Today, Steepshot posted another article about what they're up to. This reminded me to download the application for another try.

^{Borrowed image from this @steepshot post!}

Steepshot, a platform that rewards people for sharing their lifestyle and visual experience. You can use it to share cool pictures you've taken with your mobile phone, curate and comment photos your friends make and never worry that any third party will censor your images. - @steepshot in [ANNOUNCEMENT] Steepshot (ex. SteemStagram) Android alpha test version

My first encounter with Steepshot was actually at SteemFest. I do not recall properly (other SteemFest participants would probably know why.. cheers!), but they either held a presentation that got me very excited or I somehow got to talk with someone on their team (or why not both?). Either way, as soon as the concept was explained to me, I got super excited about it. That sounded amazing!

A couple of months ago I installed the application on my Android phone, posted a picture and that was it. When switching back to the Steemit website, it looked like a pretty empty post with low efforts since it's only a picture with a short caption.

I was slightly confused, or maybe a bit disappointed and decided to wait for a later version which would offer more clarity. I do believe that now is the time to get my nose into their business and run through the application, looking for things that could be improved!

I honestly believe Steepshot is a great initiative and in this review, I will try to point out some things which will hopefully help the team out in their further development. This post is written to provide feedback and suggestions.

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So here we go!

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No internet?

Right now, my internet is like hell. I ran through my 1GB of highspeed and then Vodafone decreases your internetspeed to shit. So this is the first thing that came to my mind and tried out. It was not like my phone was going to load Steepshot results anytime soon, so why not try the other way?

This is what currently happens inside Steepshot. Which is, well, not much, hihi. Would be cool if there was some fallback for this! Take an example of these:

^{Some results on Pinterest while searching for 'empty states'.}

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The app design

The app design is pretty simple, which could be a good thing, but maybe it's a bit too minimalistic for my taste. There is no specific branding for the application, which then could be any app which could look a bit like Instagram. I believe that an app is more memorable when it has it's specific branding and knows how to distribute that in minimal ways for people to recognize. Perhaps some more specific design elements could be used such as patterns, custom (or more diverse) fonts and more diverse colors.

However, Steepshot posted this picture today, which I hope to be teaser for the new app. It does use it's color coding less (hopefully we can find that more in the app), but it does look more branded than the current one!

Another thing I've noticed is the bottom navigation, which is pretty uncommon for Android UI, though very common on iOS. In it's early stages, I suppose it's fine, however in a later stadium I would love to see something more according to Android!

The only major feature that I am missing is a notification system/feed.

The feed

Once I acquired some wifi, I finally got to see more of this app.

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^{@andrew.tischler strutting his amazing art}

This looks pretty good! Especially because it is a piece of art which is being shown, which makes the app showcase what it's made for. However, I am pretty sure that this image is more than just a square. Unlike Instagram, I am able to click on it for a more expanded version.

The only thing I am missing, is a back button to return back to the feed. I just started up Steepshot and I am scrolling through the feed. So, a second ago my thumb was on the image, located in the middle or maybe top part of my screen. I would love to see the full image, so I click on it. To return back to my feed, I need to move my hand for my thumb to reach all the way down the bottom of my phone to reach the 'back' button on my Android phone. This might not seem a lot of effort, but if I want to talk a closer look at more images, it might get quite annoying.

In this case, it would be sweet if this action could be performed more dynamically. Think of options such as a long press or tap on the image once again to close it.

My only question to commenting: "How do I reply to a comment?"

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#steepshot

Let's check out the other feeds

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Unfortunately, I have barely a clue of what's going on here. My intial thoughts were, "Isn't this Steepshot meant for pictures only?", but apparently it shows all the posts that have been created. Maybe my feed isn't focussed too much on photography, or maybe something else..

I do think that Steepshot is missing something here though. I am missing the part where I am using Steepshot as an Instagram, rather than a minimalistic Instagram version of Steemit itself. I miss the part where I can engage with users who use this app for the same purposes as I do. Right now it’s mixed with all the posts, but I would love to see content which is posted my users with similar purposes and making my feed look pretty with pictures. Ofcourse, this doesn't apply to my feed.

One solution are Steemit's upcoming categories! Yay! But before that will be implemented, they could've abused the #steepshot tag a little bit and created a #steepshot feed. This way, I can find other Steepshot users, as well as posts which are created by them!

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Upvoting

Another question I had was about upvoting. If I like a picture, do I upvote it, or do I simply like it which doesn't mean anything? If it's upvoted, how many percent does it get upvoted with? Since HF19 I've been trying to upvote the same amount of people as before, however that would make my VP drain all the way down to zero if I upvoted everybody with 100%.

I checked the settings, but I couldn't find anything that said anything about this.

By the way, I love the double-tap-to-like feature in Instagram

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My profile

This seems fine! The blue part might be a bit heavy on the eyes and compared to the gallery part, stealing the gallery's attention but I could live with this!

The only thoughts that come to my mind:

• "Can I click on balance? Oh, it doesn't do anything?" - The outlines rectangle makes it look like a button, thus clickable.
• "Maybe they could save some space if they moved around some elements"

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Creating a post

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The whole UX of uploading is pretty straight forward and simple!

First thing I noticed here, is that I can only add a description. Which basically functions as a title? I assume I am adding the title of my post here.. I think. Anyway, since Steepshot isn't Instagram and requires a bit more functionality, I do not think it hurts to have two fields for title and description!

Eventhough I find the UX pretty straightforward, the UI has some confusing things:

• 'ADD DESCRIPTION' in the header somehow made me think that I could click on it. Like maybe add a title there;
• The 'add tags' button is still present eventhough I've reached the max. amount of tags;
• I kind of lost the 'post' button, in Android it's most of the time on the upper right;

Tags

As I went through the review of @daxon, it is when I realized that Steepshot forces the #steepshot tag in every post that is uploaded through the app. However, this is not communicated, leaving the user confused as of why he can only add up to four tags. Maybe it would be a good idea to have that tag already there, though disabled, but at least the user will know that the #steepshot tag will be used.

I love the fact that I can click on common tags. Makes my life a lot easier! In the general Steemit editor, I always open a new tab so check which tags are popular so I can add relevant ones. This UI solves that!

The only thing that confused me was the 'ADD THESE TAGS' button. I somehow thought it functioned as a title, introducing the tags below. After adding the tags, I hit the back button on my phone, which resulted in no tags at all. Then, I was looking for a 'done' button as such, which is generally in the top right corner, but here I could only find a 'close' icon. After a couple of tries, I discovered that 'ADD THESE TAGS' is the button to confirm the tags and go on. Maybe, eventhough the user clicks on back, the tags which were chosen could be saved still. And maybe the 'ADD THESE TAGS' have a better fit in the top right corner.

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Conclusion

I still love Steepshot. It's a great app so far and has amazing potential. I really believe that Steepshot will get a boost once the implementations of Steemit's categories has been finished. I am looking forward to it's progress and will keep a close eye on it.

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^{Also want one of these pretty footers? I do them for free! Check out this post for more information!}