App Resurrection: Journey to the Exoplanets on the iPad
Updated: Oct 1
Nobody asked me to do this. There was no client and no brief, just curiosity. Earlier this year I set myself a personal project: to bring one of my old apps back to life. That app was Journey to the Exoplanets.
I originally developed it in 2011 for Scientific American and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, working in partnership with a small creative agency. It was an interactive, multimedia digital book that brought together the stunning artwork of Ron Miller and the exoplanetary expertise of Caleb Scharf, then Director of the multidisciplinary Columbia Astrobiology Center at Columbia University, New York. Together we built something the likes of which had never been seen on mobile hardware.
At its heart was an Exoplanet Gallery, which used the iPad’s gyroscope to showcase over 100 of Ron’s paintings. There was also an interactive 3D Planet Builder that let users see how an exoplanet might look at different ages, sizes and distances from a range of star types. A Timeline and a set of educational modules then took users through a wealth of facts and figures about planets beyond our solar system. All of it was beautifully designed by Richard Fenn(www.richardfenn.co.uk), one of the best designers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Altogether it was a chocolate box of features in a single app, and it pushed the hardware of the time to its limits.
So why this app, and why now? For a start, 2026 marks fifteen years since the app’s release, which felt like a fitting moment to revisit it. It was also a chance to find out how rusty an app gets after that long, and how realistic it is to bring one up to date with today’s hardware and operating systems. How many great apps have been lost to time this way? How much richer would the App Store be if they were available again? I’ve always been passionate about building and reviving great apps.
To be clear, this revival was just a case study so it won’t be appearing on the App Store. A labour of love, not a product launch.
It turned out to be a fascinating journey, and I’ll cover the highlights in an upcoming post. People often ask me what can be done with their old apps. I hope this inspires some of them to take on their own resurrections and bring old experiences back to delight a new generation of users.
Have an app that needs bringing up to date?
If you’ve got an older app you’d love to bring back or bring up to date, we’d be happy to help.
Comments