Going Micro - Building a Micro-ISV

2011 Gone, Now for 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Happy New Year all!

The annual Loony Dook has finished and Irn Bru is being consumed to clear the hangovers.

New Years Resolutions? None. But finding a brand of golf ball which doesn’t automatically seek out hazards would be good.

2011 – The Good

2011 was a great year – StrokePlay Pro was finished, launched and had a first update released. I had a great launch press release which achieved good coverage and I was pretty pleased by the response to it.

I also started a new contract which took me back to the front line of development which is a welcome change to the higher level architecture I’d been working on for the previous 18 months.

2011 – The Not So Good

There’s not much that I could say went badly. Lessons on marketing were learned post-launch and I’d say I could have done better with maintaining momentum.

The new contract has diverted me away from StrokePlay for a while but the balance is slowly returning.

And lastly, the release I’ve been trying to put out for a couple of months still hasn’t released – but I’m working on it now.

2012 – What does it hold?

First up is the update release. That’s the January priority. It contains a number of fixes, some enhancements and a few new features. I’d go as far as saying that this release is the one I would have launched with if I hadn’t decided it was better to launch than continually tweak.

After that, the 2012 plans have three branches I’d like to tackle:

1. Enhancement

I have a number of features I’d like to add to StrokePlay Pro this year, from additional stats and charts to multi-player comparison and even some league/tournament functionality.

2. Expansion

I’m still only playing with the iOS development tools but I’d like to see a StrokePlay Pro related iOS release this year. Maybe not a full implementation but a score data gathering app for use during the golf round. It’ll need careful design to prevent too much data being gathered at the point of play to prevent it being a source of slow play.

3. Product Line

StrokePlay Pro, as it stands, is the core product. But it’s been built with expandability in mind. I’m looking at the possibility of a more “corporate” edition which would have an altered feature list geared towards a corporate environment rather than the individual, or small group, of golfers. I’ll use the forums as a place to discuss this edition as plans become a little clearer.

So, one or two things to do and all of them achievable with some focus.

Normal Service Resumed

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:08:00 +0000

A temporary StrokePlay development hiatus has just finished.

The end of a client contract required my full attention so the StrokePlay development experienced a pause. But, with a new contract secured and a few days between contracts I can focus on finishing off the next release.

The core contents of the new release remain the same as before with one more addition. In the Raw Stats the putt details now include 1 putt in addition to the 2 & 3 already shown.

Some additional refactoring of the code resulted in much more consistent handling of the statistical data which corrects some differences between the charts and the raw stats. Similarly there was corresponding refactoring, and in some cases complete re-writing, of a few SQL statements which, as a side-effect, improved the performance of the raw stats SQL.

Finally, I’ve amended some of the charting code to take account of larger numbers of labels on pie charts in order to avoid the labels colliding in the display areas.

As mentioned in the previous entry, the biggest change in this release is the reworked scorecard entry.

The current scorecard looks like this:

This version places all data entry, with the exception of round notes, on to a single grid. Post-launch I decided this wasn’t going to work going forward and comments from new users showed that it could, initially, be intimidating to use.

With that in mind I’ve re-worked the scorecard and it now looks like this:

You can see that the common round details area is virtually unchanged and the overall look is very similar, retaining the tabbed notebook but just moving it into the window and splitting the data into areas which are consistent with the dashboard.

I also replaced the drop downs which were previously used to capture ball position after the tee shot with custom control which is much simpler to use and read. Another small enhancement was in the capture of round notes. There is now a visual indication when a hole or round note is recorded making it easy to see where data has been added.

What all of this is intended to do is make data entry for users who just want to record basic details much simpler whilst retaining the ability to enter all of the data previously captured for the more advanced users. It also greatly enhances the ability to extend the scorecard to capture additional data, something that I’ll be doing in future point releases.

In my own day to day use of the new layout I’ve found it to be much simpler to use and much easier to go back to and add additional details.

I think it also uses colour more effectively (less is more in this case) to aid clarity.

The release is locked now, with final testing under way. I’ll need to take a little extra time on this one to go through the updates to the help files to cater for the new scorecard layout.

Better and Better

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:13:00 +0000

I’ve been a tad quiet on the blogging front recently. It’s not a reflection on the lack of work going on – exactly the opposite, it’s a reflection of the large volume of work going on.

