hey thx for the visit. i'm JimEJr, actually short for James E. Washok Jr. i've been on the web for a long time... since '94 actually... & thought in the early days of blogging, "what's the point?" once i finally figured that out, i tried a few times to be a professional blogger. it's tough to force it. now, i just write about those few things that interest me most from an innovation perspective as that's the type of stuff that many friends, family, coworkers and others have sought my thoughts on for many years. so u will find my comments to be primarily about mobile communications, great user interface design, customer loyalty, & simplicity in life & work. i love helping others & breathing life into good ideas. if u find my words having some impact on ur thoughts, i'd be honored to get ur feedback.a picture is worth a thousand words. no one really debates that… so many of us learn &/or retain visually.
the Apple iTunes AppStore allows for the inclusion of up to five screen shot images of an app to be posted by the developer to help interested iPhone users consider download (and possibly purchase) of the app.
photo: Christiano Betta, Flickr
yet, have you noticed how many apps have less than five screen images posted as part of the app description? it’s a lot!!! too many, in fact. so, developers… if Apple gives you five thousand words to say in pictures, why are so many of you uploading only 4, 3, 2, sometimes even just 1 image of your app?! granted some apps have less than five screens of significance, and so only having 3 screen shots if the app only has three meaningful screens is fine. but, there are many apps with less than five images posted that have additional screens that are not portrayed.
every app posting should show the following, in order of priority (not order of display):
- the one screen shot that best gives a feel for the overall app purpose/benefit TO THE USER (not necessarily the coolest screen in a developer’s eyes)
- screen that user is going to be on most of the time
- options/settings (if more than one, select the one that shows the most options or how to set the most critical options to app functionality)
- help/instructions (importance directly proportional to complexity of app)
- title screen (note not listed first – may be a cool screen with great graphics, but if it doesn’t convey what the app is really about, who cares?!)
- multiplayer or other system interaction screen
- finally, if in-app purchasing is going to be a key component of the app, a screen shot showing the breadth of or example of one key bit of add-on content
developers — you have five fingers on each hand to code your app… try using just 2, 3 or 4 of them instead. you wouldn’t, so stop posting your app with less than five screen shots if you have more screens available to help the customer make an important decision and not move on to one of the other 85,000 plus apps.
Filed under: marketing Tagged: | Apple, apps, development, iPhone, marketing
