Tube App


My next app is a simple one. But one which i’ve found quite useful for the last couple of weeks and one I hope when it’s live on the store will be useful to other people. The purpose of this app is two fold. First is to solve the problem at hand, and second is to test some of my custom UI components which i’ve been writing in the last month for a different project i’m working on.

Okay so let me explain the problem i’m trying to solve. In London the Tube is really the primary form of transport. For the most part it’s pretty good, don’t listen to anybody who complains about it as those people have never lived outside of London where buses and trains run once an hour and hours can be lost if there is a service problem. It’s a very effective system which most of the time does it’s job perfectly.

Thats not to say it isn’t without it’s problems. The biggest one I have is the sometimes complete lack of information whilst entering tube stations about the state of the lines. Usually this is a problem if you use multiple tubes to go to and from work. The intention of this app is to tell you before you go into a station and hence underground if they are any problems on any of the lines.

The reason for this is most journeys can be completed using alternative routes and if you are told which lines are off when going into a station it might give you the opportunity to catch a different line and avoid getting stuck somewhere or having to backtrack and hence saving time which nobody in London seems to have!

In addition the app allows you to set alarms at certain times which will send you a notification with information on any specific lines you select. This would allow you to for example get an alert before leaving work so you can make a decision to maybe go to a different station as early as possible.

Anyway, this is a first version of the app and many more features are planned including

real time route planning above ground
simulated route planning below ground based on the most recent line delays
departure and arrival times

Finally the UI. I’ve taken some cues from the Facebook app which I quite like and modified them slightly so all the navigation is now completed using gestures instead of a back button. I quite like the way this works and find its quite quick to flick around but other people may hate it so if you use the app when it’s approved and have an opinion please feel free to post a comment.

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  1. #1 by Dave on May 3, 2012 - 3:09 pm

    There’s more to life than London. Make it national and I’ll think about it!

  2. #2 by Andy Yardley on May 3, 2012 - 3:11 pm

    Point taken, i’ll create a new one that works on the train network if that works for you?

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