The App Store Has a UX Problem. It Might Be Working as Intended

From choice overload to the Roach Motel, these four UX patterns make Apple’s App Store harder to navigate than it needs to be.

Image Credits Author. Screenshot from the Apple App Store on iOS 26.

App Store is intentionally confusing. Why does Apple, a trillion-dollar company with phenomenal designers, implement confusing UX on their most important digital store?

First, for many average users who want a straightforward experience of searching for and downloading apps, the App Store is just fine.

But for users who browse the App Store for games, social media apps, or even to find new stuff to download, the categorisation lacks proper information architecture.

So, I suspect Apple is subtle in using dark UX patterns to make browsing the App Store difficult, especially when navigating the UI, to derive more screen time, potentially increasing the chance of finding another app to install.

The App Store generates great revenue for Apple, and it’s been fruitful for developers, especially on a popular platform such as iOS.

If a confusing information architecture increases the chance of more app installs, then it’s a risk worth taking for Apple, albeit I find it immoral.

I won’t get into why it’s wrong and immoral to design a digital store with dark UX patterns, but I’ll explain why such bad information architecture is problematic.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

Image Credits Author. Screenshot from the Apple App Store on iOS 26.

Problem I. Choice Overload

There are too many categories and many options in different sections for one feature.

Have you noticed there are two categories for apps on the App Store?

One is at the bottom of the Apps section, and the other is in the Search section.

What’s more bizarre is that the one in the Search section has two categories on its own. The Search UI has around two dozen categories, but when you tap the Browse link, you see more categories.

The app categories in the Browse section are way more detailed, but hidden. Whereas the one in the Apps section is the regular experience you get from the Search UI.

I know, it’s bizarre: an app category can be different depending on where you are, and that’s not good UX, especially since maintaining an app with bad information architecture will become a nightmare for engineers.

I believe Apple should dedicate a specific section for app categories and unify and simplify the information architecture for each section.

That would streamline the App Store for users, developers, and Apple engineers who release iOS updates.

Image Credits Author. Screenshot from the Apple App Store on iOS 26.

Problem II. Law of Similarity

Most categories lack a consistent selection of apps and often contain a bag of apps of different natures

Our brains tend to see patterns in everyday objects. Naturally, designers bring design choices in which layouts, objects, and UI elements to use.

I don’t see such design choices on the App Store, and as a designer, I think it’ll lead to cognitive overload for the average iPhone user.

To better demonstrate my reasoning, let’s look at the productivity section of the App Store.

You can see plenty of document managers, text editors, and task managers, all of which perfectly belong to the productivity section, but you can also see apps such as media managers there.

I’m aware a media manager can have multiple functionalities, but an app like Sofa mostly organises media. I can’t see how this app can make me more productive.

It belongs to the Reference section or even the Entertainment section, but just because a portion of it makes me productive doesn’t mean the whole app belongs to the Productivity section.

One way Apple could fix that is to mention that apps like Sofa can belong to multiple app categories.

Another way could be to create a subcategory, which could ease finding an app in the sea of apps.

I’ll explain the latter in the following section.

Image Credits Author. Screenshot from the Apple App Store on iOS 26.

Problem III. Law of Uniform Connectedness

The App Store lacks specificity under its primary categories

Finding an app on the App Store can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Despite the powerful search functionality, I find it difficult for an average user to discover apps in the App Store.

One way Apple could enhance discoverability is to introduce subcategories.

The App Store already has the feature I mentioned. If you look at the App categories, which are buried in the Search section, you can see a list of subcategories, but they’re hidden and not visible.

The App Store can integrate those subcategories under the main categories and simplify finding relevant apps.

For example, web browsers are inherently multifunctional, as users can use them for entertainment, work, finances, etc.

Apple can create a subcategory called Web Browsers and feature it under multiple main categories.

Even if they don’t see web browsers as apps that belong anywhere other than the productivity section, they could still list them as a subcategory.

Image Credits Author. Screenshot from the Apple App Store on iOS 26.

Problem IV. Hick’s Law

App Store categories miss sufficient visual and readable information to guide users' upcoming actions

In product design, designers use labels, constraints, mapping, and different methods to signify the nature of an object.

Often, the best design is one where users predict the result of their action and whether there’s a system to help them recover from errors.

One way is to use proper labels, visuals, and mapping to reduce the cognitive load of the user, and I see an insufficient amount of that in the App Store categories.

For example, under the Apps section, the categories often don’t extend beyond two words, and their visual guide is beautiful skeuomorphic iconography.

I love Apple’s design language and their artistic choices, but I believe these categories lack information about the consequences of navigating within them.

For example, certain categories like Reference or Utilities are not inherently as self-explanatory as Safari Extensions or Social Networking.

Even categories like Social Networking provide different types of apps for communicating with others; therefore, the lack of subcategories becomes more pressing in this design.

I’d love to see an enhanced information architecture for app categories and also a bit more information about the type of content each section would provide if I choose to tap on them.

Photo by Bangyu Wang on Unsplash

Why Apple Does It?

The Dark UX Pattern

All the problems mentioned above point to a larger problem: is the information architecture of the App Store just underworked, or is it intentionally designed so users spend more time in the app?

If the latter is the intention, I believe that’s a dark UX pattern called Roach Motel, where entering an app is easy, but getting out is hard.

Social media apps use this UX pattern, and it’s a leading cause of endless scrolling and digital information overload.

While the nature of an app such as Instagram, with its endless scroll, is different from the App Store, they both appear to utilise the Roach Motel design, albeit one of them pushes it to the extremes.

Ideally, an average user wants to quickly find the app they’re looking for, tap Install, and be done with the App Store.

Oftentimes, that’s not the case, but I hope Apple fixes it.

Thank you for reading my story on Medium.

If you have comments and suggestions, I’ll be happy to read them in the response section

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