Sunday, November 22, 2015

News App Analysis





Heavy Headlines is a news application for fans of heavy metal music. It compounds news from various outlets and nests them in one convenient place.


Upon downloading and opening the app, I was greeted with a message that informed me the app was collecting “brootal” information, AKA, my favorite bands. It then instructed me on how to expand and collapse headlines which appeared on the screen. The headlines did pertain to some of my favorite bands, highlighting the band names in red. It also shows new album releases, just added, and top selling. Another quirk to mention is when the app refreshes it says, “Demanding Data”, or "Summoning Stories." I guess the app is supposed to be as brutal as the music which it promotes.


While I was refreshing the app did crash. That may be because my phone is overloaded, that it’s an old model iPhone 4, or an application error. When I re-launched it, the problem did not recur. I swiped to expand a news story and it gave me a brief summary. I clicked on it, and the article appeared it a neat format. In the header it noted where the article was originally from. The layout was very neat and readable.


While browsing the news I was greeted with this message:


That enticed me to look at the various themes.Some cost money, but I’m good with the current theme.

I then found there was a menu which allowed me to select the feeds from which my news came from:


Under the favorite bands tab I can see that it has listed what is in my music folder and allows me to turn on alerts of news related to those bands. It even allows me to be notified when those bands are in my area. That’s pretty sweet.


Back on the main menu I wondered what the ticket and circular buttons did in the top right corner. When I pressed the ticket one, it stayed on the main menu.The circular one took me to a list of things I’ve already read.


Overall, this app is well-constructed, visually appealing, and organized. I’m actually not going to delete it. The best feature is that I’m able to get news about my favorite bands all in one place. Unlike just getting it from Twitter or other social media outlets, I don’t have to browse through other user posts and/or news about bands I don’t care for. 


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