Yelp iPhone heavyweight client re-design: Problems and thinking process (1)

Yelp iPhone heavyweight client re-design: Problems and thinking process (1)

Yelp is a review website that has been released for more than ten years. It originated in the United States and has grown globally. Yelp has information about all kinds of shops, such as restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, shopping malls, etc. People can find all kinds of shops on them and write comments, sign in or upload photos and videos for them. Moreover, Yelp is also a social media platform. People can view the shops recently visited by friends and write comments.
 

Yelp iPhone Client

Yelp in the iTunes App Store 」

Yelp has a large volume of store information and user-generated content. When the iPhone client carries this information, it must handle the information architecture well, because this affects the user experience to a large extent. At present, the Yelp iPhone client has a relatively complex functional framework, mainly divided into five basic pages: Nearby, Search), release, About Me, and More.

• Nearby: shows Nearby shops and recommended categories. Users can quickly find them.

• Search): You can Search by keyword, or add filter conditions for exact Search.

• Release: three types of content: Comments, sign-in, and upload of photos and videos.

• About Me): displays personal information.

• More): integrate auxiliary functions, such as bookmarks, information flows, and list of shops that have been browsed.

Click here to view the functional framework of the Yelp iPhone client)

Problems

1. Scattered functional entries

When users want to find a store:

• If you have browsed or added a bookmarked store, go to the More pages to find the list of shops and bookmarks you have browsed;

• If you are a new store or have browsed it, but it is difficult to Search for it for a long time, or you have not added any bookmarks). If you know the name/keyword, click the Nearby tab of the Nearby store and Search for the Search) you can enter text to search;

• If you do not know any information or forget the name/keyword), you can search for a nearby store based on the geographical location. Otherwise, you need to search for the store category directory.

When users want to publish content:

• You can directly click the super tab. After selecting a category, the page will jump to the search page, load nearby shops or input text by users, select shops, and then fill in the content;

• Or enter the shop details page according to the above process, then select the category and enter the content.

Yelp's interaction process of searching for stores and publishing content

There are many portals for finding stores or publishing content. This is not beneficial, but it is easy to confuse users. For example, if I want to write comments for a restaurant, there are two scenarios:

• If you have not left the restaurant, you can select a category for release directly on the super tab. The application will automatically load nearby stores. Then, the restaurants you are in must be sorted at the beginning;

• However, if you have left the restaurant before you think of rating, it will be faster to go to the shop details page from the historical browsing list. Instead, you need to manually enter text search for publishing from the super tab.

Do not rely solely on business functions to divide modules. Otherwise, the experience design will be messy.

2. Duplicate function entries

In addition to publishing pages, many other pages carry duplicate information. If the function framework is partially enlarged, it will be clear at a glance. Super tab allows users to quickly publish content, and the same portal can be found on the my About Me page; bookmarks, events, and other pages are not only on my About Me) page appears, and can be found in More) page. If you are used to using one portal, the other seems redundant, making the page more complex.

Function framework Part 1

The Nearby page for Nearby stores is similar to the Search page. Select a category in the former, and the page will jump to the shop list on the latter's search result page), which is equivalent to saving users the process of entering text only; the search box at the top of the former page is exactly the same as the search box in the latter. The former has duplicate store categories in the main directory and popular categories in the secondary directory. I believe that I am not alone in this case.

Function framework Part 2

Clear and clear logic is the key to whether a product with a complex information architecture brings a good user experience.

3. Excessive weakening of Information Feed

In addition to a large amount of store information and high-quality user-generated content, Yelp has strong social attributes, allowing people to see the dynamics of friends and nearby users. People not only use it as a search tool to open it when they are out, but also use Yelp to interact with friends. This helps increase user engagement and desire to create content.

On the Web side, Yelp is doing this-logging into the website, and the latest news of friends will be displayed on the home page. On the iPhone client, the user-generated content is relatively scattered, except for the part associated with the store, the rest are scattered on the user page, More) page, there is a lack of independent information flow page.

Left: Yelp Web page, medium: Yelp iPhone client user page, right: Yelp iPhone client More) Page