Tarot's Digital Evolution. Call for Ideas, Suggestions, Likes & Dislikes

Callanish

Splitting off into a new thread from "Being enabled by Tarot apps!!"
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=229469&page=2

I'm interested in hearing what AT folks like, don't like about either their Tarot App(s) or websites offering digital Tarot.
There's a wide range of topics that come under this, I can suggest one to get a good discussion going.
- What's the best method you've used in any App/Website for picking cards from a digital deck?

What do you like most?
(please don't talk about the decks, this thread is asking about the functionality of the software)
What do you like least?
What would you like to see Apps/Websites offering in digital Tarot?

There's a great opportunity to contribute to Tarot's evolution in the digital age.
I keep looking for ways to try new things with Tarot that can only be done in software.
Software trying to emulate a deck of cards in your hand will always be inferior to the real thing.
So I'm looking at how Tarot can grow and evolve in the digital realm in ways that could never be possible in printed form.

As much as we love the wonderful variety and choice of Tarot decks the frame work in which we use them remains largely uniform.

I'd like to see more being done with the digital framework in which we use Tarot.
There's enormous potential for contributing to Tarot's evolution in the digital age.

My critique of the majority of Apps out there is that they focus entirely on a single deck without giving any thought to how someone will use that deck on a day to day basis.

It's entirely sales focused (selling artwork for hanging on a digital wall).

Publishers are trying to sell decks, digitally, without thought to the after sales (how they will be used once purchased).
If you create a digital framework (App) which focuses on the user experience then the deck sales will take care of themselves and we'll see Tarot really coming on age in the digital realm.

I'd like to see a thread on AT (this one or a new one) where we critique what we like/don't like in the Apps we use (not the deck, the functionality/user experience/usability). What we'd like to see. Questions on what is possible in software and what isn't.
It's up to those who make the Apps to pay attention. I am. I'm ready to listen.

Callanish
 

seven stars

(1) I like the "look" of the Uni Tarot - simple, deep blues, pretty

(2) I like Uni Tarot's way of shuffling a lot better

(3) I like Uni Tarot's way of choosing a spread better, and how the spread looks.

(4) On your app, the deal breaker that makes it better is that I like that you have links to
the webpages of the artists.

(5) I also like that you have the tarot READERS on your app.

(6) For me, what I would need would be some kind of better safeguards for my work. I'm just not going to send my graphics off to the other end of the world without it.

(7) A more automated form of distribution of funds & accounting would be necessary.

(8) I'd want to have the ability to sell the app on Etsy & my webpage.
 

Callanish

(2) I like Uni Tarot's way of shuffling a lot better

Lots of good points but, for me, this one I think is the most interesting.

There's a danger in knowing too much about the "mechanics under the hood" with Apps.
So I don't have the regular user's view of thing like shuffling.

Software trying to emulate a deck of cards in your hand will always be inferior to the real thing.

I find the UniTarot method of shuffling (it's not unique, far from it) too much like a real life emulator.
I do remember my first experiences, of using Apps, before I began writing my own.
I thought pushing cards around a touch screen was interesting and fun when I first installed an App.
After I'd used it for a while I found it a nuisance and a bit of a gimmick, trying too hard to be like the "real thing".

As a user, I find picking the cards (after good random shuffling) was more important.
I do include the ability in my own app to re-shuffle as many times as you like prior to picking.
On the iPhone shake it when you are on the card picking screen. iPad has a re-shuffle button.

Callanish
 

Ace of Stars

Thanks for starting this thread George!

I'd love to hear what people like/wish was different about our apps too. We are listening!

Galaxy Tarot and CBD Tarot de Marseille are free on Android.

Shonna @ Galaxy Tone
 

Ace of Stars

(6) For me, what I would need would be some kind of better safeguards for my work. I'm just not going to send my graphics off to the other end of the world without it.

(7) A more automated form of distribution of funds & accounting would be necessary.

(8) I'd want to have the ability to sell the app on Etsy & my webpage.

Thank you for including what you'd like to see from a deck creator's perspective seven stars. This is really interesting and useful information.
 

Wendywu

I can't comment on Galaxy Tarot as I can't get it in my area, and nor can I comment on Callanish's app because I don't use an iPhone. However, I love UniTarot and the CBD TdM app and happily paid for the pro versions of both.

With the CBD - I love the cards - and the app is great! I got it ages ago - when it first came out, but more to support Yoav ben Dov than anything else because I could just scan my copy of the deck and add it to Unitarot.

I like how much I can customise Unitarot - I choose backgrounds, I choose the order in which decks appear in the list, I choose the order of spreads (so that those I don't ever use can go right to the bottom). These are small things but they help make the app "mine", and I think that's important.

I aso very much appreciate that I can put my own decks in Unitarot (up to 52 so far and still adding them), my own spreads (Tirage en Croix, my own horseshoe, a couple of dedicated Ironwing spreads), I can journal in there if I want to and I can email spreads, cards etc., or upload them to Dropbox. I don't care about the technicalities of how it shuffles as opposed to how any other app shuffles - the technicalities really don't matter a hoot to me. I just like how it shuffles :)

From my point of view I choose a deck, I choose a spread, the app shuffles, I choose the cards, I interpret the cards. I don't look at the card interpretations provided while reading them. I am the reader and if I use someone else's interpretations how can I possibly say I'm reading the cards?

