∞ Hamburger Menus Are Terrible
What happened when a hamburger menu is removed:
Customers used the app more frequently: the number of sessions more than doubled!
They spent more time in the app: session time increased 70%
We ultimately saw more customers return, with a 65% increase in daily active users nearly overnight.
Honestly, I didn’t see the hamburger menu was harmful as I use it constantly when it is there. After reading redbooth’s post and playing a few apps on my phone, I slowly see why it is a really terrible design.
∞ Monument Valley in Numbers
Two take aways:
- It costs a LOT of money to make the game: 1.4 MILLION DOLLARS!
- Revenue from China is significant (1/3 of U.S., and it will grow much faster than the U.S. market in future.)
∞ Overcast's Number of Active Users
In the footnote:
For those wanting percentages, Overcast currently has about 100,000 monthly active users and 37,000 daily active users, according to Crashlytics Answers.
The ratio of daily / monthly active users here is very interestingly high.
∞ A 21st-century Kid Plays Through Video Game History in Chronological Order
What happens when a 21st-century kid plays through video game history in chronological order?
This is extremely useful to understand the generations of gaming. A must read.
How to Make a Hit App
Be the first is not how you make a hit app:
Even the first iPhone was a piece of crap…
∞ Monument Valley Expansion
At this time, the team was completely exhausted. For the past few weeks, we’d been working weekends and late into the night to get the expansion up to the standard of the original game. Every spare moment we had we were fixing bugs, polishing visuals, and streamlining the experience.
Hard work by the team. Go buy the expansion!
∞ Leading Unity into the Future
Unity’s new CEO is answering questions on the forum:
As for Unity, “democratizing” to me means putting the developer first.
As for democratizing… to me this is about recognizing that developing a great game is hard, and then even you pull it off, having your game discovered, installed is also hard… and earning a good living on all of this is very hard. David, Joachim and Nicholas recognized this early, and put Unity squarely in the camp of supporting developers in the journey to help them make the best games possible. I intend to ensure that remains true and also help developers find audiences for their games.
Read that thread if you are interested in John’s thoughts on Unity. My take: Unity is definitely expanding its services beyond the game engine, and it will become big.
∞ Raspberry Pi Founder Shows Off Incoming Touch Panel For Making DIY ‘Pi Pads’
Upton was speaking during an on stage interview with TechCrunch’s John Biggs. He showed off the seven inch VGA capacitive touch panel that’s designed to be combined with a Pi to build what would be a rather chunky tablet, but a tablet nonetheless.
Now I’m totally interested in this thing!
Beautiful Chemical Structures
Beautiful Chemistry is a project collaboration between the Institute of Advanced Technology at the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University Press. The goal of this project is to bring the beauty of chemistry to the general public through digital media and technology.
Wonderful project. Heading to their website to see more.
Harassment In The Games World
I can’t wait for the day that, I’m just a game designer, not a female game designer.
Let’s make it happen.