Future of Web Design conference iPhone app review
I thought I'd take a quick break from my notes of what happened at the 'Future of web design' conference, and instead look at something I tried out before I went. In advance of the conference, I received a couple of emails for the organisers, and they were promoting the fact that they had an iPhone app, so, naturally, I downloaded it to have a look.
![Future of Web Design iPhone app](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_6.jpg)
In one sense it was very useful, as it included a complete listing of the sessions at the event, in a handier format than it had been to print out the programme from the website, where it ran to 16 pages.
![Future of Web Design iPhone app programme overview](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_5.jpg)
You could look to get an overview of each session, and also easily confirm and share which bits of the conference you were going to attend.
![Future of Web Design iPhone app session overview](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_4.jpg)
![Future of Web Design iPhone app attendees overview](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_2.jpg)
Twitter was tightly integrated into the app, and so you could get a view of what the other people attending the session were tweeting about.
![Martin Belam on Twitter in the FOWD iPhone app](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_1.jpg)
However, it seemed to have really prioritised the social aspects rather than personal utility. Once I'd stated that I was attending a while host of sessions, there was no personal overview of what I'd chosen. It would have been great if I could have got an at-a-glance view of the sessions I was interested in, even if it was just sign-posting by changing the colours of the sessions in the diary view, or adding an icon.
![Mock-ups of how the FOWD iPhone app could signify the user is attending a session](http://www.currybet.net/images/articles/2010/fowd/iphone_app_7.jpg)
I thought the app was a great idea, and useful to have an electronic version of the itinery in my pocket, but I still ended up having to carry a paper itinerary reminder around with me, all for the lack of one key use case and feature.
Hey Martin,
I was wondering, as I was reading your post, if there was or if there was ever going to be an app that covers everything we want.
I think not. If there was such a thing, that would mean we just ran out of new ideas and where will be then?
Good thought,
Mike