The words unique to 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews

By Dave Caolo

Here's an interesting bit of data from Marco Arment. He created a script to find the most commonly-used words in 1-star and 5-star App Store reviews. His script scanned the top 100 apps in every category, ignoring duplicates. Here's what he found.

The most frequently-used words in 5-star app reviews were:

  • Awesome
  • Worth
  • Thanks
  • Amazing
  • Simple
  • Perfect
  • Everything
  • Ever
  • Must
  • iPod
  • Before
  • Found
  • Store
  • Never
  • Recommend
  • Done
  • Take
  • Always
  • Touch

An interesting list. As Marco points out, note that "simple" is included. Now consider the minor stir* that Twitter for iPad is generating over its unique UI. it's not because it's "good" or "bad," It's because users must stop and think before performing actions that seemed effortless on other applications. They don't like that.

[Via Daring Fireball]

*While some folks absolutely love the UI of Twitter for iPad (see here and here and here), others found its unique approach confusing (see here and here and here).

Conversely, here are the words that occurred most often in 1-star reviews:

  • Waste
  • Money
  • Crashes
  • Tried
  • Useless
  • Nothing
  • Paid
  • Open
  • Deleted
  • Downloaded
  • Didn't
  • Says
  • Stupid
  • Anything
  • Actually
  • Account
  • Bought
  • Apple
  • Already

Look at items number 1, 2 and 3. They're talking about cost and the user's perceived value for what they spent. LIke Marco says, most users never post a review and those with negative experiences are more likely to do so than satisfied customers. Keep that in mind when looking at these words. Marco offered some additional insight, which we recommend you read.

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