New Info Graphic

A picture speaks a thousand words.  This will be the first screenshot you see in the app store.

Rebranding

Ok, so due to a legal issue the Barclays Bike Hire part of the app had to be removed, sorry!

However, the good news is the cycle paths will now cover the entire british isles.

To celebrate this I have decided to put my limited design skills into play once more and remake the app icon.

About the App

What is it?

A app to see cycle paths and docking stations overlaid on google maps.

Why?

Meet Dave.

He is 29 and works near Waterloo.

Dave is meeting up with Tony, an old rugby friend, in a pub in Chelsea.  Dave is fed up of the Tube and decides to pay £1 to use the Barclays bikes.

After work dave opens up the app and quickly sees there are many docking stations nearby and they all have plenty of bikes.

Dave then moves the map southwest towards Chelsea.  He stops because he has noticed a thick blue line on Milbank.  Thick blue lines are cycle Superhighways, which are great for cycling on.  He notes the positions of some other cycle paths and quickly decides to take Lambeth bridge.  He had originally planned to go though Westminster, however, he now knows Lambeth bridge will be a much easier journey.

Dave pans the map on to the Chelsea area.  He immediately sees there are 4 spaces to park at Flood street.  Failing that there are 10 more on Cale street.

Dave locks his phone and starts his journey.


So Dave noticed that there was a cycle friendly route whilst using the app.  Dave has relatively little patients for apps.  He would not have done this:

• Opened up a journey planner ...
• Entered his starting location ...
• Typed in his destination ...
• Tapped calculate ...
• Waited ...
• Waited some more ...
• Viewed his cycle optimised journey

Using my app Dave saw a nice route without even trying.  Thats why I made it.

What you didn't know you wanted in a bike hire app

As promised, this post is on how my app will be different.  I will be resisting the temptation to talk about every little detail. Instead I will be brief.

You want to use ...

...but you want to avoid...

...you would prefer...

...or...

...you could try...

opencyclemap.org (fantastic map highlighting cycle routes)

...or...

cyclestreets.net (a great cycle optimised journey planner)

...but you might not have much...

...so that why im making this

A free app to show docking stations AND cycle paths for iPhone.

Cycle lanes, cycle networks in blue, Cycle superhighways in thick dark blue... Coming soon



Questions, comments? ...I would love to hear from you.

London cycle hire apps

Firstly I would like to say I am a huge fan of the cycle hire scheme.  Give it a go if you havent alreay, its extremely good value and a fun way to get around.

There are several iPhone apps that show the status of the docking stations around london.  Im going to quickly review my top 3 apps.  In the next post ill try to explain what my app will do differently.

1) The official Barclays app.  (free)

This is a nice looking app, it has well great images, and a well designed user interface.  It has a journey planner and is full of useful information and links.  The functionality is sound and even contains an augmented reality view (AR View). 

The largest shortfall of this app is that it is not easy to see the status of the docking station (empty/full) without tapping the pins.  This can be frustrating if you are trying to quickly find an empty dock.

Also, a large portion of the screen is taken up by user interface, this dons't sound too bad, but it is frustrating in the journey planner, when you are trying to view the route in a small window.

2) London Cycle by Fliplab (free)

This app is packed full of features.  A notable advantage of the official app is the ability to get a feel for the status of the docking stations without tapping the annotations.  Red for empty blue for full and the radius of the circle tells you how many docks there are.  Its directions are optimised for cyclists using the excellent Cycle Streets API

On the down side there are adverts (these can be removed by paying).  Also the interface isn't as nice and it takes a few too many taps to get to where you need to go. 90% of the time you just want to see the status of the nearest docking stations.

3) Yell for Bikes (free)

I have only included one screen shot here because that is all there is.  This app dons't include several features including journey planners menus and pages of text, it gets straight down to business.  The core use case is to find the nearest docking station and yell for bikes lets you do this fast.

This app has the best offline user experience.  All the map tiles are stored on the device and use  Open Street Map Data.  The licence of the open maps allows this whereas google maps does allow developers to store map data offline.  The effect of this means when you are in the tube you can still browse the map and see the locations of the docking stations just as easily as if you had a good connection.

There are relatively few downsides to this app.  Occasionally you may wish to plan route and this will not be able to help.  Also I slightly prefer google maps look and feel to the open maps.

Conclusion

All three apps are great and you wont go wrong with any of them.  I always use the yell for bikes app since it has the most streamlined use.  If you think you will need a journey planner get the fliplab app as well.

Thoughts, comments, ideas?  I would love to hear from you...