Whoa! It was a big surprise for me - I was expecting popularity, but this overcame me - 6th place (until last twenty four hours, I was even in tie with three other apps for second place!) is big success - especially, with not-so-optimistic judges reviews and very detailed - and a bit confusing for reader - blog entries from my side. Thanks for your voices!
So, now came time for explaining, arguing with judges and making things simple ;-)
First thing. Expected user market.
I’m not expecting Herald as app for computer geeks.
Of course, it’ll be very elastic - and if you’ll want to, you’ll be able to use only built-in RSS reader (which will be manager for manual choosing posts from RSS too - if you want to do it manually of course)
But it’s an app like an iLife suite - for everyone, for people that do not even want to know what the RSS syndication is. They just want drag-and-drop. And eye-candies. They do not really care if hamsters are choosing their articles, they want them GOOD (and it’s the reason of proposed article-rating function ;-)).
Second thing. Usefulness.
I consider myself as computer geek. But I’m also a college student with VERY FILLED schedule (150% of usual workload, I almost forgot how to sleep ;-)).
Today, I got a few spare hours. So I finally opened my RSS Reader (no advertising here ;-)) and got hammered by over 3000 of news. I found my favorite Polish newspaper (over 400 unread news) and started reading, clicking through every single article.
And guess what? I found it quite unpleasant experience. Not only because of actual political horror in my country, but because of user experience: clicking, chaos in articles and feeds, simple because of everything that is now defining RSS reader.
It was a place for Herald. If an app like this would exist, I could read news between classes (with my cellphone) or at least read it eating breakfast in nice form.
If Herald will be ever created, the basis of this app will be ability of creation your dream newspaper within 30 seconds from double-clicking icon - so time-consumption will be hard to notice.
Third thing. Paper use.
It was rather a metaphor.
Of course, you can print it, why not?
But you can export it to PDF and read it in your Tablet PC, Tablet Mac or PDA With Really Big Screen.
Or to iPod. Or cellphone.
And, to be honest, could anyone tell me if (s)he’s reading all pages in New York Times?
Really?
Me neither.
You read a front page, maybe a few more… And then your underground just arrived to destination station. Or there is no more toasts with jam left on your plate (hint: you finished breakfast).
And most of you just throw whole 100-pages to wastebasket. Or use it in cat’s toilet at home.
This is why personalized newspaper is so important - you’re choosing all things you want, you fill a few pages with it - and then you export it to PDA or print.
It’s sure that there is also “translation problem”. But until we’ll find better way of getting news straight in front of you, newspapers will be a lot better than any tech-savvy app. Especially for busy people. And average users.
That’s all actually.
No mock-ups today. Fortunately, thanks to cooperation with Darrell (known for PassIt! idea), beautiful mockups will arrive soon to please your eye and give you better idea of Herald.
Do not really care so much about Friendly, lost, found scrolls things. It’s only temporary, untidy naming, just to categorize things. Features are unchanged, but certain naming may be changed (and surely in many cases - it’ll be changed).
Thanks once more time for your votes! :-)
