For
the presentation of Flipboard, all in all I think the following three points
should be important to mention:
1. Mind
about details. This is the most impressive point I got from the presentation.
The choice of font style and color makes it quite nature to view the content of
the app as if it is a really magazine. And the particular interface design on mobile
phone really improves the user experience a lot. This is not also what good
design talks to, but also a sort of idea that will be delivered to all the users,
which is: the developer care about their feelings. This will definitely win the
users hearts and keep them around the app, which is what Flipboard owns now.
2. Accept
users from multiple contexts. So unlike twitter, Facebook or some News apps,
which focus on either social networking or News publishing, Flipboard uses its
RSS function to integrate social networking with News publishment and present
with their wonderful designed GUI. This is really a way of innovation. As a
result, users from both sides will be attractive and this is quite beneficial for
rapid expansion of the scale of the app.
3. Last
point I will emphasize on one bad point of Flipboard, which is not caching
enough content. For this sort of app which requires online remote update
access, caching is always a good and necessary way to enhance the user
experience, as offline cases will be more or less inevitable for users. So this
is really a necessary point for Flipboard to improve.
Flipboard,
as the presenter had said, is nothing new. The successful point of it is
re-innovating from exist industry models. Here are two points. First is what I
have mentioned in point 2 above. Integration of social networking and News
publishment really makes Flipboard stand out of others. This is a good model
for seeking new ways to innovate. Second is what I observe from many apps. As
we know , the growth of IT industry is mostly rely on the trend that IT
technologies are more and more used and in people’s normal lives and influence the
people’s living styles. Typically example is the popularity of ebooks. This is
actually nothing new, but just free book readers from carrying heavy books and read
on device conveniently without losing much reading experience. So does what Flipboard
has done. It is just nothing new but “moving” magazines from really one into
electronic style, which may reduce some reading experience, but with much
faster browsing and updating speed and relative low cost. This is really a kind
of good innovation strategy, which is what I mean by the title of this blog. In
the future, I believe this will be proved to be effective by many new apps or
services.
Well, I agree the point that there is nothing new. In fact, the idea of making ebooks look like magazine is also really old. In terms of how much it looks like a magazine, the best ebook I have read is a video game magazine made by some video game lovers in China. It even looks much more nicer than Flipboard and that was in 2004 or 2005. For example, when turning a page, you can do that from 6 directions(top-left,left,bottom-left, etc.). The transition effects are all different and thus make it more like a real magazine. Moreover, you can stop at some middle position when turning and still see the content.
ReplyDeleteya i also think the concept and also the design helps this app to stand out. and by connecting to different social platforms, it greatly simplifies the way people read RSS feeds and social updates. in another word, it solves the pain of information overload and present everything in one platform simple and nicely. great app indeed
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the caching is too small. When I am waiting for bus or MRT, I would like to open my Flipboard and see what is happening. However, because of the small caching, I can only see the title, but the content, no...
ReplyDeleteＩ ｌｉｋｅ ｔｈｅ ｗａｙ Ｆｌｉｐｂｏａｒｄ ｃｏｎｎｅｃｔｉｎｇ ｔｏ ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔ ｓｏｃｉａｌ ｐｌａｔｆｏｒｍｓ， ｍａｋｅ ｉｔ a All-in-1 feed reader. I also agree with your commentary which I didn't consider it, the caching is very important for enhancing users' experience. It is good that users can always bookmark and read news articles offline.
ReplyDeleteMinding about details is very important in designing. I have used quite a lot of applications which have good features but they don't care much about designing. This makes users feel uncomfortable, sometimes they really don't want to use some good features (in terms of functions) just because of small mistakes in design. (e.g color/font is not nice, the text is too small, reverses the positions of "stop" and "pause" buttons...)
ReplyDelete