The application design of internet age

How to develop a successful application in the Internet age? 10,000 questionnaires, dozens of people in a dark room, two years of research and development, and then looking to subvert the Internet once it's launched? I am sorry to say that the development of an Internet application in such a way has become less applicable in the internet age.

The difference between the Internet application and the traditional operating environment is enough to determine that the Internet application is not simply moving the traditional application online. There is also a big difference between development and application development patterns, let's just say that it takes two years or more to find dozens of people in a dark room, quietly developing, carved, packed in a big box, and attached an Oxford dictionary as thick as a manual is a traditional model.

When it comes to the application design of the internet age, I think we must start from what needs analysis, talk about the robustness of software, consider what code readability, and repeat the importance of team cooperation. Yes, this aspect of the theory and books has been so much to the extent that you casually enter a bookstore, "xxx self-taught" that book next to the bookshelf, that is easily obtained. But I really do not have the heart to after a lot of software engineering education to poison everyone's soul to talk about the meaningless theory, here I want to share with you is actually some Internet application design changes. By focusing on and studying some of the Internet success stories, I've summed up the five most important qualities I think a successful internet product should have.

1. Focus on

Internet applications are increasingly focused, and because of this focus, users ' needs are fully met. For example, bloated software like Microsoft Outlook has been decomposed into many applications on the Internet. Need a schedule? You can use Google Calendar. Need e-mail? You can use Google Mail. Need notes? You can use Evernote. Need Todos management? You can use the remember the Milk. Because of the decomposition, these Internet application designers can focus on the aspect of the function of the design is very good.

How to focus? I think we might follow some basic design principles.

Jane

And the goods have not been listed before the price of the same consideration, the product has not yet begun to design the thinking of doing more than others is a very stupid thing. We already have so many vivid examples to prove that good products are not won in price. Perhaps you may ask, in the computer application design simple also applies? If you have such a question and want to truly experience it, my answer is very simple, you go to the nearby Xinhua Bookstore Front desk, there is a sap provided by the search system (yes, they call themselves the greatest business management solution provider), you try to search a book and try to complete a purchase process, Again, you go home and try to buy the same book as a book, and I don't need to say anything more.

Light weight

If you ever had an upstart boss who talked to you about what he wanted to do, every so often is a platform like Alibaba, you have worked hard to his ideas to achieve such a "magnificent platform", the last 90% of the columns no one to die, the result of less than a year died, then I believe that you can more easily understand the importance of light weight.

Light weight is not

no complex process, huge organizational structure

Light weight is

content Refinement Process clear and flexible team

Even tecent and Alibaba are actually getting lighter. Yes, they have a huge product and service structure, but when we peel out one of the products, they are very lightweight. Lightweight is also not only for the product, their team is also composed of a lot of lightweight flexible small team.

Tickle himself

You are a genius for Internet application information architecture, but you choose to do something that makes you miserable because you feel like designing a software that helps you analyze the vibration frequency components of the motor. This in itself is a kind of sadness.

No layman can understand the excitement of seeing Basecamp's information architecture. In the same way, why do you wronged yourself to tickle others?

and photography "The most beautiful things in your side within a kilometer", the best way to focus is to do what you need. Don't worry about the so-called bullshit market problem, this earth is very big. PS, I did not say that not enough thinking on the launch of the project, and the same kind of is very lethal.

2. Open

Keep users locked in their own house for fear that these users will run away, and that they may not be willing to enter the house on the Internet. This is a lot of examples, such as some software you can not find the export option. On the Internet, users more easily change products, your bad use, I use other, so the closure of the way to retain customers is tantamount to cheating others into the store to eat, closed the door to stop others to go, so it is not a good way to sustainable development. Conversely, if you let go of your application, embracing the value chain into the internet and becoming one of them will add value to the application.

For example, the API, which is open to Google Map, allows us to draw rental information on a map, and to map our current location to the location of our friends (such as Foursquare). It is not necessary to do such an application to "produce" all the links, through the opening of the interface so that "remix" also has a high value.

There are similar examples in the country. "Omnipotent" Tencent itself did not do "Tencent reading", nor do "Tencent garden." But the introduction of the Douban and five-minute farm two apps did make a profit. From the Douban of user registration, it is the time of Qzone and douban.com cooperation (data source www.8qk.org) in August 2009.

3. Pay On Demand

and those news software to talk about the trends and advantages of SaaS? Forget it, I'm not ready to waste your reading time like this. But in fact, we can already appreciate the benefits of paying on demand. You don't have to spend 150 of dollars on a Microsoft Outlook that you can use only on your computer because you need to manage your to-do items, and you'll be free to use rememberthemilk.com on Android, IPhone, Twitter, Record and manage your to-do items in the context of Gmail, Windows Mobile, and so on. Of course, if you feel that this application will help you a lot, you can spend 25 of dollars a year to enjoy more services.

Instead of doing a lot of proof of economics, Internet users are accustomed to buying services according to their needs.

4. Personalized

I want to say this personalization, and the replacement of a software skin is completely different. What I want to say is that in the Internet, people's communication becomes easier. This kind of communication lets the user not want to board an Internet product website, looks at a person who wears a face in a suit to tell you the advantage of this product with the tone of news broadcast. Not only do users become more personalized, but "bosses" who provide services become more personalized. "You don't like our philosophy?" Well, you can turn off the site. "They usually tell visitors to the site. They can make you feel like you're in the same group, or make you feel sick.

This kind of personality paranoia just helps screen users in the Internet. Enables application designers to more specifically design better products for these target users. 37singles is a good example. They do not have a huge user base, but the user and they maintain high viscosity, which is the value. So, we don't necessarily have to design a product that 80% of people are reluctant to like, but they can design a product that only 20% of people like very much.

5. Agile

If you're the CEO of the Procter and Gamble Company, you want to know what your users think about a product, maybe you will arrange a large user survey, from 6 billion people to judge which is the product users, and then do a questionnaire or talk, analyze these needs, develop an improvement program, evaluation program, To upgrade the product, and then put into the market, and then do investigation and tracking. What if you're doing an Internet product? Unless you have a team of bureaucrats like Vogons, you just need to add a "we'd love to hear your opinion" in the product, with a text box attached. Of course, I want to say is not put a text box can solve the problem, but the Internet applications, users and designers communicate more directly, feedback faster. You can even send an article in the official blog of your application to reveal new features that will be added to the product, see how everyone reacts, or add a wish-list to collect the functionality the user wants.

Like "Ten years of grinding a sword, double-edged never try" to design Internet applications, the likelihood of product failure will be great. Agile makes applications more flexible, improves product quality quickly, reduces development costs, lowers application risk, and prolongs application lifecycle.

Never trust the principles of economics and the well-established "best practices", which are often not applicable to your application. The best way is to be quick! Before he broke down earlier, quickly to make up for the mistakes in the process, think more.

Of course, the above 5 points is not the internet age of application design guidelines, but it is because the internet has broken through a lot of traditional restrictions, so that we have to look at more thinking to design a better application. However, it is precisely because of these changes that make the Internet more exciting, rather than shut themselves in the room to suffocate, to embrace the scenery outside the house.

Thank you for reading the time of this article, welcome to discuss.

source; From Color Team blog Author: yx.shawn