We are happy to announce that we just hit another milestone for our app. Today, Darisini app version 2.0 is available for iOS with “Merapi” as its codename. If you have Darisini installed on your iOS device, you should see the update notification on your application list.

What is Merapi? If you have no idea Merapi (or, you never heard about it before), it’s the most active volcano in Indonesia. It’s located not far from Yogyakarta, our hometown. If you want to find out more about Merapi, you can visit Wikipedia.

In the last two months, after Darisini available on App Store, we tried to figure out what we wanted to bring for the next release. In the first few days we did nothing but listening for feedbacks, ideas, and also criticisms from you. We got lots of positive feedbacks and great ideas. Thank you! Those feedbacks brought positive energy for our small team, and we felt challenged to make improvements and deliver more features. So, what’s new in this release? We’ve shared some of them in our previous post, but we want to share a little bit more.

New interface design

The interface is dramatically modified. Not only for one or two pages, but every single page has new look. We had many experiments on this area, and worked with feedbacks from our testers. We want to make it more beautiful, easier, and work better.

New icons!

We created lots of custom icons. We dropped the brand/company logos and switch to fresh icons. We love our new icons, and we hope you love them too!

Better category management

We only had seven categories when we released Darisini for the first time. Now, you will have more categories. Categories are grouped as primary and secondary section.

We want to make it easy for you to choose which categories you want or care about. Right now, we have ten main categories with more than forty sub-categories. And more categories will follow.

User settings and personalization

Previously, Darisini will try to find the data in 10km radius. We want to make it more flexible since it might not work for everyone. You can adjust the searching radius up to 99km. For example, when we’re in Jogjakarta, we can find some locations in Semarang or Solo.

We also add a new feature that will will simplify the data synchronization process. Right now, if we add a new category (or sub-categories), you will only need to hit the “Sync Data” button. We want to make the category structures dynamic.

Of course, you can select which categories you want to have. For the future, we will bring more fun in this feature area. If you have ideas or feedback, let us know and we will think about them.

Additional settings are only available for registered users. You need to signup to our website (don’t worry, it’s super easy) to get these features.

Better feedback handling

You can now help us sending feedback on location. If you find that a certain location is misplaced or closed, we’ve provide you a simple mechanism to fix it. Send a report, and we’ll do the rest.

We’re ready with more new location data in this release. Coffee for example, you will find not only Starbucks Coffee, but Bengawan Solo, Excelso, Coffee Bean, and also Anomali Coffee in Jakarta.

Or, you can find also Blitz Megaplex and 21 Cineplex. Under Supermarket, we now have Super Indo, HERO, and also Carrefour.

Some notes on how we built this new release

It took a pretty long process. It was not only about modifying some elements. We rebuilt the whole design from scratch. Fredy worked on each detail on the icon sets one by one. Firman worked on things needed for the upcoming development (internal API, database structure and more), and Thomas worked on the data including the product concept (for the next releases). We kept ourself busy and– most importantly — did all the process in fun and happy feeling. Sounds too much? Not really.

Our private testers are amazing! They gave direct feedbacks during the development. Some of them gave feedbacks on the data. Some on the design itself and they kept themselves updated every time a new build were released. Thank you!

Having something that we really care about encourages us to do lots of experiments. And, we love challenges. The augmented reality feature for example. Yes, it’s still an experiment was executed in one day. We put all ears to choose the best sound effects to enhance user experience. We spent hours writing codes, drawing icons, and fixing things.

We just love doing those things.

What about the Android version?

We’re still committed to bring Darisini to multiple platforms. But, on this early stage we want to focus on iOS version. Android version will not get the same updates/experience for the next few weeks.

We hope you love this release like we do.

And, if you want to get the latest development news, you can follow @darisiniapp on Twitter, or join our Facebook Page.