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

Ace of Stars

That sounds great! I had a look at your website, I look forward to Galaxy Tarot's iOS debut. :)

Another feature I've been looking for in a Tarot app (and please let me know if one is able to do this already) is the ability to digitally save a reading that had initially been done with physical cards. This would entail being able to manually select specific cards instead of drawing them randomly, and being able to place them in whatever configuration to mimic the spread that was used. The reader could then write notes about their reading.

I know the same thing may be accomplished by taking a photo of a reading, uploading to an app like Evernote and writing notes about the photo. But it can be difficult to take a quality picture of a spread if it involves a lot of cards or if the lighting is poor (such as by candlelight); the image is subject to all the drawbacks of amateur photography. Digital images of the cards would be much clearer, and the reader would have at their disposal whatever features the developer has included into the app; i.e., the ability to tap on a card to zoom into it and view card meanings and associations, the ability to categorize readings, etc.

We've got that too :) (although free form layouts are a future plan)

We're working hard towards iOS. It's our one and only focus right now xo
 

JasonLion

Another feature I've been looking for in a Tarot app (and please let me know if one is able to do this already) is the ability to digitally save a reading that had initially been done with physical cards. This would entail being able to manually select specific cards instead of drawing them randomly, and being able to place them in whatever configuration to mimic the spread that was used. The reader could then write notes about their reading.
All of The Fool's Dog apps also support this, using built-in spreads or free form. All you need to do is set Draw cards from to List of cards.
 

schizandra

Wonderful! Thank you both for letting me know. :)
 

Callanish

Web App

As nice as App's are they are specific to platforms (iOS, Android, etc).
I've shifted my focus away from Apps and spent a large part of this year working on the website.
Apps tend to make us focus on mobile only and smart phones.
The website should work well on any mobile browser on any smart phone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer.
I'd like to invite everyone to try it out and give me feedback.
http://phuture.me/tarot/tarot-spread
You can create a free user account if you want to save spreads.
The same 3 free decks are available as on the App.
I'm planning on introducing a subscription service in the new year with lots of extra features, functions and services for premium users which will also include access to our full Tarot deck library.
Our tarot deck artists will receive royalty payments for usage of their decks with this subscription service.
Suggestions for features and functions welcome. This is what this thread is about after all... :)

Callanish
 

MarkMcElroy

Options and Opinions

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? What do you like least?
What would you like to see Apps/Websites offering in digital Tarot?

I currently use Beautiful Tarot HD, which I think is the best of the deck emulators. On my iPad Pro, it's just beautiful. I like the reading environment. I like the "burst" animation when the shuffle button is pressed. I like the fact the cards behave and feel like cards on-screen; they're like physical objects I can drag and drop with a finger. I like the default "free placement" mode for the cards (with built-in spreads as an option).

Beautiful Tarot HD feels "real' enough that I'm comfortable leaving decks at home when I travel and using the app as my travel deck. It's an elegant, well-designed, attractive solution.

The downside, of course, is the limited number of decks built into the app, with no way to expand them (and a developer who tells me via email he's not making enough money off the app to consider changing or expanding it).

I can see why apps for beginners need to include a guide to tarot card meanings. I know developers tend to use Waite's PKT for this, primarily because it's in the public domain. (It's certainly not due to its readability!) At the risk of tooting my own horn a bit: there are better, more approachable public domain texts out there, freely available to app developers. ;-)

While I appreciate a well-crafted emulator, I'm also interested in what might happen with Tarot when our assumptions about decks and cards fall away. Some ideas:

- What if spreads, instead of being flat on the table, could be rendered in three dimensions?What would it mean for a card to be over or under another? How might a cube of cards be read?

- What if, instead of upright or reversed, cards were dealt at an angle, indicating how strongly the card leaned toward upright or reversed meanings?

- Remember the old "Opening of the Key" spread? Or elemental dignities? It would be interesting if a deck emulator could calculate these values for the reader (since they can be tiresome to calculate by hand).

- What if cards in a spread were "magnetized" in some way, causing some cards to pull closer together (and amplify each other) and others to move apart (and decrease their influence on each other)?

-What if you could click one button and increment or decrement each card in a spread by one? (That is, if you incremented a spread containing Two of Cups, Three of Swords, and Five of Wands, you'd get the Three of Cups, Four of Swords, and Six of Wands.) The original spread might be "What's happening today," with the decremented version representing "What happened yesterday" and the incremented version representing "What will happen tomorrow?"

Just some ideas,
M.
 

Callanish

While I appreciate a well-crafted emulator, I'm also interested in what might happen with Tarot when our assumptions about decks and cards fall away.

The problem with emulator's is that they are just a shadow of the real thing.

I've purposely avoided getting into animations or anything that makes my implementations of Digital Tarot try to replicate a printed deck of Tarot cards on screen.

