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Its interesting that it seems Apple has really shied away from doing the bare minimum to improve things on the app store (until recently with videos and bundles

Its interesting that it seems Apple has really shied away from doing the bare minimum to improve things on the app store (until recently with videos and bundles). Not having the store be significant revenue is a double edged sword. I think there are some really interesting hacks that would have been better for consumers AND developers. In another comment (years ago I think...) I mentioned how I wish the top charts wouldn't show me apps I already own. There were years where Angry Birds, for me someone who already owned it, represented the top 10 being an effective top 9. It knows I've already bought it, there's nothing I can do with that being there - even Rovio is only indirectly helped by this since I can't go and buy it again, it just serves as some weird hypothetical billboard on my phone for "other people". If instead I got a custom top 10 that was the top 10 apps I don't own I would be very much incentivized to buy more apps. This is of course not even entering into the actually interesting domain of suggesting better purchases for me. App Store revenue not being Apple's bread and butter is a double edged sword. My point here is not that the above idea would "save" the app business, but to notice that the app store today is effectively the same as it was 6 years ago. Experimentation in that space doesn't seem to be in their DNA.

bruceboughton 12y ago
What would your list look like with apps you owned removed? 8. FartApp 10. Flashlight or 8. FartApp 9. Flashlight In the first, with 9. Angry Birds removed, it looks like the data hasn't loaded properly. In the second, Flashlight has been promoted from number 10 to number 9, falsely inflating its ranking. You could solve this by leaving a gap or indicator where 9. Angry Birds should have been but then the user's wondering "what isn't it showing me in that gap?". So maybe you should just call the Top 10, "Your Personalized Top 10". But then it's not personalized really, all they've done is remove apps you already own. The user thinks, "Why are Apple showing me fart apps? Don't they think I have taste? Can't they see I only download Twitter clients and podcast apps?". For the marginal benefit of not showing apps you already own, which are indicated as such, you are opening a whole can of UI worms.
- phloxicon 12y ago
  It could just show the ten best selling apps that don't include the one you already have installed. So instead of 1, 3, 4, it would push 3 up to 2 and 4 up to 3. I'd also like if the store didn't keep showing things it's shown me a dozen times before. If I haven't downloaded them after seeing them advertised this many times, I'm never going to download them.
  - minikomi 12y ago
    I've often thought I'd like a "hide until next version" or "hide indefinitely" for the app store. There's just so much I'm not interested in - especially in the Japanese app store which is dominated by casual games / social games .. http://www.rainbowapps.com/ http://www.rainbowapps.com/
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  > In the second, Flashlight has been promoted from number 10 to number 9, falsely inflating its ranking. This is a concern that goes away in a user-centered design process. The "ranking" does not matter to anyone but app developers or journalists keeping score. The only reason a user looks at those lists is to find new apps to download. Consider Google SERPs, which are now highly customized. Who obsesses over whether an item is at #7 or #9? No one but the people who own those links. Everyone else just wants an answer to their question.
  - bruceboughton 12y ago
    The App Store has search results pages too. Top Charts are not search results pages--they are rankings of apps. Top Charts is a popularity-based browse mechanism. Search is an answer to "what can i play podcasts on?". You could argue Top Charts should be removed from the store or demoted. But you need some kind of browse functionality because people are often not aware that a certain type of app exists to search for.
    - snowwrestler 12y ago

bruceboughton 12y ago

What would your list look like with apps you owned removed? 8. FartApp 10. Flashlight or 8. FartApp 9. Flashlight In the first, with 9. Angry Birds removed, it looks like the data hasn't loaded properly. In the second, Flashlight has been promoted from number 10 to number 9, falsely inflating its ranking. You could solve this by leaving a gap or indicator where 9. Angry Birds should have been but then the user's wondering "what isn't it showing me in that gap?". So maybe you should just call the Top 10, "Your Personalized Top 10". But then it's not personalized really, all they've done is remove apps you already own. The user thinks, "Why are Apple showing me fart apps? Don't they think I have taste? Can't they see I only download Twitter clients and podcast apps?". For the marginal benefit of not showing apps you already own, which are indicated as such, you are opening a whole can of UI worms.

phloxicon 12y ago
It could just show the ten best selling apps that don't include the one you already have installed. So instead of 1, 3, 4, it would push 3 up to 2 and 4 up to 3. I'd also like if the store didn't keep showing things it's shown me a dozen times before. If I haven't downloaded them after seeing them advertised this many times, I'm never going to download them.
- minikomi 12y ago
  I've often thought I'd like a "hide until next version" or "hide indefinitely" for the app store. There's just so much I'm not interested in - especially in the Japanese app store which is dominated by casual games / social games .. http://www.rainbowapps.com/ http://www.rainbowapps.com/
snowwrestler 12y ago
> In the second, Flashlight has been promoted from number 10 to number 9, falsely inflating its ranking. This is a concern that goes away in a user-centered design process. The "ranking" does not matter to anyone but app developers or journalists keeping score. The only reason a user looks at those lists is to find new apps to download. Consider Google SERPs, which are now highly customized. Who obsesses over whether an item is at #7 or #9? No one but the people who own those links. Everyone else just wants an answer to their question.
- bruceboughton 12y ago
  The App Store has search results pages too. Top Charts are not search results pages--they are rankings of apps. Top Charts is a popularity-based browse mechanism. Search is an answer to "what can i play podcasts on?". You could argue Top Charts should be removed from the store or demoted. But you need some kind of browse functionality because people are often not aware that a certain type of app exists to search for.
  - snowwrestler 12y ago