Share Theres
p/share-theres
The app Yelp and Google Maps should've been.
James Toomey
Share Theres — The app Yelp and Google Maps should've been.
1
I decided to create ShareTheres on a trip to New York. I wanted to draw a box to find pizza places, but no apps worked that way. So, when I got back, I wrote my own. It's so easy now to share a list of ice cream shops, or mailboxes, or pretty murals.
Replies
James Toomey
I'm kidding about my app being the better version of Yelp and Google Maps, because I use both apps constantly, but I do think my app provides functionality that those two are missing, or certainly aren't optimized for. Some UI/UX designs I'm proud of: 1) I wanted the map to be less cluttered than Google Maps and Apple Maps. With both of those, I feel like the buttons and search box take up half the screen. I wanted my buttons somewhat hidden, but in keeping with the principle of making things discoverable, I wanted them peeking out so you can see they're there. Just unfurl with a swipe. 2) You can also swipe the button collection to the left. As a left-handed person, it always disappointed me that apps leave the buttons permanently camped on the right. 3) Just a single button click to save a pin at your current location; no need to long press (although you can do that also). Recently I rode my bike around my neighborhood placing pins where the mailboxes are, and it worked great. 4) The add pin pops up a box to make edits, but disappears after a few seconds if you choose not to edit; you're not forced to interact with that box. I always wish more apps would use this design instead of requiring an action on your part. 5) To search a small area, you can draw a box with your finger to search only within that area. This makes very fine-grained small area search (like even within 1 or 2 blocks), which is essential if you want to look within walking distance only. Originally I wanted to let the user draw a circle or polygon, but unfortunately the iCloud database's search isn't that sophisticated. This seems to work well enough, though. The app is free, and I'm not doing any location tracking or advertisement stuff or anything. It's just a fun project that I'm happy to see come to fruition.