1) According to surveys, the average app user downloads about 10 apps per month but rarely uses any single app for more than 20 launches before abandoning it. Less than 15% of apps receive significant use in a week and only 1/3 are used at all 2 months after being downloaded. 2) Nearly 50% of apps are downloaded based on a friend's recommendation, indicating the importance of social influences on app adoption. 3) Users interact with their phones in limited, fragmented sessions where they pay only partial attention to apps. They may see a different experience than what designers intended due to limited attention and use contexts like crowded public spaces.

1. Tapworthy
Chapter 1, 2

3. Survey
App users download about 10 apps per month on
average
The average user never launches an app more than 20
times before abandoning it.
Less than 15% of apps get so much as a glance over
the course of a week, and 2 months after purchase,
only 1/3 apps get used at all.
Nearly 50% of apps are downloaded based on a
friend’s recommendation.

4. could break the spell at any time—a crowded subway car, a lively restaurant, the
family living room.
Can’t expect people to have the time
That means people are manhandling your app in one paw, with just one eye on
or patience to study the screen
the screen, paying only partial attention to your carefully crafted interface. They
see a completely different app than the one you see as the designer.
You build… They see…

5. Double tap, pinch, twist
How little users have explored the standard
iPhone controls and especially touch screen
gestures.
Many iPhone users say multitouch feels
awkward, including even the standard pinch
gesture for zooming in and out.

6. Even some of the standard icons of the built-in
apps cause confusion for newcomers.

7. Even some of the standard icons of
the built-in apps cause confusion for
newcomers. After several weeks of use,
many users still don’t realize the X icon
in Safari’s location bar can be used to
clear the web address. Meanwhile, in
user tests, first-timers often expect that
the + icon, which is used to bookmark
pages, will instead enlarge the page
text.
First-timers often expect that the + icon, which
is used to bookmark pages, will instead
enlarge the page text.
12 Chapter 1: Touch and Go

8. careless != dumb
People want simplicity and ease.
Great apps don’t make us think, at least not
about their interfaces.

9. Crucial Question
What specific problem does your app uniquely
solve for users?
Why users have to use your app on an itty-
bitty device?

10. Consider how your app can take advantage of
the size and the portability of the iPhone to do
something that desktop computers cannot.

11. I’m microtasking.
I’m local.
I’m bored.

12. I’m microtasking
Thrive on simplicity, offering fewer features
than desktop counterparts, but also making it
faster and easier to get it down quick.
Optimize for short but frequent hits

13. Think big but build small
Identify the single task that’s most important
to your app.
Think hard about what your app can do to
help users microtask the activity in hurry.

14. Focus
lla: The Simplest Weather Forecast” is a disarmingly simple app approaches
r forecasts by answering the question, “Do I need an umbrella today?”
-is-more approach probably doesn’t fit your gut
about how to build a great app. Developers of web-
d traditional desktop software are accustomed to
a features–arms race with diet of features
A lean competitors. Enterprise
e outfits evangelize the idea that the a better
often delivers more features
e, the better the software. Marketing for new ver-
user experience that’s
umpets all the new-fangled gizmos that have been
more carefully tailored
onto the update. The specific needs and
to benefits of feature pile-on
ious on the desktop—the result is often bloated
use cases.
e—but the effects of an overstuffed iPhone app are
ght hobbling. Don’t assume that your app has to do
ng related to your content domain. Pick your slice of
d work to do and let other apps pick up other slices.
pter 11, you’ll learn how you can make your app fit into this larger

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16. Efficiency is a feature.
Website owners interested in developing an
iPhone app might start by developing an
iPhone-targeted website.

17. Save it for later
s from the app’s