Product Manager dry, app build--a set of methodology to describe the app

Demand to prototype is jumping, this paper focuses on the middle neglected transition layer, put forward a set of clear methodology. Describe the entity First, then describe the relationship between entities, and finally describe the organization presentation of the entity. This will be a very profound understanding of an app.

Intro One:

A product's life cycle requires a MRD (market requirements document), which then draws the product prototype and outputs the PRD (product requirements document) according to the market demand document. In many product manager tutorials or books, we certainly do not see the requirements, the prototype related to the discussion, but in the work practice will often feel "from the demand to the prototype" or jump, just clear the need to construct the product prototype will be unclear, the middle need to do a lot of transition work, It is just that these jobs are not as widely mentioned as explicit requirements and prototypes, and they do not have a clear methodology. It is precisely because the demand to prototype exists "fault", and the transition between the body has not been put forward a clear concept, so I will discuss in this article how to build a bridge between the demand and the prototype, the "bridge" is how to work, thus smooth product prototype output.

Intro II:

A geek user (a product manager who needs to experience a variety of apps in depth, even if such a user) needs to flip the entire app back and forth to understand the app's design philosophy and mechanism, because there is no clear methodology to tell us how to experience the app in depth, and many times people feel confused and inefficient. This is because we tend to grasp the corner, trapped in the details can not extricate themselves, only when you consciously from the overall analysis of the overall system design, from the app's various pages to build a logical framework diagram, you start to "play" this app. So is there a way to help us quickly build an app model in our brains? The answer is yes, all we have to do is flip the page and then deconstruct and reorganize the pages to form a logical (functional) frame chart. When you have such a holistic concept in your brain, and then you go into every specific page, you see no longer just this page, you will know where it is in the overall position, what role it plays in the whole app, and how it relates to other pages.

Although the two primers cut into different angles, you can see that they are describing the same fact: we need a methodology to model the app to help us better understand and design the app product. This description, on the one hand, is designed to buffer the needs and prototypes, on the other hand, in the preparation of Deepin experience, can truly understand the design of the app, not just "trees trees".

"He mountain stone can attack Jade", the author is inspired by UML class diagram and Database principle E-r (Entity-relation) diagram, found that using a similar way to describe an app's logical framework is very effective. First, conceptually, the app's "Entity Relationship Model" is the idea that the app is made up of many different entities, and that the entities have relationships that affect each other. The specific page is the different entities according to a certain rules of the presentation, and the relationship between the pages also reveal the relationship between the entities. So, describing an app is describing "entities" first, then describing the relationships between entities, and finally describing the organization presentation of the entity. This will be a very profound understanding of an app. Of course not understand the small partners do not matter, the following author with an example (NetEase Cloud Music app) to illustrate how to use the entity-relationship way to model an app.

Description entity

Entities can be understood as "concept classes", such as in NetEase cloud music we can abstract these "concept" entities: songs, songs, Users, singers, albums, DJ Programs. Here's an example of a single entity,

The variables in the single entity describe what elements the song is composed of, a single song with sole name, cover, presentation and commentary. Of course, a single song will also have the creator, the songs belonging to this song and the user who collects the song list these elements, but they are also entity type (the creator belongs to the user entity, the song is a song entity, the songs of the bookmark is a user entity), so they are called entity variables. An entity variable is represented by the entity type enclosed in brackets, such as "[User] creator", before the variable name.

Operation describes the action set of the song single entity, the playlist can be collected, commented, shared, played and downloaded. There is, of course, a brace-enclosed operation, which indicates that the condition is required to perform this operation. In the song list example, it is necessary to manage the song list and edit the cover of the song list, because only the owner of the song list can perform these actions.

Describe entity relationships

Describe the various entities in the app, we can clearly know what the app is made of, but the entity is static, in fact, these entities often have a complex relationship, they are interconnected with each other, and one change can often lead to another change. Image , can be the entity and Entity Relationship category into the bus site and bus routes, the entity is a bus site, and the entity relationship, is to describe how these sites are connected to the bus route, only clear the site and route a public transport system to calculate the plan, the same clear entity and entity relations, A description of an app system is a good example. with NetEase cloud music as an example, the relationship between the song entity and the single entity is described:

Songs can be added to a song list, and users can manage songs using the feature "Song Management Songs". More special is the system comes with the song "I Like Music", the user click on the song "Like" icon will be able to add the song "I Like Music" this song list. In addition, the entity itself may be related to itself, such as:

Describe the organization and presentation of entities (prototyping)

This step is actually our usual prototype, but using the previous two-step analysis, the process of prototyping can be thought of as "describing the organization and presentation of entities", which will bring many benefits. If we directly follow the traditional "prototype based on demand", we may have a sense of global fuzzy consciousness, but once caught in the page layout, content placement and other prototyping details (if you use Axure to do some editing and interaction), because of the lack of overall consideration, it is easy to get lost. More often than not, there is no good description of the whole world (lack of analysis of entity-entity Relationship), we do not have a clear framework constraint when we design the detail page, there may be a logical inconsistency or even contradiction between the various parts of the design. and if we have already analyzed the entity and entity relationship of the app system in the early stage, then the process of making the prototype is equivalent to "putting" the more comprehensive and thought-out entity into the specific page, as we have always brought a map when we travel to a certain attraction. When you feel lost, you can open the map to find your place and quickly clear your mind, that is, when you design a page, you must know what part of the global framework it belongs to, and how it relates to other pages. The relationship between entity, entity relationship and prototype can be summed up as follows:

Below is a specific example of the "My Music" page in NetEase Cloud Music (to confirm the above diagram):

Page-My Music
Components (individual entities)	Association (ACTION)
Download music downloaded/downloaded [songs] download songs [singers] download songs belong to Singers [Album] download Song belongs album	Download operation except DJ program
Recently played [songs] recently played songs	Song Playback operations
My collection of DJ programs [DJ shows] my collection of DJ programs	DJ program Download, collection operation
I created the song list [(Special song list) song] I like the music [song list] I created the song list	Create a new song list operation
My favorite song list [song list] my favorite song list	Favorite Song-list operation
Page Global: My Music page contains actions: Import music, create a new song, manage a song list

Written in the last words

If you want to quickly get started with an app, you can use the method of analyzing the entity-entity relationship of the app to model it in the brain to form a global perception. This model does not need to be too elaborate, creating a sketchy impression in the brain. However, in the context of the design of the app needs to implement the details, starting from the top-level design, and gradually analyze the system entity and entity relationship, and then on this basis to organize the construction of the app prototype, which will greatly improve your productivity.

Because of space and understandable, and so on, the wooden handle of the NetEase cloud Music app all the entity map on their own site http://mubing01.cn/?p=76 , interested students can point past a look. This article is a recent wooden handle of painstaking work, after the wooden handle will also from the Product manager skills, write a series of "pure dry", if you are also obsessed with the Internet product design of fellow travelers, don't miss it.

Product Manager dry, app build--a set of methodology to describe the app