"In the past you'd have to tap every single one of them - nobody did that."
Sure they did. On their first search for a topic at least. And it wasn't painful. It was nice and quick.
The thing about search is, we go back and search for the same thing many times, usually to find apps related to our areas of interest, and Apple seems to have completely neglected this notion.
They seem to think that our search is ALWAYS to find something "new".
I would search for "platformers" and "platform games" about once every week or two. I KNEW the ones I had checked out previously. I wouldn't click them again, but it was 2 quick swipes to see what's new. Job done. This is now dead. When I search, I have to look at the same stuff, and have to flip slowly through each and every app I've already decided I don't want to download, again, and again, and again. And THIS is something I won't do. Hence, "discovery" is dead.
Now, from a smaller developer's perspective, as I have apps in this store...
Discovery was critical. Search and the "New" section were important to me.
The release-date section under each category was CRITICAL to getting those first downloads.
On day 1, with nothing more than a tweet to a handful of followers, my app would see a significant number of first-time downloads from being in this section. It got the ball rolling.
Here's my idea/wish:
App stores should have an "Introductions" category, and when we submit our apps, we should be able to write a description of our app just for this purpose. We get 1 day in the "Introductions" category, and after that, we're gone. People can feel free to go to this category at any time to see everything that has been released, so they get to see new stuff, and developers get an opportunity to get some initial users.
Sure they did. On their first search for a topic at least. And it wasn't painful. It was nice and quick.
The thing about search is, we go back and search for the same thing many times, usually to find apps related to our areas of interest, and Apple seems to have completely neglected this notion.
They seem to think that our search is ALWAYS to find something "new".
I would search for "platformers" and "platform games" about once every week or two. I KNEW the ones I had checked out previously. I wouldn't click them again, but it was 2 quick swipes to see what's new. Job done. This is now dead. When I search, I have to look at the same stuff, and have to flip slowly through each and every app I've already decided I don't want to download, again, and again, and again. And THIS is something I won't do. Hence, "discovery" is dead.
Now, from a smaller developer's perspective, as I have apps in this store...
Discovery was critical. Search and the "New" section were important to me.
The release-date section under each category was CRITICAL to getting those first downloads.
On day 1, with nothing more than a tweet to a handful of followers, my app would see a significant number of first-time downloads from being in this section. It got the ball rolling.
Here's my idea/wish:
App stores should have an "Introductions" category, and when we submit our apps, we should be able to write a description of our app just for this purpose. We get 1 day in the "Introductions" category, and after that, we're gone. People can feel free to go to this category at any time to see everything that has been released, so they get to see new stuff, and developers get an opportunity to get some initial users.