What do you do when you want to find a good app or game? The answer to this question is rarely ‘well I hop right onto the App Store and dig one up.’ Most of the time you’ll find that a site much like ours has much better content curation. There are YouTube channels, personal blogs, and even twitter users that garner traffic and attention simply because finding an app is a chore. I realize that this sort of an accusation requires a hefty explanation. I find that there are three major issues… well ok actually four problems but I’ll get back to that last one. So why rock the boat? I mean, we get extra traffic because there are fewer ways to effectively find apps you want right? Eh. I don’t really mind a little competition in this case. In the end, I am a consumer very much in need of a better App Store, just like many of you. Now we have seen some incremental improvements recently including a refocusing on editorial content. Moving away from easily manipulated algorithmically derived content is good, but I don’t think it addresses the major issues still facing the App Store.
Problem 1: The App Store is Fractured.
I think when Apple was brainstorming they must have thought, “we need to be able to put our best apps on display. We have to be able to cast a spotlight on the best we have to offer." This is a pretty commendable idea, but when you take it to the extremes like the App Store has, the white noise starts to grow into a roar. Featurettes and special collections and top charts are pushing your normal search function so far to the side that I can easily imagine some people being completely unaware that a normal search option is even available. The split between Explore, Featured and plain search has left each one lacking quality that is expected of Apple.
Problem 2: 1999 Called and Wants it’s Search Engine Back
The search technically works on the app store. I am not sure I can go any further than that in describing it unless I am talking about what it lacks. There is no way to search within a search. The sort options are probably the worst I have ever seen on a finished project. They don’t even exist for the iPhone. On iPad, the options under the Price filter are ‘All’ or ‘Free.’ Thats it. No other choices. To say that sorting was added as an afterthought might give too much credit. Granted its a dumb joke I made in the title of this section, but the engine itself is a pretty dumb joke too. The search being disjointed from the other, flashier methods of discovery is really the root of whats wrong with finding cool stuff in the app store. Really, the only thing going for the search is that if you already know the name of an app, this is usually the only way to get directly at it.
Problem 3: The Others are Mirrored Repeaters
Featured and Explore are so flippin’ similar in their layout, I am just going to call them The Others. The Others both have lists of apps, and very general categories that become a little more specific if you venture into them. The Others’ function in the App Store actually has two problems. The Others have duplicate entries and they are tremendously weak. Seeing the same app in multiple genres or in multiple lists inside a single genre is pretty bad. Seeing the same app in Action->Shooter and Action->Sci-Fi and Action->Arcade Style and Action->Fantasy and Action->Fighter and Action->Platformer and … what? That’s every single sub-category in Explore’s Games->Action section? Um, there is a single app that shows up in each one of those? Hold on. ITS THE #1 OR #2 IN EACH OF THEM? Would you like to explore Sniper Shooter(Free), or Sniper Shooter, or Sniper Shooter, or HEY LOOK ITS Sniper Shooter AGAIN! Granted, I don’t mind Sniper Shooter and if the app store reviews are anything to go off of it looks fabulous, but it depicts our problem perfectly. Why is this app at the top of every single one of these categories? You would think there is nothing else worth our time.
When you consider the extremely small number of apps that show up in the first place on these featured pages, it is really an awful and avoidable mistake to spend valuable real estate on the same app over and over. It’s not surprising though. With very generic genre labels like action, strategy, and adventure, you are going to see games simultaneously fall into mulitple categories. Without an in-depth sorting system, too many apps are designed to sit on the fences or even just claim to be in genres they clearly are not part of. Now some apps do very much belong in more than one genre, but when you see the same one in four or five sections, it gets pretty aggravating. I know from my time here at TouchArcade that there are sooooo many amazing apps out there, much more than the current store even has the ability to display. We don’t get to see them while we get copies upon copies taking up that room.
Solution: Put the Pieces Back Together
Go to Amazon and search for something. I chose computer monitors as an example. What do you get? You have a list of search results with sort options but that isn’t all of what you get. The filters section is what I am talking about here. Having a search with filters is exactly what the App Store needs to step out of the primordial soup. If designed well, a good filter system is EXACTLY what the Explore and Featured Categories were meant to be. Want to filter by released in the last month and popular and published by an independent developer? There goes Featured. Want to view any of the sub-genres of the EXPLORE section? Filters can do that too. What about best sellers? Yeah, easy filter right there.
Can’t all the little separated areas live in peace under a single unified search? Everything you could ask for from Best Selling to Explore->All->Games->Action->Shooter could all live happily under the same filtered search. It’s a utopian dream world I have where control is given back to the user and functionality trumps whatever the current thing is that makes the app store a muddled mess.
The real question we have to ask is why on earth has this not taken place yet? A full featured search filter could bring the fragmentation and underrepresentation to an end. My follow up question is what motivation does Apple have to change the App Store? This is one I am struggling with because I don’t think I see a big chunk of extra money headed their way if a change like this were made. Maybe some people would cross the abyss and ditch their Android phones, but I don’t see this as a key selling point or a marketing campaign. No I fear that the biggest opponent to my idea here is that there is just not enough money in it for Apple. Most healthy companies allocate time and resources to the source of their greatest income, and even if an improved App Store interface could show a strong return on investment, it might not be enough to divert from their booming hardware business. This 4th problem is kind of the one problem to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
The only thing that gives me hope is when I remember why search engine searches are no longer called search engine searches. Before the age of Google, we used to use search engines that were, in hindsight, primordial. If you were around back then, you probably remember that searches had to be extremely syntax correct and specific. A search for pool party and poolparty would give 2 wildly different results. Early competitors returned irrelevant results often where the ever evolving algorithm used by Google has always kept their searches accurate. The drive to continually improve pushed them to be the best at what they did. Apple could definitely be more driven to improve customer experience in the App Store, but until they have a reason to, I fear this is just another case without resolution in the Fretz Zone.
