The first Birmingham publication to move into the exploding iPhone market is the Birmingham Business Journal. The weekly newspaper already offers weekday site updates and e-mail bulletins.
In this post, we review the publication’s free iPhone app.
Birmingham-based iPhone developers Brian Cauble and Josh Grenon served as our guest reviewers.
Birmingham Business Journal iPhone app:
article list and single story
What was your overall experience?
Brian: The overall experience was mixed. It was a very simple app that essentially only showed the story. However, it had no categorization of stories, which I found to be limiting.
Josh: Clunky.
Do you get the sense that this is a custom app, or a “skinned” app for various sister outlets?
Brian: I think this is an app developed for all the Biz Journals.
Josh: This could be a skinned app, but I get the sense that it is a custom app.
As a news consumer, what did you like? What would you add?
Brian: I liked that it sized the articles to fit on my screen properly. I would definitely add categories for the news stories.
Josh: I like that I can access the Birmingham Business Journal on my iPhone, but the user experience was horrible. I would redesign this application, because I had a much better experience on the mobile version of the Web site.
As an app developer, what did you like? How would you improve it?
Brian: This app is extremely simple. It delivers the news and lets you e-mail the stories, but that is about it. I would add a better organizational structure and more options for sharing stories.
Josh: I didn’t like anything in this application. The interface was not designed very well, and my experience suffered greatly. Tip for improvement: Use the New York Times iPhone app as inspiration on how this app should be redesigned.
Since it’s a free app, would you pay money for it? How much? Why or why not?
Brian: I would not pay for this app.
Josh: I would not pay 1 cent for it. Redesign the app, and then we’ll see if I will pay for it.
• • •
Our other iPhone app reviews:
CBS 42 app, Fox 6 app and BlazeRadio app.
• • •
Brian Cauble (@briancauble) is the co-owner of Appsolute Genius, an iPhone application development company in Birmingham. His other interests include promoting local entrepreneurship through Birmingham Entrepreneur, participating in social media and a huge attachment to college football.
Josh Grenon (@joshgrenon) is a .Net developer by day and an iPhone developer by night. He started developing iPhone applications — such as Bham iCamp — in early 2009. Josh is also executive producer of Inspirageek, a casual yet informative video blog for geeks, and founder of user group Birmingham Mobile Tech.
• • •
Read more Birmingham media updates.
Have a news tip? Let us know!
Media of Birmingham 