Bruji

It's me again, with some bold feature ideas, I hope you like them.
Let's begin with ideas that aren't too far from what the the app looks like right now, and move one to bigger ideas at the end.


1.0 List view | Swipe options
There already is a swipe option, but only for deleting things. In my opinion this swipe feature could be expanded, here's how:



When you want to move an entry, you have to go to the description, tap "edit" and then "move". That's a lot of steps – which could be improved easily by making the "move" button accessible right in the list view.




In the same vein, there could be another swipe button on the left, for "read". It would open a text input field for "last read".
For Gamepedia a "played" button. It would open a text input field for "last played".
And so forth for all pedias.






2.0 Pocketpedia | dark mode
This one is pretty self-explanatory.
The dark mode could be set either
1. by tapping on the title "collections" in the main view. The app narwhal for example does it like that.
2. depending on the time of the day.
3. or in a settings panel, which I introduce at 3.0.

Bookpedia:


Gamepedia:






3.0 Pocketpedia | settings
For dark mode, but also for the next ideas there would be needed some sort of settings. They could be reached in the main view ("Collections"), where the "Sync" button is replaced by a "Settings" button.

The "Sync" button is now located in the preferences, as well as a dark mode switch.




3.1 Pocketpedia | settings > dark mode
From what I've gathered, the Pocketpedia app uses heavily downscaled/compressed versions of the cover images to reduce filesize. But if the resolution of a cover image isn't drastically below the phone's screen resolution, the compression won't go unnoticed. This is how my Crysis 3 cover (2480x3508 px) looks on an iPhone 6S+ display:



Comparison of the cover image between 6S+ and Mac:



That doesn't look too good. And not only when you take a screenshot and zoom in. It can be noticed even if you hold the phone at an arm's length away from you.

So I thought: Maybe there could be an option to choose the quality? Something like this (again – the settings page would be needed):




If the switch is deactivated, all images are copied 1:1 from your OSX library. If it is activated, the default mode is "medium". "low" is referring to the compression (not the quality). Therefore "low" would be "high quality". The modes would be:

• Off
  On: high image quality
  On: medium image quality
  On: low image quality

Of course, 4 options could be too much work, so a switch to turn image compression completely off would be sufficient.




4.0 Pocketpedia | grid view
In my opinion this is the most interesting feature of all. While the mac apps have three different viewing options (list, grid, cover flow) plus a slider for grid view thumbnail size, the iOS apps only have one option. Since you get the most overview from the grid view, this would be the best option. Here are some mockups I did (better to view them in full size in a new tab):







In these two Imgur albums I made, there are more mockups and screenshots plus some more information about every layout:

• Bookpedia album
  Gamepedia album

What I want to include here is, that this would be another option to consider:

(The app is Movist). No spacing between thumbnails, no titles, no rating.



4.1 Pocketpedia | settings > grid view
For the layout at 4.0 there could be another part of the settings.



The settings are ("-->" meaning "dependent on":

• Grid view
  • Info: on --> Spacing: on
    Info: off
    Spacing: on
    Spacing: off --> Info: off
    3 columns
    4 columns
    5 columns --> Info: off (because the space for info text isn't sufficient at 5 columns)
  List view

Closing remarks
I think that was all — maybe I went completely overboard with my ideas, but there might be something that piques someones interest. Cheers!

Wow Conor - give this man a job in your R&D department. Only two postings but both full of great ideas.

Well done is89 keep them coming.

Indeed the post are most welcome; color coded, priority, coding required organized as well as taking the time to create the screenshots that really help clarify any details.

I had read the statistics post and was holding off on it as I wanted to get into it, but that requires time and was currently in the Pocketpedia mind set. Just finished work on adding the media picker and paste commands to the cover edit feature.

There is a lot to love here, the swipe options instead of just delete is something that I really like.

