Exclusive Interview With Daniel Gartenberg, iPhone App Developer Of ProActive Sleep

Can you tell our readers how your app was originally thought of, what were your thoughts behind the marketplace, specifically, Daniel?

The summer of my Junior year I worked part-time at a brainstorming company called Brain Reactions. I literally sorted through 100s of ideas and this one about using an alarm clock to measure the components of sleep stuck with me. I then took a neuroscience of sleep course at the University of Wisconsin to better understand sleep. This inspired the current Proactive Sleep application and I proceeded to win an innovation competition held by the university.

The market place for sleep is obviously pretty big considering that everyone does it. The problem is that a lot of people don’t take sleep seriously because they don’t recognize that unhealthy sleep is dangerous. Still there will always be people interested in tracking and better understanding their behaviors and I hope that the additional features of proactive sleep will provide an incentive to use the application.

Can you tell us how you came up with the colors and themes ideas, design?

The color scheme is based on gestalt principles of psychology, which sounds complicated, but really it’s quite straightforward. The sleep diary is a good example. You can look at a group of entries in the diary and instantly get a general idea of how well you are sleeping because red always symbolizes poor sleep behaviors, yellow symbolizes mediocre sleep behavior, and green symbolizes the ideal sleep behavior. In addition to looking holistically at the image, you can also look at specific sleep entries to evaluate your sleep for the day. This color scheme and the symbols that the scheme represents carries throughout all aspects of the application.

Who do you see as the main target market for this app?

Anyone who wakes up to an alarm clock. If you wake up to an alarm-clock why not get something out of it, like information on how your sleeping, the ability to set your wake-up music to anything in your iTunes, and stimulating games to help with the wake-up process.

How long did it take from the original planning to the production process of your app?

The idea was first conceived in July 08. We decided that the idea should be an iPhone application at around September 08 and developed a beta version in February 09. We then released to the app store in August 09.

How do you view your sales, is there a good solid market for this style of app?

Sales are so-so, but sales are only part of why I decided to pursue this application. I am also using it to conduct research on sleep. My goal for sales is to break-even, which will likely take quite some time.

What has been the hardest obstacle you have had to overcome regarding this app development?

Trying to maintain scientific integrity while also trying to build something that people will buy. There are other applications out there that make outrageous claims about sleep, which have sold many more applications than Proactive Sleep, oh well. Another example of this problem was with developing the proactive game. We tried to mirror the vigilance task that is administered in scientific research, but I think we sacrificed some usability in the process. I’m working on making the game more fun.

Would you consider developing apps for third parties?

I’m going to be working on improving Proactive Sleep for many years to come. I don’t think there will be time to work on other third party apps, but you never know.

What have you learnt from the App Store since you launched your app?

MARKETING is key. Never stop marketing because the app store is currently saturated with apps. I underestimated the importance of marketing and how time-consuming it can be.

Have Apple supported you well with your app?

In general I give them high marks. Sometimes they were slow on updates, but considering how many apps they must review its pretty reasonable.

What next, are you developing another app? Would you go for the same genre again, if not which?

The goal for this app is still not fully achieved and we’ll be working on it for years to come. Eventually we’re going to try to track numerous behaviors and then run statistics to give you feedback on how your behaviors uniquely affect you. We also plan to make it so users can export all the data. In addition to helping users better understand their habits, this might be helpful for health clinicians to evaluate treatments and the current states of their patients.

The Apple iPad – what are your thoughts about it and how do you think your app will integrate?

We’re always looking for ways to make our vigilance game more sensitive to the components of sleep. The iPad platform might make the task more interactive, and therefore more sensitive. An issue with using the iPad for Proactive Sleep is that people usually use their phones as their alarm clocks, not their personal computers. I see the iPad as more of a personal computer than a phone due to its size, but I could be wrong about that.

What do you think of our site – http://www.iPhone.Maccreate.com – have we helped you market your app well – do you like our design – would you recommend us?

Difficult to assess right now but the format seems quite good. It’s not too cluttered and nicely displays the applications. I just hope that I get enough hits to make up for the costs of this marketing.