There’s something about DIY projects. They make it seem like the world is filled with endless possibilities. And it really is, especially when you know where and what to look for exactly. It’s probably why I was so excited about stumbling upon the Darby iOS mobile app. It’s a “video community for makers” – now doesn’t that sound uplifting?
What the app is set out to do is bridge live chat to video, enabling users to interact with the makers of their favorite DIY projects. The Darby app is made up of nice and clean how-to videos related to creative topics, ranging from cooking, decorating and really crafting stuff altogether. It curates content from influencers from social media platforms such as Pinterest, Facebook or Youtube, or digital media companies like Refinery29 or PureWow. The Darby app is free and always will be; it’s free of any ads as well.
Now let’s see how this thing works.
How to work the Darby iOS app
Logging into the app is really easy and there’s not much to do around setting up your profile. You’ll be spending the majority of your time in either the Watch or the Discover tabs. Head on over to the Watch section and browse through the how-to videos posted by the different makers.
Let’s take a closer look at the options available to you in the video screen.
In the upper-right part of the screen you’ll find three icons: the one that represents the video maker’s profile, the heart that enables you to add the video to your Favorites channel and the last one permitting you to add the video to any of your existing (or soon-to-be existing) channels. You’ll be finding all of these – all of your channels, including the Favorites one – in the Me tab, aka your profile.
In the lower part of the video screen you’ll find the Convo section. You can join the conversation whenever you want to by simply adding a comment. Click on the add-comment-box or the arrow next to Convo in order to open up the discussion board.
After you’ll get the feel of it, you’ll most certainly be interested in seeing the entire list of makers out there. Go ahead and tap around the Discover screen, check out the makers and see which ones are most appealing to you. Click the follow button in order to always be up to date with their videos.
Lastly, the Good News tab is where you’ll find all of the app’s notifications and the Me tab is – you’ve guessed it – your very own profile. Here is where you’ll find your faved videos, the channels you’ve created and a few settings you can find by clicking the Settings icon in the top-left part of the screen.
What’s hot?
Lovely videos
The videos featured in the Darby app are a joy to look at, whichever way you would do so. They’re very high quality, in looks and content as well. It’s super easy to understand what crafting materials you need and how to use them. The final results of any project I have looked at are not only beautiful and useful, but also very much doable with the most basic of crafting skills one can possess. So have at it – how to projects are a blast with this cool mobile app.
Live chat
We can only congratulate the creators of the Darby app for adding this feature. How cool is it that you can get any info you might need regarding a project straight from its maker? Join in on the conversation whenever you feel like it by simply using the comment box in the lower part of any video screen. Not sure of a technique or ingredient the creator has used? Just ask away.
What’s not?
Shaky UI
Though the Darby app looks great at first, we’ve encountered some cracks in the seemingly beautiful UI of this mobile app. The tab bar sits on top of the video. Since it’s see-through it might not be that big of a deal, if it weren’t for the Live Chat box to sit on top of the video as well. It’s practically hindering you from seeing the lower part of the video. Which is too bad, since it’s there that some makers add text to their videos.
NO way of uploading our own videos
We’ve tried but we did not succeed. We would have expected the feature of uploading own videos to be present somewhere in the Profile tab – but it’s not. And it’s not present anywhere else for that matter. Though it might be the second best thing the Darby app has to offer, it’s a shame that it’s nowhere to be found.
We were a little taken aback with the entire UX of the Darby iOS app. The mobile app all together looks really nice and has a lot of potential, but it certainly needs some adjustments here and there. Starting with really offering the user everything it’s promising.
Bottom line
Darby Smart’s iOS mobile app has a lot of potential. We love the idea of a video community to cultivate our crafty side. The app itself looks really good and we think it’s really useful as well. If the creators would put some more work into it, smoothening out the UX a little and making sure the app delivers on its promise, it would definitely be one of our favorites.
(Note: We are not affiliated or endorsed by this app. We just really love mobile apps and we want to share them with the world and give people great mobile experiences)
Sinziana Chitea
Content Marketer
Content Marketing Specialist, teasing everyone into taking cute pictures for Instagram. Discovering the tech world bit by bit, and writing it all down on the agency's blog. Enthusiastic about everything visual. And sweets and dogs.