First up, I’ve been playing around with Trello as a day to day way of tracking tasks and change. It’s pretty good and it’ll be one to watch as it develops and matures. But, as a day to day tool it’s ease of use is hard to beat.

MiniHomer – my future Max/iPhone/iEverything Mac Mini – is now fully up and running, complete with an Xcode development environment. I’ve been playing around with it, but nothing serious.

On StrokePlay, release 1.1.1 is shaping up very well. Strangely, this is a bigger release than 1.1 was but then again, 1.1 was all about stability and making it DPI aware. The DPI awareness was a big change and so merited the 1.1 moniker.

A preview of 1.1.1 contents:

New “All Courses” data filter
Complete redesign of the scorecard entry dialog
Auto-addition of a new course to the player’s course list
Additional “Getting Started” instructions in the help
Some smaller bug fixes, including the correction of painting issues on the “My Scores” group box, retaining font settings for the scorecard and course notes after StrokePlay closes, ensuring the overall round note saves correctly.
Refactoring of the colour scheme handling to make it all centrally managed to allow for multi-theme support in a future release.

So, not a minor release after all.

New Release: StrokePlay Pro v1.1

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:14:00 +0000

StrokePlay Pro v1.1 has now been released.

This release is focused around numerous changes to the window scaling and sizing.

A number of smaller fixes and enhancements are also included.

Details of the release contents can be found on the website Release History page.

Registered users can download the new version using the “Check For Updates” option in the Help menu.

Scaled Effort

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 21:26:00 +0000

The weekend has disappeared in a blur of screen metrics and font scaling.

A bug in the StrokePlay window scaling code has turned into a rewrite of the scaling and sizing code and the addition of scrolling functionality.

No minor task!

The code changes for the dashboard pages are almost complete and I can just carry over the same base class changes to the scorecard and course handling windows.

With a fair wind coding should be complete on Tuesday evening with a release on Wednesday/Thursday.

An annoying delay to the release of the new scorecard layout but StrokePlay looks better for the changes.

Opportunity Knocks

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 23:05:00 +0000

Today was quite a challenge!

A new user purchased StrokePlay and immediately started hitting problems that I hadn’t previously seen.

But, rather than demanding an immediate refund, I’ve found myself having a user who’s prepared to work through the problems they’re seeing and being extremely patient as I work to build a new test release. This release contains additional diagnostic logging and some fixes and updates from the upcoming 1.1 release.

So all of the focus is on solving this users problems to ensure they get the best from StrokePlay. My mantra throughout development and launch has been the importance of providing first class support and here’s an opportunity to do just that.

My new user also asked about future editions, specifically Mac.

As I mentioned on a previous post I’d ordered a Mac Mini to allow me to start putting in some time on Mac development.

Todays other news is that the Mac Mini (or MiniHomer as it’s now named) arrived and is happily sitting in the PC cupboard. It seems to run very cool, even the brick power supply isn’t hot, and it just works! Plug in and go.

Once I’ve shipped my test release I’ll have a play with the Mac.

Mini Homer

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:22:00 +0000

I may be in the middle of development for the next release of StrokePlay Pro but that didn’t stop me advancing some future plans ahead of schedule.

It was also a chance to put an end to my long running frustration with iTunes on Windows.

Yep, I bought a Mac. A Mac Mini to be precise.

Mac and Mobile have been on the StrokePlay planning board since day 1 but I’d always said I’d wait until there was some demand appearing.

So why the sudden change of heart?

First up, I’m keen to dip my toe in the mobile development world.

Next, there’s a decent enough range of test devices available in the house right now in the form of phones and pads.

Then there’s the size of StrokePlay right now. It’s early enough in it’s lifetime to make a port workable before I start adding the planned features.

Finally, I’m tired of fighting to try and get iTunes working well on Windows. The Mac Mini can double as a small media server in its spare time and look after the various iDevices.

I should add, just for a little clarity, that Mac work will be a back burner task – something I’ll work on if and when I get some spare time from the planned Windows releases of StrokePlay. There is a natural time for making the Mac work a bigger priority in the StrokePlay plan but I’m nowhere near that point yet.

Mini Homer? Seemed natural since the main development box is called Homer.

Onwards and Upwards

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Even if I say so myself, I’m pretty pleased with the way the new scorecard entry window looks and works.

