/Redken_Style_Station

Redken Style Station was an application created to help hair stylists with their daily work. It included several different tools such as timers, a lookbook, tutorials, and a formula guide using Redken's products

This was my first real Android application after spending a good number of years dedicated to Adobe Flash. It was a challenge, but one that made me really start liking the platform.

The biggest feature in this application was the list of formulas. In it, hair stylists had access to thousands of different formulas that they could apply to their clients' hair. Each formula had a list of ingredients and steps needed to be taken for its application.

This section also presented the biggest challenge when developing the application. Since each formula featured a unique hair color preview thumbnail, embedding all the formula previews in the application would be unfeasible; about 2,000 formulas were initially planned.

Mathieu Badimon, the lead developer on the hair preview concept, solved this problem by coming up with a system of different image layers that could be mixed to create any hair color possible. Then, on the mobile side, we would use these 3 separate layers and recompose them according to specific rules to create the final preview image in real time. A live Photoshop of sorts.

On the Android side, this was solved by writing C code to recreate the formula preview images as fast as possible. Going back to C was interesting after not having used it for more than a decade, but also very satisfying when done: the needed image processing was 10 times faster in it than it was when done on the Java side. (This application supported Android 2.2, and RenderScript wasn't available back then.)

The application also employed a clever update system: most of its data is stored in standalone XML files. Then, once in a while, the application checks for updated files from a server, downloading and installing them if needed. That way, the data is kept up-to-date, without the need for a constant internet connection.

This is also true of the formula list: in the original plan, the application would have up to 2,000 formulas listed. It currently features 12,000 formulas, all updated without the need for an updated version of the app.