On Using the App Store

Aug 17, 10:58 PM  

Poking around the App Store today, it struck me how noisy it is. Hundreds of choices, with little or no guidance. I don’t know what I want. I don’t know what these things do. The reviews are totally unhelpful. Who are all these trolls? Why are there so many flashlight apps? Do I really need any of this?

It’s really an unfriendly, messy, overwhelming experience for a user, and very much not what I’ve come to expect from Apple. More than once I’ve been tempted to drag the App Store over to the last tab on my Home screen to take up residence with Stocks, YouTube, Notes and the iTunes Store.

And yet… the App Store is fantastically easy to use. Over-the-air downloads? Semi-sane categories? At least the appearance of review before apps are sold? Done! The App Store is far easier to use than any other mobile distribution system I’ve used before.

But, you know what? That’s not saying much, because everything up to this point has really sucked.

I can’t shake that feeling that 90% of the App Store is crap, and it leaves me at a loss.

I very much wanted it not to be so.