Now that you're done learning some of the basics of the design process, it's time to start thinking about what drives your decisions. The answer is both simple and complex. You're building this product for people to use. Their feedback should be the most important factor in the design.
You're probably thinking: "Dude, it's simple. Feedback comes from customers!" Which is absolutely true. But customers come in many different forms.
You're the most important customer. If you don't use and love your own product, how will your customers? The product came about because you had an itch that needed scratching: You tripped in the dark one time too many. So now you have a flashlight on the phone in your pocket.
At the same time, you're the worst customer. You're atypical because you know every single nuance of the product. People who are downloading your app from iTunes are not in that enviable position. But they'll be quick to notice things that you've overlooked!
Developers tend to look at marketing people with an evil eye. They get a bad rap for asking for things that are hard to implement or that don't seem logical. They're looking at your product like a normal person would. Their motivation is to position, promote, and sell that product to other normal people.
The best marketing people are the ones who act as a conduit of information and ideas between you and the person who buys your creation. If you've done any marketing, you know that developers are more receptive to ideas if they're descriptive rather than prescriptive: Explain your problem, not your perceived solution. If you're a small developer, you won't have a marketing department. That's fine because you can easily find a surrogate.
Find someone you can bounce ideas off of. It should be someone who understands what the product does but not how it's implemented. This person can be your spouse, or best friend, or even the barista at your favorite coffee shop. All that matters is that this person is willing to have a long-term discussion about what you're doing and to provide unbiased feedback.
Be careful about using your designer for this task. Like you, they'll have an intimate knowledge of the product and may not be able to look at things with an untainted eye.
Simply put, users are what make your product great. Whether they love your work, hate it, or are completely ambivalent about it, their feedback can help you improve your product.
User feedback comes in many forms:
Support email. Users will contact you by email when they encounter a bug, don't understand how something works, or have a great feature idea. Trends in these communications are excellent indicators for how your product needs to evolve.
Beta testers. These folks are the first ones to be exposed to new features and other changes in an application. If they complain about something not being right, chances are good that thousands of others will join them when the product goes into wide distribution.
Tip
Finding beta testers can be a challenge. Start by asking people you know if they're interested in testing. This can include people on a social networking site like Facebook or Twitter.
If you still need testers, try a site like iBetaTest (http://ibetatest.com/) that connects developers with enthusiastic users.
iTunes reviews. Many one-star reviews about a feature are an indicator that you're doing something wrong.
Notice that all of these things should be taken in aggregate. Resist the urge to change your product direction on the basis of one email. It's an admirable desire to make every customer happy, but the reality is that you can't. Find the things that will please the most people.
Imagine that you released the Flashlight application you developed in the first chapter. You've been getting great feedback about the product. It's now time to develop version 2.0. What are you going to implement?
You've been getting a lot of support email about the need to control brightness. Many users have been complaining that the light is just too bright while they're navigating a dark bedroom: Spouses are being woken! It's clear from these reports that you need a quick way to lower the light level.
As you read your reviews in iTunes, you see a lot of people complaining about that wonderful shade of yellow you chose. Not everyone has the same great sense of color you do. Adding a color selector will make many customers happy.
Your marketing department (also called your spouse) spent some time evaluating the competition for your app: Many of those apps include a flasher. You think that's a great feature because you often exercise at night with your iPhone in an armband.
While at lunch with marketing, you start talking about the new flasher feature. You're merely matching the competition with the new flasher feature. Is there a way that you can give it a unique touch, maybe make it even more useful? It would be cool to have a "disco light" that randomly changes color while flashing. That's something that none of your competitors have, so marketing agrees that this feature should be investigated. But apart from making you a hit at parties, the feature isn't very useful.
And then it hits you both: What if the flasher could send an SOS signal? This international sign of distress would let rescue workers spot your customer's phone. Besides it being a great marketing angle, you're providing a feature that could potentially save someone's life.
So now you have your feature list for the new version:
As you continue development, this list is your guiding light. And not just because you're developing a flashlight!
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