How much do SCREENSHOTS affect which apps you buy?

[TheSpaz]

Okay... so user interface is kind of a big thing for me and I hate it when the developer only offers one useless screenshot of their App. That's not going to make me wanna spend money. They should offer multiple screenshots that show the different areas of the App and user interface simplicity and well designed graphics are a really, really big deal to me. If I had my way, every App on the App Store would look like Apple designed them, but I know that won't happen.

A few apps have caught my eye as very well designed... Here's a few that I seen. These Apps appear as if Apple designed them.

TextGuru
AIM
FaceBook
Jaadu VNC
Delivery Status Touch
OneConnect
Pandora Radio (almost)
Movies (except for the ugly icon.. why is the app name in the icon?)
Recorder
Pennies (except for icon again... why use a different perspective?)
Sketches
Twitterific
Things
Web Feeds
Where To?
Send Contact
Remote (Yeah, I know)

By the way, the AIM screenshots on the App store look like very old beta versions... the AIM app does not look like that when you download it... AOL should really update their screenshots.

So how much does user interface influence you on buying or downloading an App? I just feel really dirty when I use a sketchy looking App on my iPhone because the rest of the interface is so beautiful to have crappy looking apps on it. Does anyone like the interface of DataCase? I see the screenshots and it looks really messy... are those screenshots accurate or is it like the AIM screenshots?

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)

I base my purchase decisions on three things: price, reviews, and screen*****. If an app has a third-rate interface, it doesn't belong on my iPhone.

 

[BergerFan]

screenshots won't do it for me, where assessing an app is concerned. It'll be the reviews and ratings as a whole, with regard to utilities and productivity apps.
For games, only videos really give me the info I need, that's where Touch Arcade comes in so handy.

 

[moopf]

Screenshots are the best way to give an instant impression of an app - if it looks rough then most people would assume that it's going to be less than great. If it looks polished, then most people would probably feel that it is likely to be a well produced app.

It's human nature to look at things in this way. Of course, in doing this, people might be discounting a fantastic app because it looks poor, but that's really the developer's problem to sort out - the screenshots are their shop window and a nice interface goes along way in making people feel comfortable with an app. But, in reverse, people might be buying apps that are actually akin to a new paint job on a car with no engine But....

...that's where reviews help. I think they'll help even more now that only those who've purchased an app can review. Before that change, it was often difficult to work out who was seriously reviewing, or who is just taking a pot shot because of whatever their particular problem with the app store is.

As the screenshot is the most obvious visual element when you look at an app page I definitely use that to make a quick judgement of what I feel the app is going to be like.