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Josh Clark is a designer, developer, and author specializing in iPhone user experience. Josh’s outfit, Global Moxie, helps creative companies build tapworthy iPhone apps and effective websites. Follow Josh on Twitter at @globalmoxie. He’s author of two books, including the following tips from his newest, Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps. An app’s shelf life lasts exactly as long as it can hold users’ attention. iPhone owners chew through apps, gulping down their content, then tossing them out and moving on. Studies show that the average user never launches an app more than 20 times before abandoning it. Less than 15% of downloaded apps get so much as a glance over the course of a week, and two months after purchase, only one-third of downloaded apps ever get used again. This may not matter to you if your goal is to build one-off novelty apps; in that case, you might even expect people to launch your app only a few times. Laugh delivered, mission accomplished. If you’re trying to grow a following for your app, however, this is uncomfortable news. According to one survey, nearly half of all apps are downloaded based on a friend’s recommendation. Loyal users spread the word, but few apps ever manage to create a huge fan base. If you’re trying to create a long-term relationship with your audience, your app has to keep giving. Certain kinds of apps have a built-in heartbeat thanks to the fundamental nature of their key features. Tools that organize personal info (to-do lists, calendars, expense trackers, contacts) keep people coming back. Likewise, utilities that perform a common task (Skype calls, instant messaging, barcode scanning, weather forecasts, notebooks) continue to be useful as long as the underlying task is in demand. For most of us, tools and utilities still account for the majority of our desktop software. Most folks use computers to work. That doesn’t hold so true for iPhone apps. The majority of apps in the App Store are content apps — games, entertainment, books, references, novelty apps. For these apps, it takes more work to keep the heartbeat thumping. Sometimes that simply means fresh content. News apps, of course, have a bottomless and constantly refreshing reservoir of content, drawing users back regularly for more about the latest political brouhaha or Brangelina update. Non-news content apps have to be a bit more creative, but the challenge is the same. Games often offer Read More

Posted 04/29/2010 at 1:56pm | by Ray Aguilera With 185,000 apps and counting, the App Store is a vast warehouse of digital goodies for your iPhone (and now iPad too). But like most mega-marts, the sheer size of it all makes the good stuff harder to find. We’ve scoured the Store, and found the best apps to help you use your iPhone to it’s fullest potential. Whether it’s games you seek, or productivity tools, we’ve got you covered. As it turns out, there really is an app for that, no matter what that is. The iPhone and iPod touch brought back fun to videogaming, with developers focussing on innovation, affordability, and novelty. Touchscreen and accelerometer controls also force designers to think different, resulting in games that are a glorious collision of classic and cutting-edge gameplay and technology. --Craig Grannell Steph Thirion · $2.99 Eliss is the perfect game for the iPhone’s touch screen. The concept is simple--tear apart and combine planets and drop them into like-colored/sized “squeesars.” A successful drop sees a planet vanish in a cloud of stardust, which can be mopped up to replenish energy lost during collisions of differently colored planets. Requiring unique tactics for each level, Eliss is tough but rewarding, and has beautiful retro visuals and audio. It might look old-school, but Eliss is a modern multitouch creation. Arthur Ham · $0.99 We’ve no idea what the little guy in Run! is sprinting toward, but we hope it’s a great prize, because along the way he has to dodge or destroy numerous foes (zombies, walls, lethal giant saws) with the help of only his cunning and a giant bazooka. The superficially similar Canabalt may have more style, but Run! beats it on price, quirkiness, fun, variety, and the ability to flying-kick deadly leaping sharks in the head. Yeah, you read that right. You know you've always wanted to kick a shark. Drömsynt · $0.99 Imagine the mutant love child of Breakout, Pong, and a simplified Super Mario Bros. (or Pac-Land, if you’re old enough!) and you’ve got Squareball. Your ball constantly bounces and you swipe levels left and right, trying to collect green blocks and avoid hazards like holes and red blocks. It sounds simple, but the level design is devious, ensuring the game is both insanely frustrating and murderously addictive. Mini time-attack challenges add extra value. Be prepared to die... a lot. Rake in Grass Read More