I’ve recently installed two apps which show great promise but which also seem flawed. This is a shame because we all like to try out new apps, especially if they seem to be of benefit to our work or daily life. It is great when such an app makes an improvement in our way of working or communicating. It is simply frustrating when a promising app fails to deliver.
Not living up to their promise…
In my time, I’ve come across many apps which have in one way or another, not quite lived up to their promise. Often this is because their development was stopped and functionality lost, sometimes their functionality became superseded by another app that offered greater functionality or ease of use, and, sometimes, the app simply became too expensive to continue using (a flaw all too common in the subscription model). Occasionally, though, an app failed to deliver because of flawed implementation.
A common implementation flaw is when an app is ‘designed’ to work on both a cell phone and a tablet. However, the tablet version is simply the same version as the phone version and is displayed simply as a small cellphone shaped image on the larger tablet screen; this is guaranteed to frustrate any tablet user. A similar flaw in a ‘tablet’ version is when the tablet app runs in portrait mode only. Portrait mode is acceptable and most common when a user is using a mobile phone but most tablet users use their device in landscape mode. So if your app is intended to be used on a tablet, for heaven’s sake make sure it can be used in landscape orientation.
Not sharing…
It is great that modern apps can share content with other apps and services. This enables a user to collate material from, say, the web or create content in a creative app, such as Ulysses, then store their material in, say, Dropbox, before eventually publishing their content on, say, Medium.
Isn’t it frustrating, then, when an app or service limits the user in how or where they can share their work. I am thinking here of apps which only allow the user to export or share work with the app’s ‘baked-in’ services. Commonly, such services may be Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive or OneNote, each of which is a fantastic service but if a user does not use any of the services offered by the app, then the user is hindered in how they use that app.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel it is great when an app builds in services and offers the facility for users to use them without additional cost. However, it would be better, I believe, if users could select which services to use according to which service or tool they wish. Often this can be done via plugins or extensions, however, not all apps support plugins or extensions. That is a source of frustration for users.
Not letting you sign-in…
Have you noticed how more and more apps are offering ‘sign in with Apple’ or ‘sign in with Google’? This is great as it appears to offer greater security, ease of sign in and lessens the need to create and recall unique passwords. However, there appear to be those apps that offer these sign in options on their app but not on their website. This is completely frustrating as it may mean that a user who has signed up using one of these signin services on the app, cannot then use the web version.
Okay, I’ll stop grumbling now but I’m sure I am not the only user who has experienced these frustrations.
In case you are wondering, the two apps which prompted this post were Deepstash and Liner. Hopefully, someone involved in the development of these, otherwise really useful apps, can look into the problems and fix them. I am sure, though, that they are not alone in having issues such as these.