I purchased a number of tarot apps long before writing my own but felt they'd all been developed by game writers who had never actually used tarot themselves. They felt like games, or emulators, they didn't make me want to use them in place of my printed decks.

This is just a personal preference and I appreciate that each person will come to digital tarot with different expectations and needs.
However I believe that for Tarot to evolve, digitally, it needs to stop trying to be like printed tarot.

You've listed some excellent points which I'm going to have a think about and respond to.
Really pleased to see someone coming up with a well thought out list of suggestions for what I called for when i created this thread.

Callanish
 

Callanish

- What if, instead of upright or reversed, cards were dealt at an angle, indicating how strongly the card leaned toward upright or reversed meanings?

This is an interesting idea but, for me, there's a more pressing issue that needs solving before you get to it.

In any of my own digital decks I've avoid reversed cards because of the problem of who is influencing their dignity.
With a printed deck the human does the manual shuffling and directly influences dignity.
With a digital deck the software decides each card's dignity.
Who does the shuffling doesn't matter if the cards are laid out, face down, evenly for the querent to pick from - if - they are all upright.

I've floated ideas on here to give the dignity influence back to the human and remove the technology. e.g. Swiping up/down the screen when picking cards from a carousel type card picker. There are other possibilities, e.g. pressure applied to screen on selecting a card.

In summary, I like your suggestion but I'd like to see this first problem resolved and now you've made this suggestion you've just compounded the problem. :)

Callanish
 

MarkMcElroy

The problem with emulator's is that they are just a shadow of the real thing.

Many are; I'd argue a few are better. The Scrabble app is an emulator of a Scrabble board, but is arguably better than the physical board in that I never lose pieces, I never have to clean up and put away the game, and I can find someone to play with any time I like.

In the same way, a good Tarot deck emulator can make a deck more portable and easier to shuffle. I never have to worry about losing a card, or cards blowing off the table in a stiff breeze. An app also has the possibility of creating atmosphere with elegantly designed environments, soundtracks, etc.

So: I understand your perspective on this; I just have another.

M.
 

MarkMcElroy

With a printed deck the human does the manual shuffling and directly influences dignity. With a digital deck the software decides each card's dignity.

It's true: how a person shuffles the deck can directly influence the percentage of reversed vs. upright cards.

A frequent question from Tarot students is, "How do I get reversed cards?" People seem shocked when I say, "Cut the deck, reverse half, and fold them back in!" There are other methods, of course -- smearing the deck around in a pile achieves the same thing.

But these analog approaches have digital counterparts. A settings slider that allows me to choose the percentage of reversed cards in any shuffle (especially if the settings are soft, i.e., "around 1 in 10 reversals" or "high, medium, or low" reversals) achieves essentially the same thing.

I think you might say, "But that's still the computer determining things instead of the human doing so." But if the human initiates the action (by turning reversals on) and contributes to the scope of the effect (by choosing the percentage of reversed cards desired), the human is guiding the process just as much as he or she might when manipulating a deck.

M.
 

Callanish

It's true: how a person shuffles the deck can directly influence the percentage of reversed vs. upright cards.

A frequent question from Tarot students is, "How do I get reversed cards?" People seem shocked when I say, "Cut the deck, reverse half, and fold them back in!" There are other methods, of course -- smearing the deck around in a pile achieves the same thing.

But these analog approaches have digital counterparts. A settings slider that allows me to choose the percentage of reversed cards in any shuffle (especially if the settings are soft, i.e., "around 1 in 10 reversals" or "high, medium, or low" reversals) achieves essentially the same thing.

I think you might say, "But that's still the computer determining things instead of the human doing so." But if the human initiates the action (by turning reversals on) and contributes to the scope of the effect (by choosing the percentage of reversed cards desired), the human is guiding the process just as much as he or she might when manipulating a deck.

M.

The slider idea is a good one, I like that.
I've seen apps that let you push a pile of cards around a screen jumbling them up, emulating the real world. For me it's too fiddly.

The smart phones didn't take off until the user interface challenge was cracked and the original iPhone did this beautifully (queue Android fans :) ).
My point is that it has to be simple, intuitive and quick.
This is another reason why I have no patience for animated tarot apps/websites.
When i want to create a spread and do a reading for myself I want to get to reading my spread quickly and efficiently while still allowing my intuition to be what picks the cards.

This is why I think discussing these topics openly with everyone, including other developers, is important. I'd like to see digital tarot evolve through co-operation by developers and not fragment as that just confuses users. Everyone being defensive and closed helps no one in the long run. Apple doesn't like that they were copied but I think everyone else is now enjoying the benefits ;)

I've been thinking that maybe it should just be left to the software to decide dignity?
If I'm using my intuition to select the cards post-shuffle then my intuition should avoid cards of the wrong dignity, giving me the wrong messages.
Maybe I'm trying to solve a problem which doesn't exist?

Callanish