Facebook product Director: Talk about the bottlenecks experienced by senior designers

Polish a mature product and design a brand new project, which one do you choose? Today, Facebook director of this Good article said a lot of designers of the Voice, for a more than 5 years of complex products to do improved optimization, the difficulty is very large, especially when you have to take into account the retention rate, conversion rate and so on, really difficult, Recommended to designers with similar experiences.

@C7210: Now this one is still from Julie Zhuo, let me think of the past more than a year of time in their own various product project environment, some of them are constraints, let you feel a little bit, others seem to be a new free heaven and earth can be arbitrary gallop. In the face of these two types of product projects, their own as a designer, the difference in mentality is also very obvious; if at the same time in front of the choice of their own, will have to choose new products to be refreshed, and now is really not. Of course, the actual situation is difficult by oneself, but the change of mentality is also can feel.

So perhaps that's where I resonate with this article. Good conscience also need to read attentively, recommended to have similar experience or circumstances of the students. Enter the translation below.

Every time I see other people's work in the collection of the well-known products of the concept of redesign, I am quite interested in. Regardless of the quality of the programme itself, the spirit commendable, worthy of admiration. After all, spontaneous, there will be no material return, need to invest a lot of time and energy, and sometimes need some courage.

Only once said the quality, then in the admiration, most of the time also only to cover his face sigh.

I'm not saying these works look bad. Typically, this type of redesign has some of the brightest improvements to the actual product, such as a visual style that is more in line with current design trends, more refined functional elements, richer multimedia content, and more. At first glance, these works tend to be simpler and more modern, and compared to the actual product, it's like a fresh breeze, and you're going to think you're looking at a beauty reality show.

The problem is that most of these works are useless. I'm pretty sure about that, and I'm willing to bet you a lot of money, if you can get a well-known product overnight into a so-called "more simple" third-party redesign, then, in all likelihood, the key indicators you are concerned will fall, conversion, usage, retention, customer satisfaction, Whatever.

I know this kind of thing, because I have personally experienced more than one or two times. There is an ancient legend, you may have heard the story of the beginning of this ...

　　Design Tour

Keen Insight: This function/service/product is not bad, but also very popular, but not perfect, you see these places to do is very bad, if I do it will be able to redesign a better plan. The user should be given a more excellent product.

Let the inspiration dance: I need to really get a look at it, it's great. I'm thinking all the time, actually I was doing it all night. Show you this demo video, which demonstrates the overall experience of the redesign, and I have commented on the improvement in 87 places compared to the older version.

Trust and support: praise, everyone likes my redesign scheme! Everyone is ready to move! This is the best thing since tab navigation was invented, let's do it!

"Victory" of Ecstasy: online, we did, we are the last winner!

Backfired: Well ... Most users don't seem to like our revision ... The new scheme does not seem to have a great help to users.

Sisyphus's purgatory: OK, we need to change this here, so try ... Or did not improve it? is also very will feel ... Here's another way to see ... Do you have a better use?

The cruelty of reality: eh ... Although the old version has a variety of problems, but it is clear that the new version of the program in the actual is not good where to go, experience completely without quality promotion ... Why is it so hard to make some improvements? or we should go shopping.

Perseverance or abandonment: see below.

　　To persevere or to give up on this?

This last step is often a watershed in determining the success or failure of a product. A lot of product teams will be here to completely stop, in particular, for those with a relatively wide range of complex products, you can hear a lot of sounds like this: "It's so hard to make some improvements in a project like this, there are too many constraints, and we can't even move anything ..." I have seen many designers in such a project environment by a version of the iteration plan to get tired, here to try or there to try, just to get some visible touch of the improvement. In this case, even if the iteration plan is finally finalized, the feeling of implementation into the actual product is often only a slight adjustment, it is difficult to feel a refreshing, bright and focused design light changes.

Ultimately, under the constraints of various realities, the desire to burnish existing products to perfection has evaporated, and designers have begun to look to new projects, or the unpublished concepts that are still between V0 and V1, because the product is considered to be the most creative and inclusive, embodying the value of good design.

The sentimental sentiment here is not entirely unreasonable, for some more mature products, from the internal and external aspects of the constraints are objective, want to be in such a product to convey a new value, you need to devote themselves to the specific project environment, to adapt, integrate and weigh, And not idealized to impose their own ideas.

On the other hand, the choice to give up on this, in a way is also lazy and evasive performance. Designed for new concepts and products, you're basically starting from scratch, and everything you do is optimized for "0," and it always feels good; especially in terms of visual form and usability, you can throw out some less-than-ideal design without taking responsibility for it, Because there is no standard that can be considered for your proposal. For example in the details, is the form of an icon and a text label easier to understand than a simple icon? in relatively mature products with a wide range of audiences, yes, the answer is obvious and easy to assess. And for a start-up, not yet released products? No one can give an objective evaluation, and there are many more important things waiting for you to worry about. Is such a situation without restriction really beneficial to the performance and promotion of design ability?

To design new projects that have not yet been released, most of the time it feels more free. You can create new design patterns, use any color you want to use, make your personality more assertive, no problem, very few people will argue with you, the whole process looks full of design fun. Of course, these are all said before the release, then what happens is another thing, the new concept of failure is very likely, failure is not fun, because you will like Sisyphus wandering in the "design Journey" of the 5th to 8th steps.

Design for new projects will be more innovative and fun than polishing existing products? I have doubts about this. Designers who are exposed to the complex project environment of existing products will have to do better than the existing ones if they want to achieve a little success. A lot of people don't understand how hard this thing is. If a product has existed for more than 5 years, then you need to challenge and span the past 5 years, all the designer's effort and sweat. Of course, the difficulty does not mean that can not be achieved, nothing is perfect, the so-called continuous learning and improvement, is to ask us to do a better year than a year. As for those who stay out of the irresponsible and spend an overnight so-called redesign plan? Don't even think about it.

The project environment and its various constraints are challenging for product designers, as they bring complexity and also improve the design of the standard line, which is based on existing products, through a certain historical period of the standard line validated. The designers who insist on a little bit of progress and optimization have actually done very well, but most of them are unsung heroes, because the final output is usually not so dazzling, all the way down the road is only a long and long tuning, for example, some of the operation here has become easier, One of the potentially confusing interactive patterns there has become intuitive, or it adds to some familiar gesture manipulation, which lowers the cost of interaction, and so on. Perhaps the vast majority of users will not notice these changes at all, but the quality of the product itself can be maintained by such continuous optimization on the steady growth curve.

Creating a better version of an existing, relatively successful product is no easy task, not everyone can do it, but don't see difficulties and challenges as a product design environment or a flaw in the job itself. Accept challenges, accept constraints, and persevere in continuous improvement, which often requires designers to have a richer capacity to reserve, including creativity, executive power, decision-making ability and dedication, and so on.

Even if there are difficulties, I personally hope that we can face the road bravely to continue to go on.