Singularly bad user interface – Zappar Review

This is obviously the brainchild of a bunch of marketing people whose job is to have you look at their stuff. They have no idea how to make a thing that someone would want to use. The idea is really compelling: clothes that you can scan. My kids were incredibly excited about it, only to watch us all struggle to use the stupid interface. Here's a laundry list of things that are wrong: • The person wearing the scannable clothing is the only person who CAN'T scan the clothing. That's a massive duh. • You have to tell it what you're going to scan before you scan it. Another massive 'duh'. You go into Apparel (this app needs to be usable by KIDS! My kids don't use the word 'Apparel'! I had to tell them that meant clothing!), then you find the brand of the thing you want to scan, then you select the thing you're freaking wearing. It's 2013, there was NO way this app could figure out what it was scanning without being told? • Once you scan the thing, it's interactive feature happens immediately. Remember how the person who is wearing the clothing is the one person who COULD NOT be holding the phone/ipad/etc? Well now that person is screaming "let me see!" • You never really "unlock" a feature because the only way to make the feature happen again is to scan the item, watch the video, and THEN interact with the micro-app that's built in. So the design of this thing is unbelievably bad. You know what we need? Think Shazam. One big flipping button in the middle of the screen. Hit it to scan. Have the app do all the thinking to figure out whether it's scanning a hat, a shirt, a Marvel comic, a Disney character, etc. Then, have a separate tab somewhere to replay and interact again with the things you've unlocked. The reason I didn't give it 1 star is because the little micro-apps actually work and my kids like them. It DOES eventually scan and find the thing you told it it would find. It does sorta do what it says on the tin. It needs a LOT of work to make it an app that's enjoyable to use. Right now, it's a chore my kids make me do.
Review by PacoHope on Zappar.