Four years ago, I went indie. My business, Instinctive Code (@InstinctiveCode) has been going strong since then, and it’s been a great ride. I’ve worked for many interesting clients, from Fortune 100 companies (including one with a certain fruit logo, on more than one occasion) to fellow independent developers, and I’ve learned a lot. I’m very grateful to everyone who has made it possible, and I want to give you some free stuff to celebrate!
This year, I want to seriously begin a transition from a mostly-consulting-based to a mostly-product-based income, with (of course) a focus on iOS and Mac OS X. I’m also expanding my services to include usability and accessibility reviews, which I’m very excited about.
It feels like about a decade since I was an employee, and I’m not looking back. I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in the past year especially, and I thought I’d briefly take stock of where I am right now, professionally speaking.
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I have some exciting apps in the works, and a roadmap to get them out there.
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I’m a speaker at industry conferences. You can see some of my workshop and presentation videos here:
- Making Mistakes Impossible (free)
- Designing and Developing Custom Controls (free)
- The World According To Gemmell Usability Workshop (paid)
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I’m a writer for Tap! Magazine (@TapMagUK), specifically the Dev_Zone section in every issue.
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I’ve released many open source components for iOS and Mac OS X that are used in what by now must be hundreds of apps.
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I’ve written a number of very popular articles on this blog, on topics relating to software and user experience. Some of my favourites:
- Designing usable iPad touch-screen software interfaces
- Engineer Thinking – Removing choice to aid usability
- Accessibility for iPhone and iPad apps
- Your App’s Website Sucks – Designing a user-friendly website for your app
- Touch Notation: A concise visual language for multi-touch interaction design
- Finger Tools: A context-free multi-touch interaction concept
- The iPhone Development Emergency Guide
- Client Requests – Being fair about “stupid” clients
- What Have You Tried? How to ask technical questions the right way
- The UI Design of Favorites
I feel a great pressure to contribute to the community, and I have more planned for the future. I think I’m doing alright so far.
So, on to the free stuff. First up, a few free promo codes for my speed-dial (and FaceTime, SMS and email) app for the iPhone, Favorites. It’s only $1.99, so if you don’t manage to snap up one of these codes, do feel free to buy a copy regardless!
If you do redeem one of these codes, I’d appreciate a comment telling me which one to strike off the list. Thanks!
Update: all of the current batch of codes have been used – that was quick! Sorry if you missed out this time; if you’d still like to try Favorites, you could always buy a copy (for just $1.99)!
- YE76JJ43P99F
- J4LRK6WYHTPJ
- 6E3K37JXX9T6
- A7YTKNF6WRYN
- X6TMT363XFAT
- TWLH3E4XJ6JJ
- NLXAJ7HYRPMY
- N3TM46HW63MR
- MK6KTTTMRHL9
- 6XYH9HL97TAH
Secondly, I recently began offering no-attribution-required commercial licenses to my portfolio of open source Cocoa code, for those who either can’t or don’t wish to attribute me in their apps. If you need such a license, you can visit the license store here, but you can also try to win a free unlimited license for a source code package of your choice!
Just fill in the entry form here, and I’ll pick a winner later this week. I’ll probably repeat this exercise too, so you might want to follow me (@mattgemmell) on Twitter. Good luck!
Many thanks to everyone who has made the last four years possible; not just the clients, but also the community. I’m well aware of how fortunate I am, and I look forward to continuing to contribute.