder than just numbers.
Another memorable moment was with the “World Clock” widget. This is a bit more challenging than simply subtracting a few digits from the hours value. Time zones can be quite problematic for programming. Fortunately, there was an advantage in using JavaScript. Many localization features are built-in. Even with that edge, it still was a challenge. After fussing with it for a bit, I finally got the World Clock customization to work. I cheered. I felt such a rush of happiness. Here I am, acting like I just won the Super Bowl, when all I did was change the time on a clock.
It’s those subtile differences that make the app special. The goal is to build a quality app. Hopefully my enjoyment of this project can be experienced by you! If you purchase a copy of Widgets / Apparatuses, hopefully you can feel the joy that went into Widgets. Hopefully you can sense the determination and hard work that brought this project to life. In other words, hopefully Widgets is an app that you like.
Anyway, there is much more work to do, but I decided to share this story with you. After three days of work, I feel a little tired – but mostly I feel happy. The project is going in the right direction.