This week our iOS and Android application for An Comunn G ¡idhealach, organisers of the Royal National M²d, was published. It’s a project we’ve really enjoyed working on and we’re incredibly happy with the finished product.
When we originally spoke to the organisers, they were looking for an application which conveyed a large amount of information in a mobile solution which was easy to use across a variety of devices and screen sizes. The M²d is an arts and culture festival which consists of over 150 competitions and a week full of fringe events from some of Scotlands finest Gaelic language performers.
This large amount of information needed a slick and user friendly user interface, which is what we looked at first. Competitions were given the main focus of the application – the top row while musicians and the fringe programme were placed below. Supporting information (Maps and About the M²d) were placed beneath this, finishing off the home screen. Sub menus were designed with drop down sliders where appropriate to reduce the amount of jumping backwards and forwards between screens.
Then we set about developing the back-end of the application, getting the large amounts of information into a format which would display seamlessly on devices and importing information from the competition results pages which were hosted online.
Once all of this content was included in the application, we created an interactive version of the festival guide so people would easily be able to find their way around Inverness while the M²d was taking place. As so much hard work had gone into the printed copy of the guide, we decided to include that as well.
Now the app was almost finished, we implemented the social share functionality, making it possible for users to share the application through their Facebook and Twitter accounts with the tap of a button. Push notifications were also built in to allow the organisers of the M²d to stay in touch with visitors to the festival.
The M²d started today and we’re really happy to have been a part of this exciting project which gave a modern solution to this historically important event. You can see the M²d app in our portfolio here or download it directly from iTunes or the Google Play Store.
Tradebox Media are an award-winning software development agency based in Cardiff, UK.