I changed one or two things once I had the layout working as I originally envisaged, primarily to remove a drop down list that I didn’t like and to replace a couple of check boxes with something that was a better match to the data being entered.

And all I had to code was one additional owner drawn control. I modified the static control to allow me to display a bitmap that I could click on and have it record where I clicked with a check mark.

So the layout and initial functionality of the new scorecard is done, just the load/save to the scorecard object to go.

The changes to the original vision meant I didn’t release the new scorecard this weekend but I’m ok with finishing it off this week and having some more testing time before a new release slot next weekend.

In other areas, my AdWords campaign is still going strong and the targeting of the keywords continues to improve. There’s an increase in the number of trial edition downloads and the general stats for the website are seeing day on day increases in traffic.

Analysing the in-page analytics is interesting and it’s leading me towards some changes and potentially some A/B tests on the download and purchase page.

The Sighlence of the Geek

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:21:00 +0000

It’s a double sigh day. One good, one bad.

Let’s deal with the bad first. A big sigh for MFC.

Work on the redesigned scorecard is going just great. The first page of the tab control is done and by doing that all of the base classes and templates are in place for the subsequent pages.

But, I was tripped up by the old GUI stalwart, the Combo Box. It may be a very common control, used everywhere, but I just find the MFC implementation inflexible when you want to do something slightly different.

For instance, making the static text control element of the combo box thinner whilst retaining a more expanded look for the drop down list element. It just ends up with a perfectly fine drop list and a static control that, due to vertical margins, positions the text halfway down the control which chops off the lower half.

I know I can just write an owner draw version of the control to do what I need but for once it would be a nice surprise to see that it had already been thought of and included. *SIGH*

Now the good part.

Visual Assist X by Whole Tomato Software

Where has this tool been for my entire programming life?

I’m not going to mince words. It is absolutely fantastic. It is the dogs cojones.

Everything from commenting out chunks of code, adding method implementations, fantastic pop-ups telling me what options I have for whatever I happen to be typing, renaming methods and variables, clear mark-up and it even indents whole chunks of code with a single press of the tab key.

The above does it no justice at all. Those features are not even scratching the surface of what it can do.

*SIGH* (content and happy geek sigh this time).

Less is More.

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:13:00 +0000

It certainly seems that way with my Google AdWords efforts.

Now that the campaign has been running for a few days it has accumulated some stats which I can use to tweak it a little.

I found that I had too many keywords that weren’t achieving many impressions so I’ve paused those for now. I also paused one of the 4 Ads and slightly reworded one other.

The outcome of this minor trimming has been a decent increase in impressions and the clicks are finally starting to appear. I’ll check the website stats in the morning to see if there has been any impact.

On the press release front, I’m starting to see an increase in web traffic to the website from links in the release. I also had my first enquiry from someone having seen the release, a golf school in the US, which was great to see pop into my inbox.

On the coding front, the new scorecard is really taking shape now. I added in all of the notification code which auto-updates the various totals and fields on the window when the user changes one of the data fields. All that remains is the sanity checks on the data and saving the data to the scorecard object which updates the database. At the moment, V1.1 is looking good for next weekend.

Planning for post-V1.1 is under way too. I’ll be using the follow on release to correct some data filter auto-updating and to introduce some new charts and graphs to the player dashboard.

Implementing Simplicity.

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 19:31:00 +0000

It feels like I’m really back into a coding phase at the moment. The press release is doing the rounds and generating a good number of website hits and the Google AdWords campaign is starting to pick up too.

With those two items ticking over nicely I was able to re-focus on the scorecard design.

The current scorecard is a daunting prospect to the new user judging by user comments received so far:

Looking at it post launch I have to agree. It looks like the user has to enter a huge amount of data and it’s only using colour to differentiate between fields which need data and fields which are informational. There’s also no real separation between the categories of data being requested.

So, the new scorecard will look like this:

This version incorporates a tab control, which brings consistency with the main application window and it allows me to categorise the data entry options available.

The new scorecard also uses different visuals to show the split between informational items and the data items (proper entry fields and standard controls such as the check boxes).

Another thing this does is make a future feature, user definable data, easier to implement and process.

The version shown is the current development version which still has a bit of work to finish off, but it’s essentially what users will see in V1.1.

