Discvr app = great user experience

As all of my friends and co-workers know I am an Apple convert.  Several years ago I was one of those people who poked fun at people who wanted a Mac.  Yes I admit it.  When co-workers would ask me if they should consider getting a Mac my usual saying was, “they are great for graphics but if you need to get some real technical work done you need a PC”.  I believe the last time I might have said that was about five years ago.  Now I have a PC in my work office, but would rather have a Mac, and I have a PC at home that hasn’t been turned on for…about five years.  

Today I have a Mac at home and use my iPad several times throughout the day.  One of the struggles I have with the iPad is finding just the right application.  Many times the most popular or the one that has the most downloads isn’t the app for me.  With over 500,000 apps it takes too long to try and research and review apps.  I would just like to know who has a competing product and do some research to find if that product may be better or as good for a lower cost as the one I am considering.  Well now there is an app for that!

Discovr is an app that you can install which provides that interactive map connecting like applications to other applications using a graphical interface.  The best part of this is they did an amazing job with the user interface.  Why? Well because they believe in a good UX and made it a top priority in the beginning.   According to the TechCrunch article written by Rip Empson:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/14/discovr-launches-awesome-tool-to-find-and-discover-new-apps-think-interactive-graphs/
They hired Tama Nepusz who has his PhD in graph theory to focus on the graphic user interface.

The con of Discovr is that it costs money for the app.  I sure wish it was a free app but then it would probably be damaged by companies paying to somehow elevate their apps status.  It does offer featured apps based on similarities.  The TechCrunch article states that the similarities are based on “a combo of machine algorithms and human curation.”

I really like the feel of the application.  I didn’t spend a lot of time poking around on the screen to try and understand how the application worked.  It just felt natural.  This is certainly what I strive for in designs.  I believe this shows they did their homework in user experience and got it right the first time.