Comments on post “Quartz for iPhone”
Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
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.
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
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
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Hash_tag_jeff
@jeffumbro · Book Marketing and PR - get in touch
@zseward Congrats! This is amazing. Digit or Magic for the News.
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Milan vd Bovenkamp ♠
@milann · Connecting people again with Wildcard 🃏
@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...?
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Chris Messina
@chrismessina · 🏆 PH Community Member of the Year!
@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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Saab
@michaelcunner · Maker
@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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Kevin Reape
@kevinreape · Marketing Assistant, Mizzou
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.
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
We'll take it! 😄
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Corey O
@coreyo · Senior Product Manager at Madison Reed
@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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Tim Herbig
@herbigt · Head of Product at heyorbit.com
Woah, so impressive! Am already hooked on this new approach of getting news.
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Ethan Kaplan
@ethank · GM/CPO - Fender Digital
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.
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@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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Ethan Kaplan
@ethank · GM/CPO - Fender Digital
@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.
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@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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Adam Kazwell
@kaz · Product manager/observer
@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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Ethan Kaplan
@ethank · GM/CPO - Fender Digital
@rrhoover Usually they just serve as an example of why the trend is potentially a bad idea (see aforementioned tag clouds)
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Ouriel Ohayon
@ourielohayon · appsfire, CEO/ isai (VC) co-founder
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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Kevin Reape
@kevinreape · Marketing Assistant, Mizzou
@ourielohayon Exactly my thoughts. Their app usage on this is probably going to plummet in the first week.
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Alex Manthei
@xoalexo · Product Designer at Lyst
This has such a good on-boarding flow! "Great. You'll get a pop-up asking for permission." http://imgur.com/B3P9YNN
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Jorge Huerta U
@jhuerta88 · Jorge Huerta
@xoalexo Check out @samuelhulick teardown of Quartz app in http://useronboard.us7.list-mana...
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Sebastian Blaga
@sebitska · co-founder, akum
News as a conversation really works, kinda like talking to a well-informed friend. This is a nice addition to their daily mail.
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Scott Broughton
@weheartscott · Designer & Head of Mobile @ Netsells.
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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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
Thanks! Yeah, we did not have any trouble with that.
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Jaime Macias
@jmacias · Product @boost.
Chat as an interface +1
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sri
@sridhar_kondoji · No Fluff Just Stuff skills tracker
@jmacias did i read slack?
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Clark Wimberly
@clarklab · UX Designer
Since it looks/works a lot like chat, have you thought about making a plain ol' SMS service? So users with _any_ phone can play along?
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
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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LukaVida
@lukavida · Product/UX design for hire
@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
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
It's not really possible, at least in the same way. I'm sure that will evolve, though.
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Evan Knight
@evannite · UX Designer @Google
I read Quartz daily so this is awesome to see and play with, but probably too slow for daily use. Would be nice to scan all the headlines without having to press next, and then get more info about each one if you wanted to chat. Will be fun to watch how it evolves.
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Akshay Bharwani
@akshaybharwani · Just a Student, for now.
Just looks fantastic! waiting for an Android version!
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Johnathan Butler
@jbutlerxviii
Yes! Finally! An INTERESTING news app!
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Heiko Scherer
@heikoscherer · CEO
A fresh, new approach to news consumption finally.. well done! Wonder where this can lead to..
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Chris Oslund
@eighttwo_three · Makes shiny (often) digital things
Very cool design! Are you guys segmenting users based on which things they say 'Next' to? I'd be cool if Quartz got better and better at leading with the stories I care about most.
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Mark Justin Harvey
@markjharvey · product designer @QuickTapSurvey
The onboarding is truly something special. Totally reimagined what it can and should be. I can't remember exactly when onboarding ended and I started using the product. I've been thinking about onboarding screen for a while, glad to see somebody did something different with them.
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Matt Hamlin
@immatthamlin · Web Developer at Wayfair
I've only been using this for a few minutes now but this is amazing, have there ever been any thoughts about doing something like this on the web @zseward?
Also I can't wait for an android version of the app also!
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
I don't honestly think this would work as well on the web in its precise form, but certainly elements of it could, and we're looking at all options, including Android.
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Corey O
@coreyo · Senior Product Manager at Madison Reed
@zseward You're right that messaging within the browser is a tough build. Alternatively, have you considered how a lot of people use iMessage on our desktops? It's honestly one of the easiest way to share and converse around specific news articles with friends.
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Zach Seward
@zseward · VP of product, Quartz
That's a good point.
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Matthieu Varagnat
@mvaragnat
What an awesome experimentation! I love Quartz and conversational interfaces, can't wait to see it ported to Android
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Angie
@angeliqueangiea · Founder of YourApparel
This is great! Love have been looking for an alternative since Briefing temporarily ended their service. I also love the quizzes when you come back for more news too soon 😄.
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Edouard Morhange
@edouardmorhange · Founder, storyplayr
I don't know if it's an efficient way for us that already read newspapers, blogs, social media, etc... but it's certainly a great way to inform my teenager kids with quality content, in a fun way.
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