With so many news apps, it's refreshing to see Quartz try something new. This follow the increasing trend toward conversational UI's (see @chrismessina's #ConvComm collection).
Curious to hear how you decided to go in this direction, @_dlee, @zseward, @stimply.
When Quartz launched in 2012, we put most of our effort on mobile, knowing that's how most of our readers would get their news soon enough. But we pointedly avoided building a native app because we felt the web was better suited for the way people read and share news *articles.* If we were going to do a native app, it wouldn't be a replica of our website. It would be something different and more truly native to the phone.
That's what we've tried to do with this app. We wanted to experiment with some very clear trends in mobile: messaging, notifications, bots. Think of the app as a playground for some of those concepts. This note to readers talks more about what the hell we are thinking and acknowledges some inspirations: http://qz.com/613700
@zseward seriously, amazingly simple idea, fresh approach. Nicely done. Luckily there are more attractive and interactive new ways to bring news, as the Snapchat way makes me feel like a zombie staring at MTV on a poststamp.
Are you considering multiple conversations as well, as you want to bring different news to different people (you're not really doing that on Quartz, I know, but: ) because mobile is more personal...?
@zseward@rrhoover: quoting myself: And receiving notifications from bots is to be expected, rather than avoided, because users have been conditioned to receive them from their friends. While you may have bristled when that news app alerted you to “new stories”, you might appreciate a particularly friendly newsbot delivering a personalized recommendation with context that you uniquely care about.
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@zseward This is so creative, Im kinda of a news junkie and I really love this app, especially love the use of emoji there, theyre hilarious
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I do like that it's something new, and it was fun this morning, but I can't imagine people using this to get their news this way long-term. It takes way too long. But, if they are better than USA Today at determining what is actually breaking news for notifications, I will never uninstall.
@kevinreape It does take very long. I think there's some opportunity to blend the messaging format more with an article format within the app. Perhaps, they're working on an in app article view ala Instant Article. I also second the "determining what's breaking news" That's why I really enjoy Notify by Facebook. Great as a minimal app for breaking news.
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Hate to be the hater, but this is the most useless use of a conversational interface I've used. Not everything needs the latest in UI paradigms.
@ethank I'm also not convinced this is the best interface to consume news but I appreciate the creativity and willingness to try something new. I appreciate those that try to do things different from the rest, even if it's not "successful".
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@rrhoover I appreciate creativity that is innovative, not that is following the latest du jour bandwagon in tech interfaces. It's kind of like everyone going for "flat" interfaces, even when not necessary. Just because its a thing doesn't mean it needs to be YOUR thing. There are and were a lot of things like this: activity feeds, realtime web tech, flat design, folksonomies / tag clouds, etc.
In the end I don't actually think its all that creative. It's just a reborn SmarterChild.
@ethank BRING BACK THE TAG CLOUDS!
I hear what you're saying. Trending chasing alone doesn't lead to a great product.
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@ethank@rrhoover had a strong negative initial reaction to this too...BUT a strong reaction in any direction is usually a good starting point for new apps :)
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@rrhoover Usually they just serve as an example of why the trend is potentially a bad idea (see aforementioned tag clouds)
This is super cool - but I feel something is lost by it being a standalone app. Why did you go for that as opposed to hooking into an existing messaging app?
Am i the only one not to be impressed? sure it 's cool but it seems to me a slow way to get new you can get in a much faster way by reading headlines of any news app?
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@ourielohayon Exactly my thoughts. Their app usage on this is probably going to plummet in the first week.
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This has such a good on-boarding flow! "Great. You'll get a pop-up asking for permission." http://imgur.com/B3P9YNN
Have thought about it. Could be a bit too sluggish over SMS, would be our concern. But definitely want to offer something for any platform that makes sense.
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@zseward — What about testing the concept through FB messenger/Whatsapp/similar before building the app? Would that help test what people feel about this kind of news experience? cc @clarklab
I have a question - did you guys have any trouble getting through Apple's review process with that UI? We've been rejected in the past for having UI that Apple deemed to replicate iOS system functionality (they claimed it would be misleading to users). In our case it was the phone call UI; in your case, Quartz has clearly been designed to look like the iMessage interface, despite it not being a messaging service.
Love the concept of the app - just wondered if you'd had similar troubles, or if we were just unlucky!
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