I recently had the chance to review a very good iPhone app that serves as tips and tricks guide for beginning iPhone users, called Tips & Tricks “ The Ultimate Guide to iPhone Secrets.  Just a few days ago, I came across another app that covers the same sort of ground, called simply Tips + Tricks, and decided to give it a look as well, since you can never have too many good references to share with new iPhone users.

Sadly, this one is not one I ‘ll be recommending to any new users – could you guess from the post title?   That ‘s the very short story “ hit the jump for some reasons why

Here are a few of the reasons why I found this to be a very poor app:

Straight away when launching it, you get a bad omen for how things are going to go with the app.  It offers landscape only viewing, no portrait mode “ which I found annoying right off the bat.

It ‘s divided into quite a few main topic areas but once you choose one, there ‘s no organization of tips onto separate pages or in any clever way.  Instead, they ‘re just thrown together on single page in a jumbled and shoddy looking way.

There ‘s also not very generous spacing or good use of fonts on these pages, so for me they look ugly and messy and not highly readable.  Here ‘s the ‘Other Apps ‘ section, as an example

Notice how tips for Mail, Maps, Notes, and Calculator are thrown together here “ and also, that ‘s it “ that is your entire Other Apps section on that one sad little screen.

There are no screencaps, diagrams, photos, or images of any kind throughout the app. None.  So the screencaps in this post are hopefully giving you a good feel for its overall visual appeal.

The app ‘s content “ the actual tips and tricks offered “ did not strike me as terrible, though it was also not stellar.  It certainly is not good enough to make up for the awful presentation.

What this app most reminds me of is one of those threads you occasionally see on a forum site, where someone has titled a post in a grand way “ promising a full guide to XYZ subject and perhaps even immediately proposing it should be made a ‘sticky ‘ post “ and then you read it and it is poorly done, incomplete and / or inaccurate, and just largely a waste of time.

Tips + Tricks feels that way to me “ slapped together, not well thought out, and terribly badly presented.  I believe well-designed apps, with strong and effective interfaces, help users get the most out of them.  From this perspective, I can ‘t picture anyone getting much out of this app.

If you need it, Tips + Tricks is in the App Store now, priced at $0.99.

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