[iChris]

I wanted to mention an application I developed here and hope that's cool. It just went live earlier this week so I'm trying to get it out there and talk about it a bit.

It's a Wine Vintage Card that spans a decade and covers all the major wine producing regions across the New World and Europe. It's designed with everyone from the complete beginner to the savant in mind and emoticon driven. In short, it's meant to be unpretentious and intuitive. The ratings have been gathered from publicly available vintage information, direct reports from regions, news reports and weather and growing conditions. They are NOT built from personal opinion or tasting notes as those ratings are purely subjective and what I love you may detest, regardless of its quality. This is not to discount the value of tasting notes but my app is meant to be used a tool on your personal journey and help the user pick the best glass or bottle when confronted with multiple choices (at a shop, at a restaurant, etc...)

A couple of words about what it is and what it isn't...

It is a vintage chart, meaning it will tell you that 2007 was an amazing year in Germany and 2002 was pretty bad in Rhone. It is not a varietal or producer review. It won't tell you the difference between a Merlot and a Cab or if Domaine Leroy is a good producer. There are plenty of apps out there that will and they're great. But, what I'm trying to get away from with mine is sitting at a restaurant table and digging through tomes of information for 5 minutes to select a wine. Or trying to figure out what bottle to buy when I've got three or four picked out that sound good.

My application is designed to be used quickly, easily and discreetly and will ensure you're picking a quality bottle under whatever circumstances you may mind yourself in. At a glance you'll have a good idea that you're going down the right path. In short, it's a quick reference tool, and I hope, a useful one.

So, if that interests you, check it out. I'd love hear what people think.

Wine Vintage Card

[iChris]

Also too, if anyone has any good site referrals for App reviews I'm all ears. As well as any general marketing ideas or tips for an iPhone app. I'm just getting rolling where all of that is concerned and am interested in any and all suggestions.

Thanks again!

[vmarks]

Your screenshot has a typo. New World, not New Word.

Nice concept. The faces are not color differentiated enough. Get an app like sim daltonism and run it in the emulator on the desktop while simulating color blindness and see what you think about using light blue and yellow - they don't work well.

I would even consider using size to differentiate the scale from bad to good as well, and it would put some space between the faces that you need from a layout perspective.

[iChris]

Great typo catch! I hadn't noticed that. Thank you. I'm going to get right on it. Ah... the benefits of sharing with a community.

Your other design related suggestions are great too. I've been spending a considerable amount of time defending this application to wine people who tend to be a bit on the snobbish side and can't digest the emoticon driven format so it's refreshing to get layout and general effectiveness comments. All duly noted and appreciated! Breathing sigh of relief. Aside from a few design upgrades I hope it's otherwise an obviously useful tool.

Thanks!

[iChris]

Originally Posted by vmarks 

Your screenshot has a typo. New World, not New Word.

Nice concept. The faces are not color differentiated enough. Get an app like sim daltonism and run it in the emulator on the desktop while simulating color blindness and see what you think about using light blue and yellow - they don't work well.

I would even consider using size to differentiate the scale from bad to good as well, and it would put some space between the faces that you need from a layout perspective.

Hey, just another quick thanks for the sim daltonism app recommendation. I'm downloading it now. I agree with you where my color palette is concerned and think it would get a boost from better differentiation so this will be helpful getting me there.

[pcryan5]

Originally Posted by iChris 

Great typo catch! I hadn't noticed that. Thank you. I'm going to get right on it.

FYI Typo is still there