Storehouse: Visual Storytelling

New iPad app and publishing service, with a bunch of ex-Apple talent on the team (including CEO and co-founder Mark Kawano.)

Storehouse is two things: (1) a creative tool for collecting photos and videos into elegant stories, where a “story” is a single scrolling page; and (2) a hosting service for all published stories. So you use Storehouse both to create your own stories, and also to view/read the stories published by everyone else. Drafts are stored locally on your iPad; once published, all stories are public. You can follow individual users, a la social apps like Twitter and Instagram.

The app is really well done. It feels ahead of the curve in terms of direct manipulation, and it’s marvelously clear in terms of navigation. Published stories are available on the web for anyone and everyone to see, but everything else — creation, editing, discovery — is only available on the iPad app. And the whole thing is (for now at least) free of charge, and free of ads.

★ Thursday, 16 January 2014