UX Design
Survival Skills
John Fan, PicCollage
Garage+ May 27, 2016
I am not a designer...
Survival Skills for
Building Products
Attended:
Lean Startup Conference
Lean Startup Machine
Startup Weekend
500 Startups Accelerator
What did I learn?
1. Talk to your users.
2. Design for behavior.
3. Build. Measure. Learn.
1. Talk to your users.
Before you start, talk to 5 people.
Ask open-ended questions.
Seek facts, not opinions.
Observe what users do.
Look for pain points.
Talking to users on the train!
"so what? so what?? so what?... so what???"
"Like, all I wanna do is...
I just wanna... make my pictures look awesome!"
2. Design for behavior.
Design is not what you see.
Design is what the user does.
3. Build. Measure. Learn.
Start with a MVP
(Minimum Viable Product)
Iterate quickly
Study analytics
First version of PicCollage (MVP)
Top app in US, Japan and
many countries
Daily Active Users
Since then:
Launched on Android and Windows
Licensed content (Sanrio, Mattel)
Various projects with HP, Google, etc
Raised funding in Silicon Valley
Achieved breakeven via IAP and ads
Reached 120 million downloads
1. Talk to your users.
2. Design for behavior.
3. Build. Measure. Learn.
1. Talk to your users.
Do 2+ User Interviews per week
Talk to different sets of users
(personas)
Listen to User Feedback and Reviews
Reviews
Talking with teens
Talking with moms
User Interview notes
More user interview notes:
2. Design for behavior.
Based on talking with users,
come up with user stories.
Start with low fidelity prototypes.
Focus on behavior, not visuals.
Brainstorming
Paper and pencil!
Wireframes
Interactive prototypes
Other key points:
Have a clear call to action.
Focus on the main flow.
Target a persona.
Define the user story:
"As a ___, I want to ___
because ___"
3. Build. Measure. Learn.
Run multiple experiments
(A/B testing, etc.) each week.
Track every action in analytics tools.
Study analytics and review results
each week.
A/B Testing
1. Talk to your users.
2. Design for behavior.
3. Build. Measure. Learn.
Reality-Based
Entrepreneurship
