Websites are quickly looking to the smartphone market as a way to enhance and add to the overall user experience with their content. While some websites are able to find that perfect, easy to use design/interface that engages users, others struggle with finding that same “sweet spot”
For a couple of months now, Fabulis has made it known that an app was on the way. On Saturday, Jason Goldberg (Founder of Fabulis) announced via e-mail that Fabulis.com’s new iPhone App was available for free download on iTunes. After playing with the app for several days, I’ve come to the conclusion that while the app is an obvious next step for the expansion of the site, the current iteration adds only minimal value to the Fabulis experience. But lets look at a little closer?
As current Fabulis users already know, the site utilizes the profile information of Facebook users who have connected the two networks. So, in other words, there is no such thing as a non-Facebook Fabulis user. Great idea, but in turn, this just means extra creativity is needed to make this something more than just a new Facebook app.
Enter the questions and voting. Users can vote each other up and ask each other random questions. Answering and receiving votes will help your “ranking.” One of my biggest criticisms of Fabulis has always been that there is no transparency in how these calculations are made, nor is there any existing record of who you voted for, who voted for you, or how many bits each vote consisted of.
This criticism transfers to the app, as there these features, which largely differentiate it from Facebook, are largely absent in the app. You can still choose to get push notifications of when people vote you up, but there’s no way to know on the app how much they voted. On the website, there really is no obvious way to know after the inital pop-up window unless you write it down. I find this inconvenient as I personally like to return the favor when I have enough bits.
Overall, I like Fabulis and the app, but these criticisms are some I would highly encourage them to look into for an improved user experience. Let’s make the beta testing worthwhile and give some feedback!
What are your thoughts on the new app?
Also, speaking of iPhone Apps, have you made your donation yet to the Feast of Fun Mobile Site Development Fund? Every little bit helps!
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4 Comments
Comments
The only winner in the endless Fabulis voting contest is Jason Goldberg, who managed to squeeze millions of dollars out of his contacts to basically create an excuse to go on gay cruises and hang with with celebretards.
Jealous that they have so much money and so little functionality to their site. Who the f— cares about half the shit there?
Don’t be jealous because I have more points than you!
My empire is building slowly, but surely.
Hi Ryan.
You can see who voted for you and how much they voted by going to your fabulis profile on web and clicking “View All” in the “Voted For” column.
More and more features will keep coming for both the mobile app and the site itself. We’re just trying to get things into the hands of our users. We appreciate the feedback, the constructive criticism. We take it seriously and hope you continue to evaluate as we better the product and experience.
Thanks Brad! That’s good to know about the “view all,” I noticed it now that I know where to look. I think the color scheme of the link and the location tends to make it less obvious to the eye.
Thanks for all your efforts and for your dedication to constant improvement.
Ryan
that’s so nice that we have our own social network.I joined fabulis and i love it and I also found another one that is starting wich is called http://www.macho4macho.com I think it has potential too.
I don’t know about it’s iPhone App (I’m a Droid), but I say the whole site is “Fabu-less”. I joined early on and found it’s conjoined twin like relation with Facebook annoying. I racked up lots of bits though. Yes, seems EVERYBODY there loves a gay Marine. Once it morphed from being FABULIS to just plain FAB the annoyance factor increased with promotions, places, advertising, email, email, and more emails. When I made a negative comment on this I found my account locked. I finally got back in (after much angst and an assurance the lockout had nothing to do with my posting) and the same thing happened again. I just gave away all my bits and closed my account. That was another big hassle in itself. I’ll socialize on other fabulous sites now.
Speaking of fabulous … I LOVE FOF!