Apple introduces a completely redesigned App Store | Hacker News Reader

Apple introduces a completely redesigned App Store

techcrunch.com

46 pointssalimmadjd7 comments

The one big question on my mind: have they fixed the "problem" of an app's rating (and reviews) only being that of the newest version?

I get that sometimes a version has severe bugs, and it's good that the negative ratings/reviews don't drag down the app's newer versions that fix the bugs.

But it's horrible that I can't tell whether a newly-released app has a history of being something more like a five-star app, or a one-star app—or whether it has no rating history at all. It incentivizes developers with shit apps to just constantly put out little tweak versions to suppress their rating.

Can someone explain Apple's design approach? IMO, most of their apps are bland and blindingly white, and seem almost unfinished. Doesn't this distract from the content in a way? Not trying to be rude, I just don't have much UI/UX experience and I'm trying to understand it.

Guessing from the apps on my phone, minimalism; consistency; simplicity over features; standard white-on black over novel color schemes.

I like it.

It's to emphasize what you're doing in the app over the app itself. For instance, in the case of an app that handles audiovisual content, the content ends up dominating the focus while the app itself fades into the background. It gets out of the way and lets the user focus on the task at hand.

Quite a contrast from the approach of many third-party iOS developers, which often put a lot of energy into creating a comparatively flashy custom UI/UX for their their apps, often as a method of branding.

My initial impression as an indie developer is that this new design has a way lower apps-per-screen density and seems to be even more heavily focused on promoting bigger developers.

Hopefully time will prove that it still works well for discovering indie apps.

Does this mean that the "Zoom" menu item on the desktop App Store app will actually, um, zoom the content rather than just making the window fill the screen?

Any way yet for me to filter for games or apps without any in-app purchases or ads?

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