Tag Archives: design

April 7, 2014 · 12:56 pm

Amino Acids v. 1.2

For quite a long time, I didn’t like the app icon of Amino Acids Structures and Names. It was too dark and the spacial formula was hard to comprehend that it is cysteine. So I decided to prepare this update with a new app icon (proline has three-letter abbreviation Pro) and some other improvements in design and localization. I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied with the resulting icon. The formula could be a bit larger, especially its labels. Maybe I’ll update Amino Acids again, but not now.

Greek Letters and Alphabet 2 – From Alpha to Omega

The Greek Letters and Alphabet 2 was approved and released yesterday together with Carboxylic acids. Now I’d like to write briefly about the first one.

Many (7.5) months ago, I published my second app called Greek Letters and Alphabet. I didn’t expect much from it, but it turned out to be fine. Especially, after it accumulated 10+ positive ratings and I made it a paid app. When I thought about updating it, I had two options. But the normal update to v. 1.1 would hide the rating history and I planned more serious changes in the quiz modes that would require the complete rework of the main menu. So I decided to go with the second option and release Greek Letters and Alphabet 2.

The English description of the game is the following:

It is a perfect app to learn Greek letters and alphabet. Choose the way of studying that suits you the best:

* Quiz “Find the Letter”
* Quiz “Name the Letter”
* Flashcards
* Greek alphabet table
* Example of the usage of Greek Letters in math and science
* Time modes, multiple-choice questions (in Greek Letters and Alphabet 1)

Alpha, beta, gamma, and go on!

*****
Features:
– The app is localized to 8 languages (vs. 2 languages in the first part)
– I used the same color in its design, but there are no ornaments, dragons, and the stuff

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

Inorganic Acids, Polyatomic Ions and Potassium Nitrate

My new app is called Inorganic Acids, Polyatomic Ions and Potassium Nitrate. Hopefully, it will be useful for everyone who studies inorganic chemistry.

The English description:

Learn names and formulas of all important inorganic acids, polyatomic ions and their salts. An app is suitable for everyone: from high school students to chemistry professors.
Take a quiz or use the table as a reference.

* 70+ inorganic acids: from Sulfuric H₂SO₄ to Hydrazoic HN₃
* 50+ anions and cations: from Chloride Cl^– to Hydrazinium N₂H₅⁺
* 50+ salts: from Potassium nitrate KNO₃ to Ammonium hexachloroplatinate (NH₄)₂PtCl₆

*****

New features:
– Table prepared with iOS standard elements
– Rate App button
– New smaller Open / Remove Letters buttons
– The app icon resembles a safety diamond (shows how dangerous a particular chemical compound is)
– Entering chemical formulas as answers. I even didn’t use subscripts, because in the Georgia fonts, digits are already smaller than letters.
– “Acidic” colors are used in design
– Only first 2 modes and a table are available for free. Six others modes can be purchased just for $0.99 together with removing the ads banner.

3. Acknowledgements:
icons for buttons were downloaded from iconmonstr or were created with Font Awesome.

Thanks!

1 Comment

Filed under Chemistry

Tagged as chemistry, design, iaps, inorganic acids

July 12, 2013 · 12:06 am

Cocos or not Cocos – Drawing fruits

I continue thinking about the pros and cons of making the Amino Acids app using standard UI elements and Cocos. What Color is This Monster? is essentially a similar quiz, and it was written in Cocos. I had to draw all buttons and bars but I had more freedom. But that was a game, now I’d like to make a scientific application, and the design can be different. For example, I can allow the portrait-landscape rotation. Making a scrollable table of 20 amino acids would be also much easier than in Cocos. So the first goal is to play with standard elements in Xcode and prepare main screens to see how they look. Is there enough space for all buttons I plan to add? Can I add both an image and a label to one button? Only after I set on the basic design and the standard UI vs. Cocos dilemma, I’ll begin drawing all pictures and structures.
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1 Comment

Filed under Developer Blog

Tagged as amino acids, blogging, cocos, design, drawing

July 9, 2013 · 8:03 pm

Dotmatics Elemental – iFunBox – Doodle vs. Minimalist

Yesterday I took a break from blogging here because I was busy with real-life tasks and didn’t have much to say about app development. Since almost nobody reads these posts, I feel free to use blogging as an exercise in writing. Seriously, it’s the most significant piece in English I’ve written since the defense of my Ph.D. dissertation.
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