When we started conceptualizing Naviflix we did not know a lot about the fabled iPad. There was only rumours and speculations. But they all turned out to be true. Once the iPad was officially revealed, we knew we had to make Naviflix available on it. But what would be the approach? A simple website or a dedicated application? Since a lot of our efforts were being pulled into the iPhone and Android app development, we knew the best option would be a website with a twist.
Based on all the videos of the iPad and the SDK we knew we wanted to create something that felt like a native application. The experience of the site would have to mimic the device's functionality as closely as possible. We knew we wanted to approach the portrait and landscape orientations, but were unsure of how to manage dual independent scroll object without using the two finger gesture to scroll.
Coincidentally we weren’t the only ones thinking along those lines. Very recently there was a lot of buzz about AdLib and PastryKit etc… which Apple themselves had used to create the iPad's user help guide. It was what we wanted; it seemed perfect. EXCEPT for one small thing. It was not documented. And JavaScript without documentation can be very confusing. So we had to scrap those libraries because it would be too time consuming to reverse engineer. Luckily for us, the jQuery community was also working on something along the lines of AdLib. And we love jQuery here at Flip. So after a little fiddling and understanding of the HTML5 spec we got cracking on the design and code.
It was extremely important that we created an experience that people would just intuitively get immediately. If you held the device in landscape mode you could see the two scroll areas, very much like the native iPad mail application. And when you rotated the device to portrait mode, you would have a clear focus on the content with all the other options hidden away.
And to take it a step further we made sure that most of the data, with the exception of image galleries and video, are stored in a local database on the device. This way the application is super fast and responsive. When you tap something, it comes up ASAP. No waiting or fussing. When you add it to your home-screen it operates as a standalone web app and works even if you don't have an internet connection.
We hope you like our little endeavour. Just log on to Naviflix.com with your iPad and give it a whirl. And while you are at it, please send us some feedback too!
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