I do keep my favourite tarot books on my phone - Jean Michel David, Enrique Enriquez, Yoav's and a few others but I would never stop a reading so I could go and read a chunk of a book!
 

danieljuk

it's nice when companies do versions for all the different os users :)

it's annoying when some brands / developers make apps and then stop supporting them. An example of that is the osho zen digital tarot deck. It's by osho themselves and you pay for it, it really needs a revamp now! The images are too small and low quality by today's standards and also has bugs (in the last version from a few years ago, if you select the menu option to see all the cards and their meanings it always crashes :( ). You have to continue development I think!
 

seven stars

I don't look at the card interpretations provided while reading them. I am the reader and if I use someone else's interpretations how can I possibly say I'm reading the cards?


I've been meaning to write a manual for the Deck of the Dead for a few months now - because even though the deck goes by the Rider Waite system, there are some fun little twists in definitions with it being a death themed deck. I would love to be able to just write the definitions & when people buy the deck on my website or etsy, just provide them with a free app or penny app, whatever, for the manual & for whatever else the app can do.

I'm thinking, what would be ideal instead of sending graphics to the app designer, why not have the artist put the graphics in the app themselves & lock it or something? I don't know a thing about programming so I don't know how realistic this is, but it seems to me like I could do that if the app owner did something like, gave me a user password, it would be like if I'm renting office space in a building, you know? I could build my own building, of course, if I had the money & knew how, but I could also just rent space in someone else's building....this may sound completely retarded & redundant given that I so literally know nothing of apps and never even saw an "app" until last week when I got my first smart phone from Cricket. Really behind the times here. Where is a 12 year old when you need one.
 

Callanish

it's nice when companies do versions for all the different os users :)

it's annoying when some brands / developers make apps and then stop supporting them. An example of that is the osho zen digital tarot deck. It's by osho themselves and you pay for it, it really needs a revamp now! The images are too small and low quality by today's standards and also has bugs (in the last version from a few years ago, if you select the menu option to see all the cards and their meanings it always crashes :( ). You have to continue development I think!

"Companies" can afford to if they are large enough.
You'll find that small independent developers, like myself, just don't have the money & time to cover all the mobile platforms out there.
Why did I pick iOS? Here's 3 good articles which help explain:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/16/the-state-of-the-art/
http://andrewchen.co/why-android-de...the-best-new-apps-are-all-going-iphone-first/
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Android-Piracy-DRM-Dead-Trigger-Google-PLAY,16497.html
The last article about the piracy problem should be of concern to the Deck Artists out there.

Best to focus on one, make it as good as it can be and support it well.

I hoping that this thread will help myself and others make their Apps as good as they can be.

Callanish
 

Callanish

I've been meaning to write a manual for the Deck of the Dead for a few months now - because even though the deck goes by the Rider Waite system, there are some fun little twists in definitions with it being a death themed deck. I would love to be able to just write the definitions & when people buy the deck on my website or etsy, just provide them with a free app or penny app, whatever, for the manual & for whatever else the app can do.

I'm thinking, what would be ideal instead of sending graphics to the app designer, why not have the artist put the graphics in the app themselves & lock it or something? I don't know a thing about programming so I don't know how realistic this is, but it seems to me like I could do that if the app owner did something like, gave me a user password, it would be like if I'm renting office space in a building, you know? I could build my own building, of course, if I had the money & knew how, but I could also just rent space in someone else's building....this may sound completely retarded & redundant given that I so literally know nothing of apps and never even saw an "app" until last week when I got my first smart phone from Cricket. Really behind the times here. Where is a 12 year old when you need one.

I think you are stating that you want to retain control of your art without relying on a digital publisher?

I see 3 possible scenarios:

1) You publish through an existing Tarot App, with a large established based of users, which has an in-App deck store (this is what my "Tarot & Numerology" on iOS offers)

2) You pay someone to develop a Tarot App with your Art work and market and sell it yourself.
Getting in line behind the 1000+ Tarot Apps already out there.

3) You market and sell the Art Work in an open digital format (.zip file with 78 card images, backs, cover etc) and encourage customers to load it into an open Tarot App like "Tarot & Numerology" for iOS, "UniTarot" for Android etc.

Those are the only 3 options there are as far as I'm aware.
Apple forbids selling of content from 3rd parties through Apps in iTunes.
All in-app content must be paid for using iTunes.
Your suggestion of an in-app "account" where you self publish is technically feasible but prohibited by Apple's strictly enforced purchasing rules.

(1) You don't like because you lose control, relying on a digital publisher to market and sell for you and send you the royalties once a month.

(2) It's expensive. Not just to develop, but to update, bug fix and cover maintenance costs.
I just re-newed my annual publisher subscription to iTunes, $100 per year before you earn anything!
The mobile "public" seems to think every App makes a millionaire.
It doesn't. 1 in 10,000, maybe... The other 9,999 end up out of pocket or break even.

(3) This is just asking for rampant piracy.
You know this because you said "have the artist put the graphics in the app themselves & lock it or something".
You can't "lock" anything. If someone is determined enough they'll get a digital copy of your art work.
Either by cracking open the App, taking App screen, scanning in a printed deck or finding a digital copy of a printed deck on a file sharing website.

This was the same issue that the Music industry faced a decade ago.
They wanted to continue to retain control but the music consumers had other ideas.
Downloading was much easier than going to the CD shop.
In the end the Music industry had to go with the times and hand over distribution to Apple and others who had the digital channels to customers.
Those who are willing to pay for your art work will, just as with music.
Anyone can download illegal copies of any songs but people prefer to pay, stay legal and receive quality digital products.

Callanish