Telling a Story with Picle

I spent a lot of time today playing with Picle from Made by Many.  I was instantly captivated when I read the first review a few weeks ago on Zite my favorite magazine app. What's not to love about an app that lets you take a photo and then record an audio track to sync with that image.  Not obvious to me immediately although it should have been, instead of ambient audio I can add my own voice over track. That's not all.  These photos can be threaded together to create a narrative.

Link

I love sharing information about apps, websites and activities that amaze and delight me.  Picle kept me frustrated most of the day, but it really didn't have all that much to do with the app itself. It is designed for iPhones and I am using it on an iPad.

iPhone app interface

Sitting in my home office in Central Virginia listening to my resident bird population I decided to go outside and create a little Picle narrative about what makes my work environment so special to me. I had forgotten that iPads, and I can only speak for iPad2's, are not really designed to be used outside.  Bright sunlight renders the screen almost useless.  I persevered.  The image quality wasn't the greatest, which I blamed on the iPad. (Based on the reviews it may be more complicated than that...) I wasn't so lucky when it came to capturing the birds songs either.  Nothing earth shattering here but at least worth the effort for me to see how Picle works.

I came back inside and then it hit me.  Across from my desk and computer is a wall I have turned into a chalk board.  The images on this board since early August when Simone was here have kept me smiling.  My iPad works much better inside, so my Picle Tale #2 was about to take shape. 

 

Now we're getting somewhere.  This is a story worth telling.  I wish I had an iPhone because I can really see how this app could be used on a regular basis with much more ease than schlepping out the iPad and nonchalantly shooting away constantly fearing it will be dropped or some other disaster.

How did it actually work?  When taking a photo a red bar appears above the image that indicates it is recording sound. The settings allow the user to record audio simultaneously with shooting or after the photo is taken.  It is also possible to set the recording time from 2 to 10 seconds. The clip is then reviewed and approved or trashed. If approved it goes into the Picle library where it can be combined with other images in a New Story or an Existing Story. The user decides which images in the library are to be included and in what order. When the story is complete, it can be shared by posting to picleapp.com, Twitter, emailed or shared as a video on YouTube, Facebook or tumblr.

Part of the beauty of this app is the attitude of the makers as expressed in March 2012 right after it was released.
We've been careful not to over-design Picle at this stage, because we want it to be a living example of the Lean product innovation approach we've been developing here at Made by Many. What we're launching is very much a Minimal Viable Product (or perhaps more correctly, a Minimum Desirable Product). We're approaching SXSW (as ever) as a giant customer development opportunity. All our hypotheses about the app may be wildly misconceived - but we really want to learn and we can't think of a better opportunity.  

 

We're asking for your help - not just in downloading, using it, and uploading your Picles, but also giving us feedback. We're planning to interview people using the app at SXSW, and we'll be organising a couple of Picle meet-ups: we *think* Picle will work well at events and when we're swarming. And we're planning to update people through this blog about what we're learning. We really want it to be an open conversation - and as such, we have set up a Picle Twitter account (@PicleApp).

Perhaps their name says it all, Made by Many. As I see it, this can only get better.  Please put out an iPad version or I'll have to get an iPhone!