The product must be concise while meeting functional requirements. In order to cater for the needs of a few people, or the needs of a few situations, it is not worth the gain to make most people or most situations complicated.
Accounts have been opened on several self-media platforms, and the operation methods of each platform are different. Take uploading pictures as an example.
Baidu Baijia:
- Click the insert picture icon to pop up the picture upload box;
- Click the button “click to select a picture”, the picture selection interface will pop up;
- Click to select the image you want to upload and confirm;
- Click “Start upload” and wait for the progress bar to display “Upload successful”;
- Click “Confirm”, the picture will appear in the content edit box, complete.
Headline number (today’s headline):
- Click the insert picture icon to pop up the picture upload box;
- Click the button “click to select a picture”, the picture selection interface will pop up;
- Click to select the picture you want to upload, confirm, and the picture will be uploaded automatically;
- Click “Confirm”, the picture will appear in the content edit box, complete.
WeChat public account:
- Click the insert picture icon to pop up the picture upload box;
- Click the button “local upload” to pop up the picture selection interface;
- Click to select the picture you want to upload, confirm, and the picture will be uploaded automatically;
- Click “OK”, the picture will appear in the content edit box, complete.
One point (one point information):
- Click the insert picture icon to pop up the picture selection interface;
- Click to select the picture you want to upload, OK, the picture is automatically uploaded and the content edit box appears, complete.
By comparison, the same function can achieve the same effect. You need to click 5 times, 4 times, 4 times, and 2 times respectively. Which one do you like?
Users are lazy, users are stupid, the more troublesome your product design, the greater the possibility of user loss. The same is to upload a picture. You only need to click 2 times on one point of information and 5 times on Baidu Baijia. How can you have a good impression of Baijia products like Baijia?
When designing a product, a product manager must not only consider the function of the product, but also the user experience of the product. Reduce the user’s operation steps as much as possible, let users use their brains as little as possible, and let users as little as possible. This is the principle of product design.
To achieve this goal, the easiest way is:
Step 1: List the user’s use steps;
Step 2: Abandon unnecessary steps as much as possible;
Step 3: Simplify the necessary steps as much as possible.
It’s as simple as that, continue to optimize, optimize to the point where users can use it, and optimize to the point where even novice users can get started quickly. If you think this method is not specific enough, we have a more specific method.
Trick 1: Predict user actions
Predicting the user’s actions is to figure out the user’s mind. When the user wants to do something, you just prepare it for him, or even say that you have done it for him. When the user is sleepy, you give him a pillow, can he be unhappy?
In the WeChat dialog box, if you want to send a photo to the other party, the steps are: click the + sign, click “photo”, select the photo, and click “send”. Is this step simplified enough? See how WeChat has improved. When you have just taken a photo, click the + sign in the dialog box, and the photo you have just taken will automatically float in the upper right corner. Tap it to send it. In this scenario, the user just takes a photo or screenshot, and he returns to the dialogue window and clicks the + sign. In all likelihood, he wants to send the photo or screenshot. Based on this prediction, WeChat simplified the original 4 steps into 2 steps, eliminating the need to search for photos in the album.
Every time a step is added to the product, it must be the place where users need to make a decision. If this decision is unique and there is no other choice, then this decision-making link may be optimized. For example, when you send a red envelope to others in WeChat, when you have entered the password, the red envelope is automatically sent out, and there is no confirmation button at all. WeChat predicts that you must confirm your password after entering it, so it will do it for you. When you enter the sixth digit, you have already made a “confirmation” in your heart, and there is no risk of misoperation.
Trick 2: The minority obey the majority
When most people are in a certain kind of operation path, design according to the operation path of most people first; when most situations are a certain kind of operation path, design first according to the operation path of most cases. One is the majority, the other is the majority of the same person, and both are important.
The above example of WeChat predicting users to send photos does not guarantee 100% accuracy of the prediction. Sometimes users don’t want to send the photos they just took. It’s okay. A few obey the majority. WeChat thinks that most people, in most cases, you just want to send the photos you just took. If there are exceptions, you can continue to use the normal operation path. .
The way that the several self-media platforms mentioned at the beginning of this article deal with image uploads is not actually the stupid product manager of Baidu Baijia, but a different design concept. Baidu wants users to complete all actions in one interface. In the picture upload interface, users may upload only one picture, or they may upload multiple pictures. After uploading two pictures, they may want to select another picture. Set whether the picture is to the left or right in the article… Baidu has considered all the issues, but the most common operation for users is to upload a picture and display it in the center.
Compared with Baidu, the design of a little information is more reasonable. In the article editing interface, two buttons are provided, “Insert single image” and “Insert multiple images”, giving the user the control. For most people, in most cases, insert a single image and click twice to get it done. If you need to insert multiple pictures occasionally, just go in from the entrance of inserting multiple pictures. In this case, the user has expectations for complex operations, and he will not find it troublesome.
Trick 3: Provide personalized service
One step further than the above is to remember the individual needs of a specific user. Why should the minority obey the majority? I’m just different from others, what’s wrong? This user, please don’t worry, we will play with you whatever tricks you like.
Many input methods do a good job in this regard. For re-coded words, a good input method will automatically rank the most frequently used and recently used ones in the front to improve your input speed. The Chenqiao Smart Wubi, which I used a long time ago, automatically adds every new word you input to the vocabulary, and even automatically puts every sentence you input into the automatic reminder, which is very convenient to use. It’s a pity that later this input method got worse and worse, and no one used it.
As mentioned above, I only upload one picture every time from the media platform Baidu Baijia. It can fully remember my behavior. For example, after I upload only one picture three times in a row, I can assume that this is my preference, and the process can be optimized to the extreme for me. If another person uploads multiple pictures at a time, keep the current way of operation for him. (Either way, I think manually clicking “start uploading” is a very stupid design. If you are afraid of wasting user traffic or server space, it would be even more stupid.) One step further, if you remember that my editing habit is Copy the written text into the editing window, then it can automatically help me arrange the layout into the style I used before, that’s even better.
Trick 4: Good use of external resources
Don’t always think about doing everything yourself, don’t try to put users in your own circle, things that are not particularly necessary, you have to give up. We must be good at using external resources, save our own costs, and be user-friendly.
WeChat has become a national application. Everyone is a WeChat user. The login and payment interfaces of WeChat are open to third parties. Why not use it? Every time I use a new application, the most disgusting thing is the registration process. Everyone wants to know my mobile phone number. Why should I give it to you? WeChat authorized login only reveals a name and avatar, which is safe and convenient. Some products require users to register their user system again after logging in with WeChat. The nickname is that in order to obtain user information, you are so smart, does your mother know?
The fingerprint recognition of mobile phones is also the most worthwhile external resource, which can be used in both login and payment links. Not only these auxiliary functions can use external resources, some important functions can also be externalized. For example, some apps have a chat function, why not just use WeChat? Users are so accustomed to WeChat, what use is it for you to develop such a chicken rib? What is important is not the function of the product, but the product you provide to solve a certain demand of the user. As long as you can meet this demand, it does not matter what product the user uses and what platform.
Summary
When WeChat Zhang Xiaolong talked about the shake function of WeChat, he said that no one can surpass us, because we have made this product the simplest, and other people will do additions. If it is more complicated than us, it will not be better than us.
The product must be concise while meeting functional requirements. Many products are complicated because there are too many things they want to do, or there are too many choices for users in a certain functional link. In order to cater for the needs of a few people, or the needs of a few situations, it is not worth the gain to make most people or most situations complicated.
