What's wrong with GoodReader for iPad

Since the launch of the iPad, one of the most talked about application is GoodReader for iPad. Right now, as I write this blog post, it is currently in #1 position in the Canadian App Store. Apple even made promotion on it!

It seems that people loves the software judging by the reviews:

But, is this software that good? I myself bought the software for my iPad as I need a good PDF reader and I was curious to see if customer reviews were in line with the software quality.

First, on the functionality side, I find it to be effectively good as it allows to fetch documents from an URL or allow syncing those in wifi or with the new File Sharing support for iPad. But, sometimes, good functionality can be easily overshadowed with really bad user interface design. GoodReader for iPad is one of those. Here is why.

First, GoodReader user interface is too wordy. As this is shown in the following option panel.

Also, we shouldn't use table section names to tell the users what to do or what's for.

I feel the developer of the application is not sure of the effectiveness of the user interface design so he tries to explain it everywhere he can in the application. To me, this is some kind of design failure as the application user interface look and feel should speak for itself.

The preview of PDF documents is at the very least confusing. On the following screenshot, at the top right there is a toggle switch that seems to activate the preview functionality. At the bottom there is a button (ugly button, non standard if you ask me) to kind of turn off the preview. This is awkward. Why not give the users the preview option but only in the application settings.

Also, the application is designed with table on the right that shows functions which is not the best way for me. The worst is when selecting "Manage files" where a bunch of buttons will appear if the user select a document on the right. Again, the wordy elements: 1 item selected, no item in the clipboard. This should all be obvious. If the Paste button is disabled it should be because the clipboard is empty. Right? The grouping of the buttons is visually bad and way too crowded.

So GoodReader for iPad is right on functionalities but very bad in user interface design. Users seems to not care about that and this make me sad.

A final note: iBooks 1.1 will include PDF reader functionality. Having a single application for book reading and PDF reading is a plus for me. And, iBooks is much more well designed than GoodReader. Unless they make bold moves in the coming months, I don't really see a bright future for this app on my iPad. Sorry.