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Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

apps.microsoft.com

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Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#21

Post by rckrd »

Just from a UX perspective, I wonder what seems like a more natural ordering:

  [ 1 2 ]
  [ 3 4 ]
Is more natural to read than:

  [ 1 3 ]
  [ 2 4 ]
I would think that since we read from left to right and then down, that the standard matrix ordering row, then column, might be more preferable.

Yet, horizontal scroll plays a larger role in metro, so this might not be a bad idea. I'd love to hear from someone who knows anything about UX in regards to this sort of thing.

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#22

Post by biot »

revisionzero wrote: post #20
rednukleus wrote: post #13

Looks great from the screenshot, I'll have to try this out later. The description doesn't state whether you can comment, post or vote from the app - I take it that's not possible?

Currently you cannot comment, post or vote from the app. It's possible, albeit more complicated. The problem is one of security, so we are taking a bit more time to ensure we do the commenting, posting and voting correctly. This is something we will have in soon though!

Here's a suggestion: make the app free for anonymous use. When you get the login, voting, etc. working correctly have an in-app purchase to enable the logged-in features. This way you can build a larger initial base of users and later on upsell them to functionality worth paying for.

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#23

Post by jacalata »

rckrd wrote: post #21

Just from a UX perspective, I wonder what seems like a more natural ordering: [ 1 2 ] [ 3 4 ] Is more natural to read than: [ 1 3 ] [ 2 4 ] I would think that since we read from left to right and then down, that the standard matrix ordering row, then column, might be more preferable. Yet, horizontal scroll plays a larger role in metro, so this might not be a bad idea. I'd love to hear from someone who knows anything…

However you can see that this app, in fairly typical Metro style, scrolls across to the right. I can't think of any nice ordering horizontally that allows for that without constraining you to individual screens, like

[1 2 5 6 ] [3 4 7 8]

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#24

Post by revisionzero »

LaserChicken wrote: post #18
revisionzero wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dev Here: It should be bug free! Always looking for ways to improve though. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

I really like the app so far! Great work! I did find a couple bugs though: 1) You probably shouldn't use the same bar to split the article and comments that Windows uses to resize pinned applications. This makes it look resizable when it's not. 2) Sometimes my mouse's scroll wheel stops scrolling. I think this has something to do with the ad reloading. I don't know if you have any control over that, but I found it an…

Thanks for the feedback LaserChicken!

We have a few of these resolved in an update we are wrapping up today. However, #1 is a good catch, will be sure to fix that.

#2 is resolved in the next update, and #3 we will look into.

While I have not personally experienced #4, I will test this right now following your notes and add it to the list!

Really appreciate the detailed reports of the bugs.

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#25

Post by rednukleus »

revisionzero wrote: post #20
rednukleus wrote: post #13

Looks great from the screenshot, I'll have to try this out later. The description doesn't state whether you can comment, post or vote from the app - I take it that's not possible?

Currently you cannot comment, post or vote from the app. It's possible, albeit more complicated. The problem is one of security, so we are taking a bit more time to ensure we do the commenting, posting and voting correctly. This is something we will have in soon though!

Great, good luck with it!

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#26

Post by jacalata »

negrit wrote: post #16
johnmurch wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not specifically http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html but do agree - don't think it needs a upvote.

This is someone who likes hackernews who made an app, to bring it on windows 8 with a nice UX and he is asking for $1.49 which is not much at all... What's wrong with that ? Come on, give the guy a break and enjoy his good work. EDIT: I don't know why I was thinking about windows mobile, my bad.

I agree with your point, but it's for windows 8 desktop/RT, not windows phone.

Re: Read your Hacker News in Tile Style

#27

Post by jeremyarussell »

johnsea wrote: post #17

US $ 1.49 to access Hacker News content through an app?! This should be open source and free.

Why exactly should it be free and open source? Because last time I checked hacker news isn't specifically free or open source, it's news for hackers, and it's parent company (ycombinator) tailors itself to startups and investors. Both of which want to make money, so I'm not really getting how you came to your conclusion. I for one don't mind paying $1.49 for an app, I just spent 5 dollars on coffee...
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