We recently had an AppifyWP giveaway that proved to be very popular among Mobile Orchard readers. Due to the popularity of AppifyWP we decided to ask Cory Shaw, it’s creator and founder of User Kind, a few questions.
Mobile Orchard: Tell us a little about your company, User Kind, and background in UX design.
Cory Shaw: User Kind is a one-man company where I help clients design a great user experience and develop fun projects like AppifyWP and CrowdTubeTV (with dev Derrick Petzold) in my spare time.
My background as a UX designer spans from working for travel companies like Orbitz.com to building facial recognition photo tagging software at a startup, and everything in-between. I’ve always enjoyed making complex things easy to use, especially when I can touch every aspect of the product development life cycle. After 3 corporate jobs and 2 start-ups, I decided it was time to do my own thing, and User Kind was born.
MO: How has your business changed in regards to designing interfaces for mobile apps?
CS: It seems like people are starting to tackle big problems in mobile apps, things like music production (Korg iMS-20 for iPad) and booking travel (Kayak). These types of apps tend to have more complex interfaces and a lot of screens/states, so it becomes more important to have someone thinking about the UX to ensure that it’s easy to use. So far I’ve only worked on a couple of simple UIs for iPhone apps, but I fully expect within a few years it’ll be the brunt of my business.
MO: What is AppifyWP?
CS: AppifyWP is a WordPress theme for mobile app developers so they can build a stunning site to promote their apps without all the hassle of designing and coding a website.
MO: Why did you decide to create it?
CS: I wanted to combine my passions of design, WordPress, mobile apps, and jQuery into something people would find useful. After seeing what some friends had to go though to get a site up and running for their app, I knew I could make it easier.
Design and front-end web development aren’t a strength for a lot of app developers. The last thing you want to do after finishing your app is spend a few sleepless nights hacking together a website that probably doesn’t market your app as well as it could.
I designed AppifyWP with that in mind and cater every ounce of it towards the app developer.
MO: What are your future plans for AppifyWP?
CS: I’m currently working on a template for Mac App Store apps, and I’m planning to support android apps, different layout templates, and I’d like to create a version of the theme that supports multiple apps for those with several under their belt.
MO: How is your theme superior to others marketed to iPhone and iPad devs?
CS: I think it excels in the design and the options. I really wanted to push WordPress to see how it could accommodate a single page layout which is all an app developer really needs. I spent a lot of time on all the little details of the design and making sure that it was scalable to fit a wide variety of colors and customizations. I wanted it to be a design that developers could embrace and make their own without having to hack under the hood.
The options page lets you add things like your app store URL, your app screenshots, and a bunch of other options specifically catered to app developers, and spits out magic after you hit the save button. Maximum output from minimum input is where AppifyWP really shines.
MO: What other products or services do you offer to mobile app developers?
CS: Currently AppifyWP is the only product I offer, but it’s really just the beginning. I feel like I’ve struck a chord with it so I’m sure it wont be the last thing I offer to app developers. On the service side, I love working with people to design a great user experience, and I’m really anxious to get involved with app developers to deliver something amazing. If I can help, please let me know!
MO: Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Good luck with AppifyWP and your future projects.