Sep 5, 2011
I’ ve redesigned metformin weight loss and pregnancy the Joseph A. Moniz site and it’s purpose a bit. You can still find solid information about designing and building great iPhone and iPad apps, but after the last year or so of living through the reality and insanity of the Apple App Ecosystem I’ve decided to do my part to help others to wade safely through that confusion.
Joseph A. Moniz Repurposes Site
The new purpose of the Joseph A. Moniz site is to help iPhone and iPad users to find great apps that meet their needs. The way the Apple App Ecosystem works now, it’s really a case of information overload. It’is difficult, if not impossible for most people to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff.
The Search Engines at the App Store do a decent job of helping a user to find an app as long as they know the name of the app. Apple has also worked had to improve classification and taxonomy which makes it easier to drill down to the kind of apps you might need. That said, it’s far from a perfect system.
Professional Fit and Finish
While the Apple reviewers do an good job of ensuring that the App you download won’t crash or hurt your iPhone or iPad, they don’t do as good of a job of ensuring that the App you download is one that has the same level of fit and finish you get with your iPhone and iPad. I suppose that’s to be expected… Most things on the planet don’t have the fit and finish of an iPhone or iPad.
Still, there are Apps out there that are impeccable works that deserve a home on your iPhone or iPad that you probably never find. I remember spending nearly 2 hours looking for an App that Apple publishes for developers. I knew it’s name. I knew I needed it. I figured it would be of the highest quality, especially considering its maker, but I couldn’t find it using the search engine. That got me to thinking, if I couldn’t find an App Apple published when I knew the exact name and spelling, what were the chances that someone could find one of my Apps that do have a Professional Fit and Finish?
Not Trying to Be Google
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting for a moment that Apple should try to be Google and develop great search algorithms.
I’m not sure that Google could do any better with it’s automated search. There is something about remarkable art, music, or apps that makes them resistant to standardized metrics and algorithms.
The French call this indescribable quality je ne sais quoi which according to Dictionary.com means literally I don’t know what. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to suggest, even remotely, that I have the ability to gauge something so ethereal as those qualities that make something a hit. What I am going to suggest is that after all my work in the field, I can do an extremely good job of determining whether or not an app has decent fit and finish.
The Method
Here’s a brief overview of the workflow I use each day to come up with the list of Apps I add to my Feed and Tweet about on Twitter.
- Each time a new App is released, my system is notified that the App has been released
- Upon notification, I manually browse over to iTunes (yes for each one) and examine the page for the app
- I ensure that the description and the App is available in English (This is a very English Centric Approach, but I am not fluent in any other languages)
- I review the description for completeness, spelling, and grammar
- I make note of the quantity and quality of the screen shots
- I do high level review on the Professionalism of the Presentation
- I record my findings, and if the App’s fit and finish warrant it, I add the App to my mention list.
- My sorting is in lines with Pareto’s rule and I find generally that about 20% of the Apps pass my initial round of inspection (this alone reduces the number of apps you have to look at by 80% which gives you more time to look closer at the remaining 20%)
- I categorize the winners using Apple’s taxonomy for consistency
- For those few that do have that special something, that je ne sais quoi , I download and review them fully.
This is an awful lot of work, but I honestly believe in Apple and the iOS platform. I also know, firsthand, that there are some remarkable apps that get lost in the ecosystem. An ancient Chinese proverb says something like “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” So to all the iPhone owners, here’s my lit candle!
Joseph A. Moniz