Social Media on the iPhone with Treemo

UPDATE: The Treemo iPhone web application was chosen as an Apple “Staff Pick”!
View the Apple Staff Pick in the Web Apps Directory.

I have finally gotten my chance to dedicate time and energy into making an iPhone optimized web application for Treemo.com. It started as a quick project in which I was just going to utilize iUI by Joe Hewitt, but after starting implementation with iUI, I realized we needed more. iUI is a great quick start library to get something off the ground but I wanted to make more than the average cliche iPhone interface.

So was born this interface. Since Treemo is a social media site, the design is all about the media while still giving room to interact with the media. On the content item page, I display the image as large as possible (utilizing the entire screen when the image is the same aspect ratio) while still giving you all the controls you need to comment on the item, view the user’s profile, stats about item, etc.

The entire application behaves as expected when you rotate the phone, a grid that is four images wide in portrait mode will fluidly become six images across in landscape mode. A landscape image on the content item page will fill the screen when you flip the phone from portrait to landscape. The login form will re-arrange the form elements to better fit depending on your orientation. It all just works.

Another interesting element I developed for the Treemo iPhone optimized web app was a lightbox interface to display content and forms above the current page you are on without leaving the page. When browsing a grid of images, you can click on one and it will show you a larger version of the image and some details about it, allowing you to then choose if you want to go to the content item page to see it bigger, comment on it, mark it as a favorite, etc.

This was a huge project and I consider the outcome a success. I couldn’t have finished this release without the support from our awesome designer Brent Gariano to add some artsy fartsy touches. With an initial release, there’s always bound to be some bugs so if you find any, let me know. I have a huge list of new features and enhancements I want to implement in the next iteration. Seeing how there will be a next iteration, get in touch if you use this awesome iPhone web app. I’ll try and hook you up with some swag if you donate ideas that help this become the next big thing.

To view the awesome new iPhone web application, hit up Treemo.com from your iPhone or iPod touch. Don’t forget to add it as a web clip to your home screen for easy and quick access.