App Store: Unrefined and partially useless UI

[roxxette]

App store is **** now get over it, i open only to update and could care less.

 

[xraydoc]

Is it just me or is there no way to get a full-screen screenshot preview? I've tried tapping, double tapping and pitching/zoom on the screenshots but can't make them full screen.

 

[atteligibility]

I find the App Store in iOS 6 so unrefined and useless in some parts, thats it hard for me to believe Apple actually released this.

My main gripe is the search function (pic #1). Lets say you input Camera+ so you get 9,000+ results. How can Apple possibly think that seeing 1 result per page is of any help/productive at all. So now I have to swipe 9000 times to see everything?? In iOS 5 you could see at least 5 results. This is beyond frustrating when you are trying to discover new Apps.

My other gripe and this is just a visual/artistic point of view:

I think its extremely unrefined and doesn't follow Apples artistic upbringings that you have on 1/2 of an icon showing on the right side (pic #2). Even when you swipe, the next set end ups showing the same way. Not only is this ugly, its confusing because now you have to swipe to show the rest of the App.

And below that, the two boxes for Maps/App Collections is not on 1 screen, another example oh how to me, Apple seems to be missing the fine details in its products lately. You would think, sitting on billions of dollars, you could hire enough people to make quality, refined products that we expect from Apple.

I could go on about Maps/Podcasts/Itunes but thats been beaten to death already.

- I agree on your comments regarding screen #1, it's just terrible on so many levels, very inefficient use of space and terrible user experience
- I disagree on your comments on screen #2, having objects cropped on the side of the screen is a visual clue that horizontal swiping would reveal more info. That is a design guideline that Apple has had from day 1, nothing new really. And, from experience, it is indeed an effective clue.

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It must be doing something right.

http://www.cultofmac.com/193388/iphone-5-popularity-causing-an-app-store-boom-report/

No.

It is doing something right for a FEW developers.
A similar article could have been written about the sales decline for most developers.

What it's doing is that people won't slide past 5-6 apps in the list when doing a search, when they were often scrolling through 25 or much more search results before.
So if you happen to have a very successful app and show up at the top of the results, you will get even more downloads than before, while the apps getting few downloads are gonna get even less.

The app store was already known to be top heavy and have big discrepencies in sales numbers between apps at the top of the chart which could get thousands and thousands of downloads a day, while an app in top 10% could get 0-1 download a day. This just makes things worse.

And that's not even talking about the "New" section which now features only selected new apps, and not ALL new apps. As a result, if you don't have a big budget to bring awareness on your app, you may never appear anywhere in the app store unless some people slide through hundreds of search results.

Terrible for independent developers...

 

[matrix07]

No.

It is doing something right for a FEW developers.
A similar article could have been written about the sales decline for most developers.

What it's doing is that people won't slide past 5-6 apps in the list when doing a search, when they were often scrolling through 25 or much more search results before.
So if you happen to have a very successful app and show up at the top of the results, you will get even more downloads than before, while the apps getting few downloads are gonna get even less.

The app store was already known to be top heavy and have big discrepencies in sales numbers between apps at the top of the chart which could get thousands and thousands of downloads a day, while an app in top 10% could get 0-1 download a day. This just makes things worse.

And that's not even talking about the "New" section which now features only selected new apps, and not ALL new apps. As a result, if you don't have a big budget to bring awareness on your app, you may never appear anywhere in the app store unless some people slide through hundreds of search results.

Terrible for independent developers...

I can only speak from my experience that it does the job well. Enjoying it.

 

[atteligibility]

I can only speak from my experience that it does the job well. Enjoying it.

Well, from various comments here and there:
- From the user side, people that tend to like the popular apps, and don't like their search results to be cluttered with 3 star rated, unknown, apps; these people like the new layout. Users that like to find the one app nobody knows about, written by a student on his free time, well they don't like this new layout, those apps are nearly impossible to discover today.
- From the developer side, the big guys are happy. The little guys with a featured app are happy too. The little guys that try to get noticed is quite upset on the other end.

When the app store first came out, it was the place where the little guy could succeed, it has become less and less the case, and the layout favors featured apps (the ones Apple hand picks) more and more, rather than giving everybody the same chance.

And as if it wasn't enough, now the guidelines are cracking down on app discovery apps.

 

[matrix07]

Well, from various comments here and there:
- From the user side, people that tend to like the popular apps, and don't like their search results to be cluttered with 3 star rated, unknown, apps; these people like the new layout. Users that like to find the one app nobody knows about, written by a student on his free time, well they don't like this new layout, those apps are nearly impossible to discover today.
- From the developer side, the big guys are happy. The little guys with a featured app are happy too. The little guys that try to get noticed is quite upset on the other end.

This is a nice summary. It's a major overhaul. Gives it time. It might surprise you. I must add that it's more enjoyable using it on iPad though. They could consider bringing back search List View on iPhone.

 

[tonyr6]

AppStore is now pure crap. It crashes every time I search. If I want to find a app I have to use Google links which open up the AppStore then I can download the app. Otherwise all I can do in the store is update apps.

I do like iOS 6 but I wish I had the old AppStore back again.