The course information entry window will get similar attention in a future release to enable easier data entry and to make it more consistent with the rest of the application. The added bonus of updating the course information window is that I can completely remove the dependency on the Ultimate Grid control which will reduce the installation size and remove a 3rd party library from the build.

No news is good news?

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:37:00 +0000

It's one of those full on work days with nothing much to blog!

The launch press release has gone out but I'll need to wait until tomorrow mornings stats to see any initial results.

Similarly, I made some changes to the AdWords campaign which produced a sharp uplift in the stats from Google but any real effect on the website or downloads will only show up tomorrow.

So, just a solid coding day. The redesigned scorecard entry saw the base classes and templates completed and great progress but nothing specific to report on.

A slow news day. Wish I had some other news to sneak out in the same way the government does on days like this.

The Head of Many Hats

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:31:00 +0000

It’s a bit of a mixed bag update this time round since there’s been a lot of hat swapping going on.

On the advertising a promotion side the launch press release is ready to go. Tomorrow it’ll be sent and it’s available to view on the website now. I still get a kick whenever I read it.

I also had an expiring Google AdWords introductory offer which would be a missed opportunity to play with AdWords for free if I let it go. So part of yesterday was spent setting up my first campaign.

I’m finding AdWords to be strangely addictive and I’ve had to stop myself tinkering with it and just let the first campaign run for a few days. There’s enough free cash in the AdWords account to run at reasonable rate for a week or so which gives more tinkering time before it runs out.

Last bit on the advertising front. My friendly neighbourhood ad-man also gave me a good tip on approaching a particular golf magazine so that task is next up.

After what seems like ages I finally back coding the next release. There’s a decent enough change in this release to warrant a single jump in the minor release number so the next release is 1.1.

What’s in it? A completely redesigned scorecard entry. I’d looked at the usability of the current design and how it’s going to work going forward. I also had a user comment that the scorecard looks overwhelming when first viewed due to the amount of data that can be entered.

What’s not clear from the current design is that the majority of the data is optional. Obviously I’d like users to enter all of the data to allow them to get the best possible score analysis but at the same time it should be clear exactly what’s required. -1 for UX on that window right now but working towards a much better user experience in 1.1.

One odd thing is the support forums. I seem to be getting a fair number of spam registrations. It’s set for e-mail verification of registrations and the first posts for a new user are moderated but spammers keep arriving. I’m boggled at what possible value this has at such an early product stage. Takes all kinds I suppose.

One last thing I noticed was how quickly this blogs Technorati ranking drops whenever there’s a change in posting frequency. During the months building up towards the first release I was blogging pretty much daily. Post release its every 2-3 days. Boy has that altered the ranking. It’s a fickle taskmaster!

Neighbourhood Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Do all programmers find self promotion and promotion of their products difficult?

I certainly do.

My first, second, third and every other attempt at a launch press release for StrokePlay Pro were pretty dry, technical and, to be honest, a fairly dull read. It was no different from many others I'd read recently either.

Thankfully the actual press release for the launch of StrokePlay Pro wasn't written by me.

A neighbour took pity in the plight of a lost programmer and, as luck would have it, Mark is an advertising industry pro.

I never thought a press release for something I'd developed would mention not only me but Victor Kiam too.

Keep it simple stupid.

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:15:00 +0000

I caught a quote from Jason Fried on Twitter the other day:

If you have to convince yourself it’s simple/easy/obvious/intuitive then it’s not simple/easy/obvious/intuitive.

Very true, and very apt for the work I’m doing right now.

This period of time, post-launch, is very interesting. I’m spending a good deal of time away from StrokePlay Pro while I concentrate on the promotional side of the ISV such as advertising and press releases.

When I do go back to StrokePlay, to work on fixes or future features, I’m finding little things that just don’t quite work.

The biggest is the scorecard window which is used to enter all of the data. This has to be right. But, looking at it now it could appear extremely daunting for the first time user. If it were me I’d be thinking “I have to enter all that?”. It’s not obvious, but no, you don’t The minimum amount of information required is the course details, player, date of play and a single gross score.

So, I’ve redesigned the scorecard entry window. It’s not a huge departure from what’s there right now, just arranged better and categorised consistently with the other areas of the application. The redesign is also going to make some the the upcoming enhancements, like user definable columns, easier to implement.

