We were tasked with building the iPhone’s first mobile dating application, looking at the technology and not being hindered by having to retrofit technology with an existing website allowed us to invent some totally new functionality and integrate it seamlessly into an interface and set of functionality that would be recognisable by the application’s users.
Our first port-of-call was to look at the iPhone as a device and determine what features of the phone we could use, the answer was obvious; the camera, the GPS chip, the 3G connection.
Messaging
Communication is an integral part of any dating website and on a mobile device we knew the bar would have to be raised. Mobile communication is about instant messages and faster replies. We built a messaging system that had more functionality that the iPhone’s own SMS application whilst performing faster.
Using a central database and push message server we were able to allow readers to see the status of their message as it was transmitted to the user, sending, received and read statuses helped our users keep track of when their messages were read. Accurate time-codes tracked messages and responses to the second.
If a user isn’t using the application and a message is received they receive a push message, a shortened version of the message sent to their phone that displays on top of any application as well as sounding a unique tone.
Profile Images and Galleries
When setting up or editing their profile, we created a function that allowed users to select photos they already had stored on their phone, or to use the camera to take a new photo and use it within the application.
Understanding that a number of users would only use the application on either a 3G or GPRS connection we built a function into the application to resize and compress images locally before attempting to upload them to the server. To keep resource usage low we even created two versions of each image, one to serve as a thumbnail when users are searching and the other the load on a user’s profile.
Administration
The dating website management team needed to be able to monitor their users as well as moderate image uploads and system usage, so as part of the package we built them an administration area that allowed them to drill down using various searches to understand how the application is being used. The administration area makes use of JQuery and other frameworks to make the user experience for the administrators simple and effective.
