The details matter. Getting them right can be the difference between conveying a subconscious sense of credibility - or not. Pay attention to pixels, colors, margins, voice and all the things that "don't matter"
Product & Startup Builder
Filtering by Category: Design
Your product experience should be obvious and easy to use
A good product shouldn't require a training manual or even that much text to be initially useful to a user.
The trick is to have clean and clear UI/UX metaphors that seem obvious, great "clean slate" experiences that nudge the user to do key things when they first log in and in-line tips for what to do next (just 1 or 2 sentences at most). In this way, users learn how to use the software organically.
Tips, tricks, help and knowledge base should only be available for some advanced functions or to handle edge cases.
What are some of the best examples of this you've seen in the wild?
Do A Little Research Before Getting Started
It’s more fun to start designing and building an app than doing some user and market research first.
Unfortunately, though, that can be a very expensive mistake - both in terms of time and money.
Before starting, be sure to talk to (and survey) potential partners, competitors, customers etc.
What Does Being A Product Manager Mean?
Upon asking a colleague what being a product manager meant to him, he gave me one of the best answers I've heard.
P. R. D
Product managers will recognize that this acronym refers to an oft used tool of Product Management known as a Product Requirements Doc. It's the way that a PM shares the details/spec of the product that needs to be built with all key stakeholders (especially engineers).
In this context, though, he came up with:
Priorities
Requirements
Design
I love this. An elegant way of repurposing the acronym to neatly summarize what PMs should be focused on.
Product Management Isn’t That Hard.
It just requires a little bit of...
Empathy
Common sense
Oh and a little bit of...
Taste
Design skills
Technical understanding
Project management
Leadership and consensus building
Diplomacy
Pattern matching
Data analysis
Vision
Pragmatism
Attention to detail
Long term discipline
Experience
Passion
Curiosity/truth-seeking
But that’s about it...
Simple Is Often Better Than "Sophisticated"
If no one is buying your product, it doesn't matter how smart/sophisticated it is. You must solve the top of the funnel first. You MUST figure out how to make something simple to understand and use that people will self-adopt.
Brand And Product Design Is Often Underestimated
Brand and product design can be such an important yet subtle aspect to your business success. It's easy to dismiss it as unimportant frosting on the cake, but investors, customers and partners can so often make split second decisions based on subconscious cues like pixel alignment and colors.
Product Design In 3 Phases
When working on product design:
First you want to get the "architecture" right (E.g. what are the core areas/screens/patterns)
Second, the UI metaphors (e.g. Are lists, feeds, carousels etc the right thing to do in each situation)
And finally, the fine grained details (is it 'your stuff' or 'my stuff', is it 'overview' or 'summary', is it 'done' or 'complete' etc).
Platforms: Show Me The Money!
Show me the money!
Devs (especially top 50 apps from FB to Eventbrite) care about new users, re-engagement and money.
Unless your platform is solving fundamental technical challenge like SMS, Voice/Video etc (i.e. you're offering "nice to have" features) you need to demonstrate - in as concrete terms as possible - how you are going to drive new users, more sessions or more money for the developer.
A Reminder For Platforms
Reminder: Platforms need killer apps first.
What Are Your System Emails Set To?
Your system emails shouldn't be 'no-reply'. Make it easy for your customers to reach you.