Tomorrow should see a good chunk of the new scorecard window completed so I’m pencilling in a release in the next week or two.

Why grow?

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:07:00 +0000

I’m not normally given to book reviews or book recommendations but in todays connected world a tweet led me to a blog entry on Peldi’s site which piqued my interest in a book and resulted in a lost afternoon staring at my Kindle.

The book in question was ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson over at 37signals.

Throughout my working life I’ve found the corporate environment a frustrating place. Full of policy, bureaucracy, politics and working practices that don’t work. And we never learn. It’s the same wherever you go.

The first time I really came across a company which said “no” to all of this was when I read about Balsamiq. This was a company which wanted to stay small and was happy to say just that. It was happy producing great products which people really wanted to use. It prided itself on customer support and wouldn’t be afraid to say “sorry” if it messed up.

This was all wrong. You have to grow, look bigger than you are, generate more money, put processes in place, use support ticketing systems, out-feature the competition, keep revenue information secret, never publish plans, don’t interact directly with the customer and never admit when you’ve messed up. In short you had to go corporate.

What a load of garbage.

I have no desire to be a huge company. I WANT to be able to talk to my customers, to hear what they’re saying and to answer them myself. I DON’T WANT to become mired in process or policy, to stifle innovation by killing the desire to think for yourself, to have layer upon layer of management, to spend endless hours in meetings only to end up working late so that I can actually get some work done.

In short, I want to work at a small company which thinks on it’s feet, doesn’t need deadlines, delivers great customer support, tries to give something back, where leaving at 5pm is the norm rather than the exception and where having a life outside work is not only allowed but applauded.

ReWork tells me this is ok. That it’s fine to be a small company, that I don’t need the corporate scars called policies, that it’s ok to have a geographically distant employee, that I don’t need to work 24/7 and that connecting with my customers is a good thing.

I take one of my many hats off to Jason and David for writing and publishing a book which should be required reading for any aspiring Micro-ISV’er.

Do you remember your first?

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:23:00 +0000

Had lunch with Andreas Baumhof of TrustDefender today and there was the inevitable mention of StrokePlay Pro. I unashamedly take every opportunity possible to mention it.

The part of the conversation that stood out for me wasn’t focused on what I was saying about StrokePlay itself, it was when I mentioned how I reacted to the e-mails hitting my iPhone detailing my first sale - excitement at the level which can make you fall off your chair.

At that point Andreas recalled his own reaction to the first TrustDefender sale and how similar it was, to the point that you would want to print off the e-mails and frame them.

We’re at opposite ends of the spectrum, I’m starting out and have just achieved that first sale whilst TrustDefender now operates on a global scale. Despite that, it’s good to know the feeling of accomplishment when that first customer hands over their own money for your work doesn’t diminish as a company grows.

How to get ahead in advertising.

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:12:00 +0000

Nope, I don’t have a talking boil on my shoulder which means I’ll need to work out the best way to create an effective press release and get it into the hands of editors, bloggers and reviewers across the globe all by myself.

There does seem to be a lot of advice out there and weeding out the good from the bad will take a little sifting. But I do think this is an important hat to try myself before looking to the professionals for assistance.

On the ASP, one name keeps popping up – Al Halberg at DP Directory whilst on other sites a common recommendation is PRWeb. I’ll keep looking around for more information and recommendations before deciding how to jump.

On other advertising fronts I’m starting with the basics, putting together a small “Press Pack” which I can put on the website and which pulls all of the relevant StrokePlay Pro information into one easy to read PDF.

At the same time I’m joining various groups and contributing to discussions to raise the profile of StrokePlay Pro and myself a bit more.

Later this week I’ll delve into Google AdWords and try redeeming some of the many free offers I seem to have accumulated recently.

The last point for today was that I found a StrokePlay Pro mention on a friends blog. It was certainly a nice surprise to see it pop up on my Facebook page!

StrokePlay Pro Release v1.0.12

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:13:00 +0000

StrokePlay Pro v1.0.12 is now available for download.

This release includes a small package of fixes and two enhancements to the install/upgrade process.

Details are available here

End Of First Week Report

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:15:00 +0000

StrokePlay Pro has been live for a week now and I thought a quick pause for reflection was called for.

