I developed the SmartBrief Android app while employed as Lead Mobile Developer at SmartBrief. SmartBrief’s news summaries were available primary as an email newsletter, and this app provides users a more convenient way to interact with that content on their smartphones or tablets.

“Amazing!!! This is one of the best article apps…I love the UI. Simple and very effective. Nice job. +1 to dev crew!!!”

Rex

“Clean design & responsive. Very useful app that is worth your attention. Keep up the good work!”

JMW

Project Highlights

We placed a heavy focus on a polished, professional look no matter when screen size or device it runs on.  The SmartBrief app also features background updates, notifications for new content, and a client-side SQLite database to store content, favorites, and settings.  To guarantee responsiveness, all updates from the web happen either in the background or on a separate thread.  I also built the web services (JSON and RSS) that this app consumes (publish content and handle login/account creation).

The second version of this app includes a custom ad-serving library.  It plugs into our existing targeted ad-serving platform, which I modified to work with mobile applications rather than just emails and web pages.

I coded every line of this app myself, and helped guide a cross-functional mobile team on the underlying business strategy.

Results

• #37 peak ranking in News & Magazines category, ahead of the Associated Press, The Onion News Network, and Fox News
• 19,000 downloads and counting
• 4.4 star rating out of 5

This app served as the template for the SmartBrief iPhone app, which reached the top ranking in News in the iTunes App Store.

Winna Bridgewater did the graphic design and lead usability testing for the SmartBrief app, and we collaborated on the UI flow and layout.  We continue to work together on new projects.