That syncing feeling will be familiar to many of you; it is both the bane of the technorati and the cyclic five-step rite of passage for the mobile computing age:
Step 1. Set up your phone’s calendar and address book to sync over-the-air with your desktop computer, laptop, web service, or all three.
Step 2. Watch in dismay as this year’s upcoming appointments disappear, along with the contact information for everyone you’ve ever met.
Step 3. Add the single calendar and address book entries your tech-dependent excuse for a mind can recall, and apologise for missing meetings for the next few weeks.
Step 4. Spend three months replying to text messages from lifelong friends with the words, “Who is this?”
Step 5. Go to step 1.
For me, syncing data across devices ranks on the ball ache scale alongside falling the wrong way off a tightrope and watching a Shaolin Monk being kicked repeatedly in the groin. Is it any wonder, then, that it feels like a small miracle when it works flawlessly? I think it’s worth exploring that feeling to see how we can bottle it.
Earlier in the week I set out the Five Laws of Syncing as I see them. Here’s how they break down:
1. Thou should not have to press a button labelled ‘sync, damn it!’
For end users, syncing should be automatic. I know first-hand that it’s one of the most difficult features to get right as a developer, but that doesn’t mean your users need to bleed for it too.
2. Thou should not have to plug a thing into another thing.
USB syncing is both a chore and a trip hazard. I suspect that Apple insist upon cable-based syncing because they haven’t yet found a way to sell the air between your Mac and your iPhone.
3. Thou should not have to be connected to your mother’s wifi network.
Wifi syncing (when your phone and computer must be on the same wifi network and running the same app) is the perfect solution only for those who never leave the cave.
No-one who’s done it for more than a week actively enjoys syncing over their wifi network, so it probably shouldn’t be part of your app. New world computing’s supposed to be fun.
4. Thou should whisper softly when things are syncing and again when they have sunk.
Mercifully, evidence of disco syncing — where apps block access to the interface while displaying a disco ball and neon ‘SYNCING!’ sign — is now scarce.
Giving a subtle indication that syncing is in progress is a great thing. Blocking the user’s access to the app while it’s happening isn’t.
5. Thou shalt make it feel just a little bit like magic.
This is the golden one. If you can merrily switch between desktop, webtop, and iPhone applications all day without realising that a thousand tiny gremlins are secretly ferrying data back and forth, you’ve achieved the improbable.
Make it feel too much like magic, though — as Apple has done with Mobile Me — and users won’t know whether their stuff has sunk, is syncing, or is en route to join Gandalf on a three-month bender in the Maldives.
It’s a delicate balance.
