Hi folks, this is Jer, and today I’m happy to finally reveal the details of the so-called “Secret Desert Bus Project!”
Introducing…
Anyone who reads my Twitter should by now be familiar with the Secret Desert Bus Project, which has dominated my feed for most of the last couple months. In fact, it’s come dangerously close to being all I talk about period, as it has slowly grown to dominate the entirety of my waking life. Ashton and I, along with our new friend Louis Moga, have spent many long days and sleepless nights finishing a project that was probably over-ambitious from the start—and was certainly under the gun from a scheduling perspective since before it began. Even so, we have finally put the finishing touches on it, and I am happy to at last introduce you to Desert Bus for Hope for iPhone.
Desert Bus, but Smaller
A little over two years ago, I hung up my silly sketch comedy hat to go back to school. As a result I spent most of the last two Desert Buses running between classes and trying to keep up with the total on my phone. What I really wanted was a tool that could appraise me of the situation at a glance, at any time. Since graduating and getting a job in the software industry, I’ve tried to take cues from what I’ve learned and design an app that provides as much of the Desert Bus experience as possible in mobile form.
You may remember Louis Moga as the Desert Bus fan who compiled last year’s Burma Shave archive. As it turns out, he’s also a fantastic software engineer, able to turn my designs into a very slick and functional app. Louis’s experience and technical prowess really knit the team together, and his hard work is probably the greatest determining factor in the quality of the app.
At a glance, the dashboard displays the current total and a graph showing the trajectory of the run so far. You can swipe the total to get other information, such as the amount needed for the next hour and the time driven so far. For more information, you can open the Stats & Graphs section to get access to more detailed stats, along with an interactive comparison graph, showing the team’s progress year-on-year.
We think it’s pretty impressive in and of itself, but it actually just scratches the surface of what the app can do. While there was a time that Desert Bus could be represented by just a blog and a total, our website eventually evolved to include challenges, prizes, a schedule and all manner of other details. To help us keep pace, the amazing “Daddy” Ashton Cummings put together a database that later became the spine of the present Desert Bus Website. For the Desert Bus App, Ashton has gone even further, fleshing out his out the website backend into a fully-featured API that allows us to do far more than just track totals.
In addition to donation totals, the app collects and collates all Desert Bus tweets and blog posts into a single feed, formatted for reading on-the-go. It contains the full schedule of everything at Desert Bus, complete with live auction details, event descriptions and guest bios. It lays bare the unlocked and known locked achievements for the run, and has complete stats for each driver. For donations, the app links to a simplified mobile donation interface designed for use in the living room, classroom or bathroom. Along with a complete listing of auctions and giveaways, it even has an interface for real-time bidding on silent auctions.
Those willing to sign up for a Desert Bus account will discover tools that track their personal donation, bid and challenge histories, and a form for challenge submissions to keep the crew on its toes.
All-in-all we’re super happy with the app, especially given how large and ambitious a project it is. We feel like we really shot the moon with this, and have done everything we can to ensure the best mobile Desert Bus experience we could imagine. If you have an iOS 6 or 7 device, please give the app a download and take it for a spin this Desert Bus: we think you’ll be glad you did.
The Catch
There are two reasons I’ve waited as long as I have to announce the secret Desert Bus Project. The first is that secrets are fun, and I like surprises. The second, however, is not nearly as positive. As you read this, the Desert Bus app is making its way through Apple’s famously scary app approval process. This will take as long as it needs to, and could always end in failure. We have had an amazing crew of beta testers working day and night to ensure the app’s quality, but there is always the chance that it will be late, or not make Desert Bus at all.
I wanted to wait until I was certain that the app was coming out before announcing it and getting everybody excited, but at this point I’m resigned to the fact that we may not know for sure until the app actually launches out—which could be on or after the start of Desert Bus. I’m telling you about this now because I want you to know what we’ve been working on, since I’ve been teasing it for so long. I don’t think we could go another year without spilling the beans, so best to make a big announcement now instead of letting it slip out quietly later.
I do have some confidence we’ll make our release date.
In order to give you a better idea of what to expect, Ashton, Louis and I will run a live hangout on Tuesday Nov 12 at 6:00 PM, PST. We’ll give you a run-through of the app and answer any questions you might have about the it or its creation.
Look for it linked right here on desertbus.org.
Thank you all for your continued support in all things, and I look forward to seeing you all for Desert Bus next week!
This is a perfect idea. But I wish it was also for Android =(
AWESOME!!! Now I can leave my computer at home and take Desert Bus on the road! Thanks Jer and Louis!!
YAY!
*hopes for an android ver next year*
Awesome work guys! This is exactly the sort of thing I could have used last year to keep up with the fun while at work. I hope it gets through before desert bus starts, but even if it doesn’t it will be fantastic for next year.
Sounds awesome! Any plans to port it to Android in time for DB8?
I can’t promise Android for next year, because things could always go wrong; however I will say it’s something we would have done this year if we could have managed it—as is, we didn’t even have time for iPad.
Both of those things are very high on our to-do list :).
Yes, an Android version is being discussed for next year. I’m right there with you as I’ve never owned an Apple product (which made testing interesting, let me tell you =).
Unfortunately we only had enough bandwidth to produce for one platform this year, so we had to go with the one that’s more popular with our viewers, which was overwhelmingly iPhone.
That’s awesome! I’ve got my iPod Touch search ready to find it as soon as its up for download.
Love the work you clearly put into this.
I can’t say I’m not disappointed that there isn’t an android version. I’ve never owned an iPhone device, and I know that android doesn’t have that app approval process you mentioned.
Hi Guys, great project and I hope it helps with donations, but why did you decide to go full app? Wouldn’t it be easier to just make the website available on mobile? You know with responsive design and all that jazz. You would not have to deal with any kind of approval process and you dont have to develop for three different systems.
Any chance of some API docs? I’d love to be able to script my own DB tracker…
What an amazing surprise! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the app gets approved. With DB7 happening while school is still in session I wasn’t going to be able to follow along like last year. Keep up the great work guys!
Looks sweet! Any plans to make it open source? Seems like it would make a lot of sense for this project. You could potentially leverage support from developers in the community for next year. I happen to be a professional iOS developer, so I’m a little curious to poke around at it.
This is SO COOL!! And will also completely kill my ability to concentrate at work during Desert Bus. *grins*
Haha, just got a smartphone two weeks ago, but its android of course! Still it looks like an amazing tool and shows off how much work everyone pours into this project each year. Hope it helps bring in even more great donations!
YES! now i can keep up with desertbus at work! this is the greatest thing ever!!
Very cool but as other have said/asked, is an Android version in the works?
Is this an international app? As an Australian viewer with an iPhone, this app is definitely something I would like to get my hands on.
Well hot damn. I have an Android device, but frankly the idea of this existing at all so that I can have it eventually (i.e. next year) is good enough.
Seems some of us scroll to the bottom and not realize the Android question was already answered so I’ll quote Jer and Ashton here:
Jer: “I can’t promise Android for next year, because things could always go wrong; however I will say it’s something we would have done this year if we could have managed it—as is, we didn’t even have time for iPad.
Both of those things are very high on our to-do list
.”
Ashton: “Yes, an Android version is being discussed for next year. I’m right there with you as I’ve never owned an Apple product (which made testing interesting, let me tell you =).
Unfortunately we only had enough bandwidth to produce for one platform this year, so we had to go with the one that’s more popular with our viewers, which was overwhelmingly iPhone.”
So if an Android version does come out, it will hopefully be for DB8 or DB9 depending on circumstances in development and resources available.
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