In the space of a week I’ve gone from a pre-release product, through a release, gained the first forum user, had a good number of trial editions downloaded, seen more hits on the StrokePlay Pro website in a week than on my other company site had in the last year and, pause for breath, sold my first licence.

Fantastic. Better than I could have hoped for.

But I think the real work starts now. The momentum has to be retained, more trials downloaded and a push for more sales.

I’m also readying the first post launch release (v1.0.12) which is shaping up into a fix release (8 fixes) with one UX enhancement. This release will go live over the weekend.

Great first week, roll on the second.

What does your first software sale look like?

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:27:00 +0000

Oddly enough, it looks like a large glass of 14yr Old Oban Whisky and sounds like a great big YES!

A great big welcome to my first licenced user!

In Praise of the NAS

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:32:00 +0000

I’ve sung the praises of the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ before but it really impressed me again this week.

I started to see some fluctuations in the response times from the device, nothing major but enough to get my attention. Then it stopped serving web pages.

A quick run through the diagnostics and it identified a potential bad disk. After the recommended reboot and file system check it determined that one of the two Western Digital Caviar Green (the 2TB WD20EARS model) drives was dead. Judging by what I read on various sites today it’s not an unusual occurrence for these drives. Score those off the future purchase list.

But, a new disk ordered online arrived today (Seagate Barracuda this time).

The NV+ is a hot-swap capable NAS so I simply ejected the Western Digital, took it out of the caddy, popped the Seagate into the caddy and inserted it back into the NV+. At this point the new disk was checked and then the NV+ just started a resync to bring the new disk into the array. Easy. And the NV+ e-mailed me a few times to let me know what was happening.

Technology that just works. Who’d have thought.

And StrokePlay Pro? The first post-launch update is on schedule for this weekend and it’ll consist of a small package of fixes and a little code refactoring.

The new scorecard layout has been designed and mocked up and I’ve started coding he classes. I’m aiming to make it available in the following release.

The first enhancement

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:52:00 +0000

I decided that this weekends release is just going to address a couple of small bugs. They were annoying and I’d rather fix them quickly.

On the scorecard window, after doing some more design work I’ve decided to just push ahead with the redesigned scorecard window and put a setting in place to allow users to switch back to the old one.

The new scorecard design will be a better fit for some of the new features I’m planning for the next few months.

It’s funny, working on StrokePlay now seems to be a more relaxed affair than it did prior to the launch. I guess the removal of all the pre-launch nerves was a bonus.

Fascination With Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:50:00 +0000

StrokePlay Pro is all about statistics. You enter your score data in as much detail as you would like to and it makes sense of the numbers and presents you with various ways to look at your data and spot trends in your golf game that could use some attention.

Today was really the first time I’ve stopped and looked at the various post-release statistics that are accumulating and they’re almost as interesting.

The trial edition is being downloaded already, tracked by a Google Event tied to the download button.

The number of unique visitors to the StrokePlay Pro website is already higher than my regular company website achieved over the course of the last nine months.

The average time on site is over three minutes.

I made some changes to the website this evening to tidy up the meta tags. I also installed a mod on the support forums to send me an e-mail when someone registers and another update saw the addition of Tapatalk to allow browsing on smartphones.

On the application front, I started looking at the scorecard entry window. I think that it could be a little daunting for first time users and I’m thinking of introducing a simplified version as a user selectable option. At the moment the design for the optional scorecard is sitting in a Balsamiq Mockup so that I can play around with it.

I might post the mockup on the support forums and see if anyone has an opinion one way or the other.

What a difference a day makes.

noreply@blogger.com (Patrick) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:05:00 +0000

What a great first post-launch day!

I’ve been well and truly humbled by the messages and support from friends and family.

From like’s and re-posts on Facebook to re-tweets on Twitter.

I had planned day 1 as a quiet day, staying away from the PC and not looking at site analytics. I had a little peek at the analytics but I was more interested in where StrokePlay Pro was being mentioned.

There was the re-tweet on whisky related Twitter feeds thanks to the the celebration glass of the water of life at launch time.

Then there was the repost of the launch entry in Facebook which led to my first registered user on the StrokePlay Pro support forums.

I simply found myself unable to sit still with all this going on so I base lined V1.0.11 and moved on to the next release. I have a few small defects to track down and fix and I need to look at the post-day 1 feature list and pick up a couple of smaller items to include.

A first update release towards the end of the week is the plan.