4 ms·

Why iPhone App Screenshots Matter and How to Make Good Ones

27 points by makeshifthoop 13y ago

JLehtinen 13y ago
I'd add screenshot collages to the list of things to avoid. Instead of showing just one, informative screenshot at a time, some developers stick 4 screenshots into one, making all of them too small to be legible or comprehensible.
- hdra 13y ago
  agreed. another thing is to put the artworks of the app as screenshot. Games, especially one of those trading card games are often guilty of this, putting the wallpaper kind of pictures as the screenshot, while offering no information regarding the gameplay at all.
- interpol_p 13y ago
  We used a screenshot collage in one of the screenshots for our app, and I think we used it tastefully (though I'm biased). It's the second screenshot here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8
  - JLehtinen 13y ago
    Oh yeah, for iPad apps it's certainly different. App store for iPhone is far too cramped for that.
nhm 13y ago
Good points all round, but this article make quite a few claims with no sources (e.g. "Then they will generally compare two or three options and view the full descriptions."). Is this based on user surveys or guesswork? AFAIK Apple doesn't release that kind of information. Also, the text overlay in Documents to Go looks quite ugly to me. Perhaps not to the average user, though.
dragontamer 13y ago
Poor example. Kingdom Builder is made by legendary board-game designer Donald X. Vaccarino (creator of "Dominion"). The art style is reminiscent of the board game and clearly communicates to me at least "Oh snap, Vaccarino made another game". It clearly has Vaccarino's signature on the top. The screenshot is perfect for the target audience: people familiar with Vaccarino's name, as well as his reputation. It is simultaneously an advertisement for itself, as well as an advertisement for the boardgame that Vaccarino has made. Its the official iPad adaptation of the board game. And as such, it looks exactly like the board game. If you're not into turn-based board games, you won't know Vaccarino (and probably won't enjoy the game). If you are into those games, you will know who Vaccarino is. If you're advertising Monopoly, the last thing you want to do is point out the complicated board state. Action will be slower and graphics will be terrible... after all, this is a port of a board game. However, those who are interested will recognize your board game port... so you want to make it look like its cardboard form that you'd find at a toy store.
drharris 13y ago
I'm sick of screenshots like this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war-of-the-fallen/id594019940 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war-of-the-fallen/id59401994... I want to see the app itself, not just a collection of stuff you can do. That means nothing to me. I don't want to download junk, free or paid, and want to see an accurate representation of what I'll be getting. This shows me some character factions, what a card looks like, and tells me I can fight with it, but all that is meaningless to the app itself. I have similar feelings about quotes being used at the top of the description, before I even know what the app is. First, tell me what it does for me, then go into detail, and then use cherry-picked quotes from reviewers (but I'll ignore those anyway and check your star rating; manufactured social proof is meaningless to me). At least this makes a good filter for me; usually apps that are unwilling to use actual screenshots and require feel-good quotes aren't worth anything. Of course in this example, the developer name would generate an automatic pass.

27 points by makeshifthoop 13y ago

I'd add screenshot collages to the list of things to avoid. Instead of showing just one, informative screenshot at a time, some developers stick 4 screenshots into one, making all of them too small to be legible or comprehensible.

hdra 13y ago
agreed. another thing is to put the artworks of the app as screenshot. Games, especially one of those trading card games are often guilty of this, putting the wallpaper kind of pictures as the screenshot, while offering no information regarding the gameplay at all.
interpol_p 13y ago
We used a screenshot collage in one of the screenshots for our app, and I think we used it tastefully (though I'm biased). It's the second screenshot here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/codea/id439571171?mt=8
- JLehtinen 13y ago
  Oh yeah, for iPad apps it's certainly different. App store for iPhone is far too cramped for that.

nhm 13y ago

Good points all round, but this article make quite a few claims with no sources (e.g. "Then they will generally compare two or three options and view the full descriptions."). Is this based on user surveys or guesswork? AFAIK Apple doesn't release that kind of information. Also, the text overlay in Documents to Go looks quite ugly to me. Perhaps not to the average user, though.

dragontamer 13y ago

Poor example. Kingdom Builder is made by legendary board-game designer Donald X. Vaccarino (creator of "Dominion"). The art style is reminiscent of the board game and clearly communicates to me at least "Oh snap, Vaccarino made another game". It clearly has Vaccarino's signature on the top. The screenshot is perfect for the target audience: people familiar with Vaccarino's name, as well as his reputation. It is simultaneously an advertisement for itself, as well as an advertisement for the boardgame that Vaccarino has made. Its the official iPad adaptation of the board game. And as such, it looks exactly like the board game. If you're not into turn-based board games, you won't know Vaccarino (and probably won't enjoy the game). If you are into those games, you will know who Vaccarino is. If you're advertising Monopoly, the last thing you want to do is point out the complicated board state. Action will be slower and graphics will be terrible... after all, this is a port of a board game. However, those who are interested will recognize your board game port... so you want to make it look like its cardboard form that you'd find at a toy store.

drharris 13y ago

I'm sick of screenshots like this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war-of-the-fallen/id594019940 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/war-of-the-fallen/id59401994... I want to see the app itself, not just a collection of stuff you can do. That means nothing to me. I don't want to download junk, free or paid, and want to see an accurate representation of what I'll be getting. This shows me some character factions, what a card looks like, and tells me I can fight with it, but all that is meaningless to the app itself. I have similar feelings about quotes being used at the top of the description, before I even know what the app is. First, tell me what it does for me, then go into detail, and then use cherry-picked quotes from reviewers (but I'll ignore those anyway and check your star rating; manufactured social proof is meaningless to me). At least this makes a good filter for me; usually apps that are unwilling to use actual screenshots and require feel-good quotes aren't worth anything. Of course in this example, the developer name would generate an automatic pass.