7. … connect and share
7
… help spread the wordSaad Fazil http://theitvale.com
8. Help them try new stuff
8
Help them brag and do fun things
Help them connect and share
Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
9. Make it easy to onboard
- Ask for a sign in only when needed
- Use Facebook login
- Do you really need your own user registration and authentication?
✓ You own the user data
✓ Can collect demographics
✓ Direct control
✗ Extra step in initial development
✗ Most users don’t like to register!
✗ Extra step for users
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
10. If you absolutely have to do your
own user registration…
- Make it as much down the workflow as you can
- Make your app functional without login
- Ask for as little information as you can
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
18. Ask for as little info as possible
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- Only ask for address when needed, such as when placing an
order
- Don’t ask users to re-enter email addresses
- Consider not asking users to re-enter passwords
- Don’t ask users to confirm their registration through email
Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
19. Keep it simple
- Don’t overthink in v1
- Don’t reinvent the UX; use established patterns
- Get better on one platform first
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
20. Help them try new stuff
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Help them brag and do fun things
Help them connect and share
Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
21. What we want them to do
- Contribute vs. consume
Why?
- We need more data
- We want them to share their experience with their friends and public
- We don’t have enough stuff for them to consume… yet
How will they generate more
stuff?
- Make it easy and fun to contribute
- Focus the UX on contribution/generation vs. consumption
- Reward contribution
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
35. But balancing quick generation with
quality and meaningful data is tricky
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
36. Help them try new stuff
36
Help them brag and do fun things
Help them connect and share
Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
37. Make it inherently viral
- Direct network effects
- Fax, Skype, Facebook
- Indirect network effects
- Operating systems, game consoles (users and game developers),
newspapers (readers and advertisers), Match.com (men and women)
✓ Increases switching costs
✓ Can go viral… but
✗ Chicken and egg problem
✗ Negative network effects
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
38. Good viral apps?
- WhatsApp
- Zynga games
- What about “standalone” apps?
- Uber
- Weather
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
40. Add Facebook friends
- Facebook tells which Facebook friends are using the app via an
API. So no need for two separate server calls
- When to do so (every time FB Connects happens) (do not ask for
offline processing unless absolutely needed)
- Pictures retrieved in a separateAPI
- Do not allow select all to prevent spamming
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
41. Add address book friends
- Emails: check against email addresses of users in your own server
- What if you did not ask for your own user registration
- You will have these email addresses via FB but notTwitter
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
42. How can you send an invitation on
Facebook?
- Email? (only if they are existing users of your app)
- Via wall post otherwise
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
43. - Real identity (Yahoo!Answers vs. Quora)
- Moderation
- Promotion of quality content and power users
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Creating good social experience
requires tough choices
Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
44. Summary
- Make it easy to sign up
- Don’t overthink in v1
- Get better on one platform first
- Make it easy and fun to contribute
- Focus the UX on contribution/generation vs. consumption
- Reward contribution
- Balance between easy contribution and quality of content
- Make it inherently viral (if the use case calls for it)
- Leverage Facebook andTwitter
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Saad Fazil http://theitvale.com
