App Review | ViewFind — Visual Storytelling
Here we go, app review #2! I very much enjoyed writing my last post, which was a review of Facet — Video Travel Inspiration (which you can read here), so I decided to keep the ball rolling with a new one. This time, we’re going to look at ViewFind — Visual Storytelling, which is a news feed app that features stories from photojournalists. So how is it different from every other news application out there? Normally, news articles have you read a bunch of text with some photos sprinkled here and there. With ViewFind, the photos take center stage while the text is just an option you can turn on or off. First you select a story, then you swipe through a series of beautifully shot photos that together form an interesting story. By tapping on any image, you can toggle subtitles that give more details on what’s happening in the photo. That’s the brief overview, now let’s dive into the review.
User Experience: B
There is basically zero onboarding for new users, but it’s not really necessary since navigating the app is extremely straight forward. There is a Home tab with featured stories at the top and then all recent posts below it. In the Explore tab, you can find news stories geographically using a map. Then with the Discover tab, you have the option to search stories using keywords like names and places. Finally, in the Profile tab, you have your account and settings options. The app is as smooth as butter and going through photo stories is really fun. However, the reason I didn’t give it an A for user experience is that a couple of the features don’t seem fully fleshed out quite yet. Finding stories using the map is interesting, but it’s not how I personally would go about looking for news in a particular region. Also, the Discover tab feels a bit barren with just a search bar and some filter options. In other apps like Spotify, the “Discover” tab does a lot more to suggest content that you might be interested in.
User Interface: A-
The visuals and UI in ViewFind are on point. Black and white color palettes are all the rage now, and ViewFind uses it effectively. The typography looks nice, and the designer used subtle shadows on photos in order to have white text be legible over them. UI elements are all located in logical places and there’s not much guessing as to what any button will do when pressed. My only small complaint is the spacing on the Home tab, where it doesn’t feel like different stories are far enough away from each other. Overall though, this app looks fantastic.
Overall Idea: A
I think the idea of shifting the focus from text to photos is genius. There are some outstanding photojournalists posting content to ViewFind and their stories are brought to life unlike anything I’ve ever seen in an app before. I’ve always believed that pictures are worth a thousand words and this is case in point. In a world of short attention spans, visual storytelling seems like the best way to get people to both absorb and retain information. A big problem with regular news articles is that we read about injustices, internalize it for maybe a day, and then forget about it within a week. With ViewFind, the storytelling is visceral and more likely to stick in your head as time goes on.
Final Thoughts
If you want a new twist to your news stories, I can’t think of a better app to try than ViewFind. You won’t find major headlines and breaking news articles, but you will find human-centered stories that will stick with you for some time. I’m a big fan of grittier, off-the-beaten-path journalism (think VICE magazine), so ViewFind is right up my alley. Anyone who feels the same is in for a treat with this app.
Originally published on October 4, 2016.
Originally published at blog.snapmobile.io on October 4, 2016.
