We fixed a bug (did you know there was a bug?)

Three days after SoDunked! was accepted into the Apple store, we received information from a user that she could not get past the screen where you name the person you are going to dunk. On the "naming photo" screen she couldn't see the "okay" button behind the keyboard (see image at right) and when she pressed the "done" on the keyboard nothing happened. (See the image below for what she should be able to see.) After a little troubleshooting with her, we figured out that she had an iPhone 3G (the app is designed to be used on a 3 or 4G or even on some older phones) and that she had not updated her iOS in a long time. It turns out that a few other people with our app ran into the same problem. All of these folks had a 3G and had not updated their iOS (iOS=the iPhone Operating System) in a long time. They all had good reasons for not updating the iOS—it was often because they had heard that a later iOS slowed performance. Clearly, we needed to solve a usability issue and an enormous customer satisfaction problem. Some people bought the app and couldn’t use it. This was an app emergency!

On December 19, we contacted our developer who began working on it immediately. But then [cue 'screeching halt' noise], there was an email we had received from Apple the week before saying that developer access to the app store management service would be suspended from December 23-28 but we thought it wouldn't affect us. Argg, it was now affecting us. This meant that, although the app store would be open, no submissions or changes would be processed during that time.The soonest we could get this fixed and resubmitted would be December 29, 2011.

We spent the time to work out a solution and user-test the fix, which works beautifully. Now, even if your iOS has the same display issue where the keyboard hides the "okay" button (as in the picture above), you can press "done" on the keyboard and that alone will move you to the next screen. You are probably yawning now, but in the game that is bug fixing, this is a great solution--it is less costly than a full rewrite of code and the lengthy user-testing to prove it works without adding additional bugs. It also makes the screen more usable for even the 4G and 4.X iOS users—1 click is always better than 2.  Our developer submitted this revised version for us as soon as possible on December 29, 2010. Then, we waited, but not for too long.

Just this morning (January 3, 2011)—less than 1 week later, we received an email from Apple saying: “Your app is now in review.” Only a few hours later, we received the best word of all “Your app is ready for sale.” Yay. We both just downloaded the corrected app. All is well again for usability. Phew. Now, it is time to contact the affected users.

If you know someone who experienced this problem, please let them know to download the updated version at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sodunked/id406270928?mt=8# and they will be able to dunk someone immediately!

Thanks to all who have been waiting patiently.

Stay tuned and thanks for your support.