The cover size update also needs to be implemented as the iPhone 6+ does suffer with it's higher resolution display. The covers are currently sized for the iPhone SE at 1136 height. While the Plus can do 1920. I was also using an older API of CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex that is more aggressive with the compression than I would like, instead of talking about it I have addressed those issues and you should see improvements (if running 64-bit, 10.9+ macOS) with the beta versions of the Pedias (they are the ones resizing, before sending to keep sync fast as well as save space on the iPhone):

Bookpedia
Gamepedia

There are other improvements I want to make that are in the pipeline, such as detecting the device type and not shrinking images as much for the iPhone 6 and Plus versions.

I wish running betas was as easy on iOS as it's on the Mac.

Just wanted to wrap up that I'll have more to add later on, but it's this style of involvement in the product that makes your request more likely to be implemented. As half the work has been done for me of planning out, all I have to do is code it.

Since you got me right while working on Pocketpedia, I have already implemented the swipe to Delete/Move/Read. All on the right hand side, but will look at moving some around to different swipe directions (requires breaking away from the Apple APIs).

The move button really speeds things up, works really well as you can select the borrowed list and then will ask for the borrower, just like tapping Borrowed By does on edit. Much simpler and faster workflow, thanks for the suggestion. The Read turns into Return[/b" when an item is borrowed, as you can't really read what you don't have. It also lets un mark it as not read on the same day it was marked read, both as an easy undo and a status indicator that the read worked, without having to go into the details and look for the last read date.



Currently not great looking, pushing the title out of the screen being so many options and big font, but this is the default that Apple's API gives. Now that I am liking the workflow will look at adding this framework that opens up more possibilities, including right swipe.

Conor wrote: Currently not great looking, pushing the title out of the screen being so many options and big font, but this is the default that Apple's API gives. Now that I am liking the workflow will look at adding this framework that opens up more possibilities, including right swipe.

Conor I like the 3D Transition as it is just different from the Apple standard pull through. Perhaps have standard functions (Del, Move, etc) on the right [Left swipe] with App pacific functions (Borrow, Play, Read) on the left [Right swipe].

You could even put the 'Share' function in with standard right hand side [Left swipe} functions leaving room on the top menu bar for a hamburger icon for a whole side slide out Menu list which could include Settings, Version, Rate this App, Other App's web hot link, Help web hot link, etc.

I'm glad that my ideas were received so well and that I could contribute something!

I was also using an older API of CGImageSourceCreateThumbnailAtIndex that is more aggressive with the compression than I would like, instead of talking about it I have addressed those issues and you should see improvements (if running 64-bit, 10.9+ macOS) with the beta versions of the Pedias (they are the ones resizing, before sending to keep sync fast as well as save space on the iPhone):

Bookpedia
Gamepedia

I just compared screenshots of the previous sync and a new sync with the betas — it does look much better now. Neat!

Just finished work on adding the media picker and paste commands to the cover edit feature.

Since you got me right while working on Pocketpedia, I have already implemented the swipe to Delete/Move/Read. All on the right hand side, but will look at moving some around to different swipe directions (requires breaking away from the Apple APIs).

It's nice to have a little sneak peek into new features of future updates, it's making me really excited and curious..

will look at adding this framework that opens up more possibilities, including right swipe.

The framework looks promising – especially the "expandable" feature. I'm really looking forward to seeing the implementation. Keep up the good work!

Is there a specific reason this was only added when you view the Library, and not when you view Smart Collections? It'd be really great to mark TV episodes as viewed, but I never go into the Library - it has over 15,000 items and would be really time-consuming to have to navigate. I create folders for each TV series and then Smart Collections for each season. It makes it much easier to keep track of where I am in a season. Since I'm never in the Library, I had no idea that there were any swiping actions! Pretty cool. I'd love to use them.

The Pocketpedia grid view is a fantastic feature that enhances navigation and accessibility. Adding swipe options for quick access to detailed entries would elevate the user experience even further. Additionally, incorporating customizable layouts and sorting options could help users organize their collections more effectively, making it an invaluable tool for collectors.