Discovr
Discovr was a series of apps for the Apple iOS platform by Filter Squad, which are characterized by using nodes to represent relationships between media. There were apps for browsing three types of media: music and movies.
The key advantage was that it is a tactile and visual way to see how items relate. The interface was described by the WSJ as "beautiful and dynamic" and by Fox News as "easy and fun... an interactive map... an incredibly user friendly interface" [1]
In October 2011, Discovr announced that the apps had passed one million downloads and $1.1 million in revenue.[2]
As of June 2016, the apps are no longer available in the (US) iTunes store, and Filter Squad's website and Facebook profile are inoperable.
Operation
The user interface is based on radial layouts where a node is connected to 1-6 other nodes. It displays an interactive, graphic map. The user begins by searching or browsing a pre-selected set of recommended items. Tapping causes a node to expand, to display related items. Double-tapping takes the user to a page of content about the artist or app. [3] The interface uses a force-based layout algorithm which causes the new child nodes to pop out of the parent node, repelling nearby nodes, and quickly settle into positions that minimize overlap. The graph algorithm was developed by Tamás Nepusz, a PhD in graph theory who previously worked at Last.fm as a research engineer.[4]
See also
- Radial tree - the general type of layout algorithm
References
- ^ Tapped-In: Discovr for the iPad
- ^ "Passing 1 Million Downloads, Discovr Raises $1.1 Million; Launches On Mac App Store". Retrieved October 27, 2011.
- ^ Worth It? Jammbox’s Discovr Music App. blogs.wsj.com.
- ^ Discovr Launches Awesome Tool To Find New Apps For iOS (Think Interactive Graphs)