iPhone App UX Review: Gowalla vs. foursquare

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Gowalla vs. foursquare:

iPhone App UX Review

@suzanneginsburg www.iphoneuxreviews.com

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Thanks for your interest!

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What are Gowalla & foursquare?

Gowalla and foursquare are location-based social networking apps that let users do the following:

• Discover where your friends are hanging out.• Add photos and comment on places you’ve visited.• Collect badges and other awards when visiting places.

Gowalla also allows users to create and share “trips” which are essentially lists of places. Trips can be viewed via the app but they must be created on the Gowalla web site.

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UX Review Goals

• Review design strategies & patterns emerging among location-based social networking apps.

• Suggest which of the above are working well & which could use improvement (Note color coding to right).

• The goal is not to suggest that one app is better than the other.

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✔ Used to indicate best practice

✖ Used to indicate area that can be improved

Brief app intros

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• Created in late 2009 by Alamofire

which is based in Austin, TX.

• Version 2.01 is included in this

review (March 12, 2010).

• Ranked #38 in App Store Social

Networking category as of March 29,

2010.

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Gowalla

• Created in early 2009.

• Version 1.7.1 is included in this

review (March 13, 2010).

• Ranked #15 in App Store Social

Networking category as of March 29,

2010.

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foursquare

Screen-by-screen UX review

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Splash screens

✖ Both apps could provide more info for new users.

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Sign up screens

✖ Asks for a lot of info. Would be nice to know how it will be used.

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Activity/Friends: Shows places you & friends have visited.

✔ Users may add friends from this view.

✖ Must go to profile tab to add friends.

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Spots & Places: List of nearby places

✖ Leads to alternative ways to find “Spots.” Better if these were integrated into this screen.

✖ Address would be helpful here.

✔ Search is handy given that the list below may get long.

✔ Current location helpful since connection may go in and out.

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Spots & Places: Detailed place information

✔ Tasks are prominent & discoverable, though last icon is unclear.

✖ Tasks hidden under control.

✖ Address should be tied into map which is hidden under “Details”

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Check-in Screens

✖ Doesn’t seem possible to link Twitter & FB accounts from within the app.

✔ Big buttons on both apps won’t be missed by users.

✔ Hint within form is helpful.

✔ Character limit is helpful.

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Passport/Profile: Shows places visited & badges earned

✖ Can edit my photo by tapping on it but there’s no affordance!

✖ Goes to info screen but icon is typically used for grid menu navigation.

✔ Compact design allows them to show more content.

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Find Friends

✔ Good to disclose this privacy info.

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Support / Info Screens

✖ Neither app has rich support content.

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Error Messaging: Loss of Network Connection

✔ Friendly tone and playful icon.

✖ Text is neither helpful or friendly.

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Add Spots / Places

✔ Map feedback and tip are valuable.

✔ Open keyboard means one less step for users.

Other Gowalla Screens

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Gowalla Trips: List of places to visit

✖ I created this trip: should indicate that it’s mine.

✖ Love the trip concept but how do I choose? Ratings could be helpful.

Trip list view Trip detail view

Other foursquare Screens

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foursquare: Tips & To Dos

✔ Tab pointer ties in well with content

✖ “Tips” tab is disconnected from “Places” but they are related.

Tips tab To do tab

✖ When empty nice to explain how to add to do items.

Recommendations

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Recommendations

# 1 Provide product education within context

Instead of showing a blank screen or “no results” the apps could use this space to explain feature benefits and usage.

Additionally, new users could benefit from more information about the pins, badges, stamps, and other awards on both services.

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Recommendations

# 2 When appropriate, strive for feature parity between web site & app

There are a few web-only features which would be appropriate in the mobile context. For example, Gowalla allows users to bookmark and share spots online but not via the iPhone app. Similarly, foursquare users can only mark “to do” items on the web site but not on the iPhone.

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Tasks supported on Gowalla site

Recommendations

# 3 Keep users within context as much as possible

Both apps have cases where the user has to hunt for features or pogo back and forth. As much as possible, try to keep relevant tasks within context. For example, foursquare should place the “Add friends” feature within the Friends list or at least link to it. Right now it’s hidden under the user’s profile.

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foursquare profile screen

Additional thoughts

Not long ago, Yelp introduced check-ins. The feature is buried on the detail view but it could make an impact given that Yelp already has a large community and extensive reviews.

Another potential problem is check-in fatigue--Gowalla, foursquare, Yelp & who else? Recently, a product called Check.in has attempted to address this issue, but it’s still unclear if users want a separate app when they already have Twitter, FB & more.

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Yelp detail view

Thanks for viewing!

• That’s all for now!

• There are many other notable design details but I’d like to keep these reviews relatively short.

• Suggestions for future reviews are welcome. Please send email to suggest@iphoneuxreviews.com

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Experience

@suzanneginsburg

http://www.iphoneuxreviews.com