Any space nerds around?
Just launched the iOS companion app for Space Launch Now and wanted to see if there were some Bald Movers willing to provide some feedback? Also available on Android if anyones interested in that one as well. The concept is super simple - it's a spaceflight tracker, get notifications and watch them launch live.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-launch-now/id1399715731
(or for android https://spacelaunchnow.me)
Jim/Aaron hope a slight bit of self-promotion is ok.
-Koun7erfit (BTW - how can I change my name?)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/space-launch-now/id1399715731
(or for android https://spacelaunchnow.me)
Jim/Aaron hope a slight bit of self-promotion is ok.
-Koun7erfit (BTW - how can I change my name?)
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I don't know about the watching part because I don't watch anything on my phone. I am old and a 60" TV beats cell phone screen 100% of the time.
If watching launches is something you enjoy the reminder on upcoming ones on the app is great.
Absolutely agree about watching on a TV, I usually end up using Chromecast to watch it on my TV.
Also, as far as the name change, best bet is to send Jim a very nice email to support@baldmove.com. He can do it but it's a real pain in the butt.
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GREAT app. Much better than I thought it would be. So everything I have to say is minor, except for my last comment.
- Notifications are on by default for upcoming launches, but I'd like to know when I'm getting those notifications. Giving me more options there is a "nice to have," but at the very least telling me what's going to happen.
- Nice "notification test" feature. Really nice.
- Okay, scrolling to the bottom of the settings I see you do have notification intervals. Sweet! I'd put a clarifying sentence at the "enable notifications" level or move all of that before the scroll.
- "Long press for additional options" - not great interaction design (essentially it's no interaction design, since you're just telling us), but my biggest concern is I can't tell what I should be long pressing. The button that got me there? ("Watch Live") Or the modal? Or the YouTube link? Maybe this is an Android thing... I feel like something's missing. All I see is a YouTube link, by the way, so maybe more stuff happens if there are other sources. Also... what additional options? What am I missing out on here? Should I really be trying this hard? Haha.
- I think your app MIGHT be breaking my settings/notifications pull-down menu (from the top of my phone), because I've never had this happen before. Ah, I got it working again... had to close out of the app and turn my screen off/on. The app prompted me to send a crash report so I did.
- I had typed up that you might want to consider a "favorite/follow" launches feature, when I realized the app has one. So then I tried to analyze why it took me so long to find it. I think it's because you have a menu problem. The top area has THREE menus, which are indistinguishable to me upon first inspection. The most menu-like of the menus is the hamburger menu on the left: that seems to be the most extensive and it's where I looked for the favorite/follow feature. Settings -> Notifications -> couldn't find it there, assumed it didn't exist. (You might have told us it did in the introduction, my bad, I probably would have read it if I had downloaded this app on my own.)
The first menu I clicked on, FWIW, was the vertical ellipsis menu, and I was confused by the lack of options. I see now how it's like a "quick settings" thing, and I immediately moved to the hamburger menu so it's all good. The problem is I forgot the middle menu existed at that point... I think my brain was just like "menus everywhere, with duplicate options" and blanked it out.
So yes, what really threw me off is I have no idea what the triangle hamburger menu is. What that icon means. (People already struggle defining the hamburger and vertical ellipsis, FWIW.) And what's behind that click is like.... the best thing about your app. I can see why you duplicated it as a floating button. And I guess I ignored that floating button because, again, I don't know what that icon means.
.... I would consider using a bell.
Not this bell. This is just a fucking cool bell icon, right? But one that matches your UI. Or, research other notifications icons, but this is the standard one.
@JaimieT - that is beyond excellent feedback, I had at one point a UX Grad student do a full study for his graudation and made several of the same points. I'm currently planning a redesign of the Android UI to align more with the iOS app, flat simple navigation - i'll be sure to consider your points heavily.
Yea - those icon choices for the filtering/favorite screen are horrible in retrospect.
... because the bell by itself can just mean a user HAS a notification.
To be safe I'd throw it in the main left menu too, though.
Also when I first looked at the app, I expected a check box or star in the upper right corner of each launch. Then I looked at "Explore" and "Share," but obviously that wasn't what I wanted either. I understand why you'd set up notifications by type, not by individual... but I wish there was some way to get to the notifications on the items themselves.
And at this point I've discussed putting a link to this page all over the app, haha! That probably wouldn't be good either. So, just thoughts.
Good apps are fun to critique, and yours is very good.
UX grad student, huh? You know what school they went to? I went to Kent State, graduated last spring (2017).
I definitely need to tackle the problem of guiding users to choose what launches they want to follow perfectly though because my big competitor ONLY does SpaceX. Feedback i've gotten is 'I do not care about random Chinese launches'... so its definitely important that users that try out Space Launch Now realize they can choose very specifically what to get notifications for.
Thanks JaimieT!
Oh, well there you go. That makes sense to me that they wouldn't want to check *everything*... I really like what you've done where you just follow a grouping. "when it really could've been just poorly implemented" -- it sounds like you implemented it according to standards, so.
Nice, sounds like you have a good grasp on what makes your app appealing. Good luck!