Work Log - Sofa Blog

Work Log

A collection of 13 posts

Sofa Work Log: Apps, Audiobooks, and Board Games

Apps, Audiobooks, and Board Games are coming soon to Sofa. This brings the number of unique data types to nine! Sofa 2.0 launched in 2017 with movies, TV shows, and books. It’s come a long way. Apps Add any iOS or Mac app that is currently live in

Work Log: Deeplinks and Creator Themes

This week I talk about a new feature coming soon called Deeplinks. This allows you to copy a deeplink to a list or item. You can add that link to a notes app to reference for later. I also demoed new Creator Themes for designers and developers.

Improving Sofa’s Data Management

This week I talk about how I’m improving data management in the app, details of a promotion I did recently, and some feedback from the community.

The SwiftUI Detour

I recently released version 2.12 of Sofa. That release brought new features, but more importantly, included a major refactoring of the app. This was triggered by two announcements at this year’s WWDC: 1. UITableView will eventually (soon?) be deprecated 2. SwiftUI evolved in nice ways and could potentially

Thinking through custom items in Sofa

Thinking through custom items in Sofa

I recently added the ability for people to save custom items to Sofa. This post outlines the thinking behind the feature and how it works. Two of the main reasons people find Sofa so enjoyable to use are the rich display of the various media types and the mixing of

Implementing iOS 13 Dark Mode Settings in Sofa

Implementing iOS 13 Dark Mode Settings in Sofa

In iOS 13, people will be able to choose a light or dark “theme” that will apply system-wide. Regardless of what you think about dark mode, apps that don’t adopt this will stick out like a sore thumb. Luckily, Sofa already has a dark mode, but I needed to

Fixing Sofa’s Tight-Coupling Problem with Coordinators

Sofa was suffering from a tight-coupling problem between view controllers. I discovered this while trying to refactor my massive controllers. I stumbled upon the coordinator pattern, which ended up being a great solution. A quick note I’m a beginner when it comes to iOS development, and the coordinator pattern

Why I Made Sofa FREE

I go over the reasons for making Sofa a free app.

The Story of a PITA Button

I try to get a button working. Yes. A button.

Inside Sofa - Researching the Sofa App Store Page

I conducted research on the Sofa App Store page. I also discuss the process & tools used to conduct the research.

Sofa: From Free to Paid

Sofa: From Free to Paid

Today I’m changing Sofa’s price from Free to $4.99. In a world where people don’t pay for apps, you may think that I’m an idiot. While very possible, there are a few good reasons to do this. The goal is for Sofa to become a

Inside Sofa - Let's Design Quick Add

Inside Sofa - Let's Design Quick Add

A video showing you the process he went through to design Quick Add in Sofa.

How a Designer Built and Shipped an iOS App in 6 Months

How a Designer Built and Shipped an iOS App in 6 Months

There’s a constant debate about whether or not designers should learn to code. While I’m happy to talk about that at length, I think it’s helpful to look at it from a different perspective. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to get a job,