Dribbble is a website where designers can share previews of their latest creations. The most viewed submissions go to the home page, thus allowing the designer to get his name out there. It’s a pretty popular service to get feedback on early mockups of new websites and apps, but some says it’s pointless and dominated by “elitists”. As long as I can stay up to date with new apps coming out for iPhone and iPad, I don’t care.
The Dribbble staff understood that the next step would be that of opening an API and they did so. They came at a point where opening up to 3rd party developers would be absolutely necessary to get the Dribbble name out in the App Store. Because if you have an online service nowadays, you need to have mobile applications, too. Otherwise, you’re missing out. That’s what the experts say.
Actually, I think the idea of viewing Dribbble images on iPhone and iPad might work. I’m no designer and I have no reason to ask for an invite (yeah, it’s an invite-only website), but I enjoy browsing through screenshots of designers I respect and admire. From today on we’ll be taking a look at all the Dribbble clients coming out in the near future (trust me, there’ll be many of them) so let’s just start with Dunk by Robocat.
Dunk is a Dribbble image feed viewer. I’m told that the Dribbble official API is still young and needs to be optimized, meaning that Dunk relies on a RSS system for images - indeed “feed viewer”. I’m also told that the upcoming 1.1 version (waiting for Apple’s approval) will start using the API for shots, so don’t worry. Also, 1.1 will bring the possibility to view the popular feed, GIF shots and rebound shots. Cool stuff.
The app supports iOS multitasking and the Retina Display, plus it only works in landscape mode. What? Yeah, don’t ask me why. It’s a little awkward at first, gets more natural and intuitive after a few minutes. Still, weird design choice. You can view shots by everyone, new players (“debuts”) and enter a username to view images by that specific player. You can also browse by tag and view your own shots.
To browse shots, swipe. I hate the fact that shots look pixelated on the Retina Display, but it’s really no one’s fault. What’s interesting is how you can access controls while browsing shots: tap on the top part of an image to reveal the navigation bar, tap on the bottom part to show author, profile pic, description, views, likes and comments. Comments look beautiful. You can also view stuff on Dribbble, through a web view.
For a first release, Dunk works very well and looks good. It could use some additional features, API love and portrait mode support, but I’m sure 1.1 (and the future 1.2, I guess) will solve all these issues. Cheers to Robocat for releasing the first great mobile Dribbble client.
Dunk is available at $1.99 in the App Store.
