Shorts, the RSS reader app

As you can see in the image above, I have spent some time looking at different types and contexts of reading, trying to understand what the reading experience might be for Ubuntu. The contexts of reading varies from libraries to magazine stands to the sofa in your lounge, and these each have an impact on how and what you read.

Something we all know (from a healthy bit of stalking field research on public transport) is that reading on a phone means you are probably doing something else at the same time. You are waiting for your friends in a restaurant, or on a busy train on your way to work. You open the reader app to quickly check some news.

Meet “Shorts”: leaf through your news while you wait

Paul is in the station, waiting for a train. He has 5 minutes until it arrives.

He launches Shorts. The app opens up with a view that shows short snippets of articles on the topics that interest him. The items are laid out on the page in the organic grid, similar to the grid that is used for the gallery app.

It is going to rain tonight. Paul decides to stay in and cook a meal with his flatmates. All he needs is a recipe. He navigates to one of his topics, Food.

Paul selects a recipe and reads through it. He decides it is too elaborate and returns to the topic.

He looks further through the topic and taps on another article. This recipe is perfect for tonight! Paul saves it so he can easily find it later.

Check out this video too:

See how this concept also fits with our Design Vision and the other ritual apps?

Next steps

We will be connecting the dots and working on key journeys for Shorts. Follow development progress on Google+, the Ubuntu Phone mailing list and IRC channel.

One last thing

What do you think of the name?