One afternoon a couple of months ago, I was sitting in traffic in the car, listening to the radio. For some reason I suddenly had a flash of brilliance: why not make my stitch dictionaries into apps for smartphones?
I don’t even know that they were talking about apps on the radio. I don’t think they were, but for some reason whatever they were saying sparked something in my mind.
When I was at Maitland Embroiderers Group and at Beating Around the Bush, I did some market research, asking my classes whether those who had smartphones would be interested in such a thing. The answer was a resounding “YES!” I figured that when people go out, they have their phones with them. If they’re at stitching group, or in a class, they’ll have their phone with them. They may not want to carry a book with them, but they could certainly carry a phone with a stitch dictionary app on it, giving them ready access to all that lovely information.
And so, ever since, I’ve been doing little bits of research on this idea. Part of the reason for buying my own mobile (cell) phone was because I’d never even seen an app before, let alone knew what they could do. I figured that if I was going to have my own app, then I probably needed to try out some myself!
Yesterday I spent some time thinking through how it could work, and working on how it *might* look. You have to understand, this idea is only in its very infancy, so things could change a lot before it comes to fruition! And just because I can make it look like this in a mock up doesn’t mean I can make it look like this in the real thing! I have no idea how to create an app, and it will be a bit of a learning journey in consultation with my app developer!
(If you click on the picture it should take you to a larger version.)
So, what do you think? If you were to purchase such an app, what would you want it to do? If you could have a wish list for such an app, what would be on it? Thanks! I really look forward to hearing from as many of you as possible!
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
It is a great idea to be able to read your stitch dictionary using my phone. Thinking of both right hand and left hand dictionaries in one app and you just tap the “right” and “left” button to switch to right and left hand version.
Great suggestion, Antonia. Thanks!
Hi, my friend Karen Blamey sent me a cut of your facebook conversation. I am a left handed embroider and would love to see your app. I would also love to see your book up close and personal, I love hard copies, being able to sit on the lounge and read a book is my kind of heaven.
Hi Sue, the app doesn’t exist yet (it is still being created!), but the book certainly does. Good needlework stores should stock it. If yours doesn’t then you can visit my stand at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair in June at Darling Harbour if you’re in Sydney. Stand L42. I’d love to meet you! Hi to Karen – also my friend!
I think your idea looks into the future. It’s where we’re headed. I say go for it! I just stopped subscribing to all my quilting and needlework magazines b/c it’s so much better to just pull up a web page!
Thanks Lynne! I do want to say though, that I don’t plan to stop publishing books. I LOVE books. I just think that my stitch dictionaries beautifully lend themselves to also being phone apps.
Yes! Please make an app! I have my smartphone with me everywhere I go, and would definitely reach for it to look at stitch instructions. It’s a fantastic idea. I like the mock-up pictures you have already!
Thanks Victoria! It seems that those who like apps like the idea very much.
It’s an interesting idea, and something like a stitch dictionary app might even tempt me to get a smartphone!
If you’re going to do it, please don’t forget the iPad version (I believe it’s different coding for the format). While the iPad will read the iPhone version (read: smart phone and android if you need to in place of Apple products) but there is nothing worse than a microscopic iPhone version of an app in the middle of the big iPad screen even though you can usually enlarge it to fit the screen, it just looks like an over-enlarged jpeg file (grainy and unclear). Otherwise the idea is brilliant and I would use the stitch dictionary books on my iPad.
Forgot to say: if you wanna go totally cutting edge, check out the iBooksAuthor app by Apple and include video in your ebooks!
;-D
A couple of people have sent comments directly to me because they’re finding they get a “password” error of some type when they try to comment. I apologise for this, and unfortunately I have no idea why it has been happening. I have just updated to the current version of WordPress, so hopefully that issue may have now been resolved. If you’re still finding it to be an issue, please let me know.
Hopefully I can tempt you, Rachel. And many others…!
Not forgetting an Ipad version, Jeanine. 🙂 What do you mean “totally cutting edge”? Isn’t this cutting edge enough?! Video isn’t in this part of the future for me, but maybe a later part. As my very wise aunt said to me many years ago, “Yvette, you don’t have to do everything now.”