12 ms·

Lessons I’ve Learned from Three Million App Downloads

491 points by jordansmithnz 9y ago

abraae 9y ago
I'd be intrigued to know what caused those spikes in your download volumes.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- jordansmithnz 9y ago
  Sure, those follow the start of school/college semesters across various countries. It's actually quite nice, it means some periods of the year (like now) have relatively low usage so I can spend time on other projects. Approaching those spikes, I usually invest more time into updates etc.
  - rickcnagy 9y ago
    This is really common across all of EdTech - project cycles often focus on launching in time for the school year, launching by midterms, etc.
  - bfu 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
sidlls 9y ago
"So, don’t be stingy: a product with no paying users is (usually) better than a paid product with no users. It’s much easier to upsell to an existing customer than it is to find an entirely new paying customer." This is generally true, but it seems a bit like applying an Enterprise view of sales to a market of minnow sized budgets. It reinforces app consumers' view that apps should only charge for marginal value, not core value or the biggest value. This sort of "freemium" model leads to basically a market of pure crap with extremely rare gems. Edit: I'm not dumping on the author, here. Were I to "do mobile" I'd probably take a similar approach because it clearly works.
- taylodl 9y ago
  I must be in the minority, but I refuse to use freemium applications (those relying on in-app purchases to complete their functionality). My attitude is if you don't think your app is worth anything - I agree. Look, I'll walk into a Starbucks and spend $3 on something I'm going to consume in 30 minutes without even batting an eye. If you think your software is worth less than that then it probably doesn't warrant my time to check it out. I'm willing to concede I'm in the minority - but I'll also point out this goes a long way toward explaining why the quality of indy mobile apps is so abysmal.
  - scarface74 9y ago
    Did you ever buy shareware back in the day like Doom? What's the difference?
    - bluejekyll 9y ago
      This is a great question. Shareware locked into this idea that if I could only get my game or application into people's hands, then they will love it and pay for the other features. This definitely is a similar model to a free app with in-app upgrades. The challenge is coming up with a model where the user will decide they want to upgrade. Is it more features? Is it a restricted timeframe? More game levels? I bet different app types do better with different options. I'd be curious if anyone has captured data on the best option for the different categories.
      - foobarian 9y ago
        A long time ago I made a DOS shareware app and posted it on various BBS/ftp servers. 6 months went by, and to my great surprise I got a check for $10 in the mail with an appreciative note asking for the full version with the extra features. By this time I completely forgot about the app, and of course I'd never made the full version. I think there might be a moral in there somewhere kind of like how backups don't work unless tested regularly.
sriram_iyengar 9y ago
Very impressive Jordan. Pls do consider releasing TimeTable in India - an Android version if possible. Millions of parents of primary kids (more than the students) will be happy.
guard0g 9y ago
Some profound product management wisdom there, Jordan. Wish enterprises understood it as well as you've laid out. Thanks for the post and here's to your continued mojo.
ramshanker 9y ago
TLDR: App design is equally important as coding. Design everything around first time user and simplicity.
- supercoder 9y ago
  Yep, for most apps design is typically the more important factor than the technical implementation.
  - taneq 9y ago
    For most software, design is typically the most important factor. An app that does the right thing and has the right interface but is poorly coded and inefficient is still useful. An app that does the wrong thing, or has an awful interface, is not useful no matter how slick the code behind it.
  - madeofpalk 9y ago
    Rather, software that provides value is more important than technical implementation. Design is just a way to get that value across.
firasd 9y ago
Love this bit: “Sometimes you’re stuck on a problem, and there just don’t seem to be any great solutions: maybe it’s related to a piece of code you’re writing, or decisions around how you’re going to market your app. Then, you start thinking about the problem from a wider perspective. You realize that you won’t need to even write the tricky piece of code if you architect it the right way, and that the marketing decision is one your friend (who has a knack for that sort of problem) would know how to tackle. You could sum it up as ‘taking a step back’ from the problem.” Taking a literal step away tends to help. I've often realized new approaches or epiphanies when mulling a problem while walking or in the subway.
- wavefunction 9y ago
  I like night-walking. The cool night air, the relative silence, the reduction of the horizon to whatever range of light my eyes can perceive... It all helps me focus and think about the primary considerations involved...
  - tEMporality7 9y ago
    > The cool night air, the relative silence, the reduction of the horizon to whatever range of light my eyes can perceive... The serial killer hiding in the bushes... Edit: Jokes aside, I agree. It is very calming.
    - andai 9y ago
      Eh, still worth it if you ask me :)
- lacampbell 9y ago
  On solo projects I've been experimenting with a technique that sounds a bit silly but seems to help a bit. I try and take off my programmer hat, or even my analyst hat, and try and become a stakeholder. What do I want this program to do? What will make me want to use it, and what will be a deal breaker? Once I finish thinking this through, I 'become' a programmer again and get to work. Often I find that things that seem a big deal at a coding level either don't matter, or are the wrong things to worry about.
scarface74 9y ago
What's sad is because of App Store economics. He can never depend on his paying customers to ever pay for an upgrade. He will always have to chase new customers.
- jamescostian 9y ago
  Another sad thing is that a consumer can't tell their iDevice "hey, stop downloading updates to this app; I like it just the way it is" - the closest we can get is turning off automatic updates for all apps, and then hoping we never accidentally tap on the "Update" button for that specific app. Currently, both of the problems can be solved in one kludge: release a big upgrade as a new app. For example, I bought the app Things when it was at version 2. I liked it so much that when Things 3 came out as a separate app, I bought it too. And if I really loved the UI of Things 2 and hated the new UI in Things 3, I wouldn't have to do anything. I could keep auto-upgrade on, and never have to worry about my Things 2 app being upgraded to something I don't like.
  - prawn 9y ago
    Worth noting that the makers of Things copped criticism from some users for that approach of a paid upgrade. And negative reviews can be very damaging in the App Store.
    - jamescostian 9y ago
      I was not aware of this. It definitely would suck if Things 3 had a low rating, but I just looked it up on the App Store and it has a 5 star rating. Yes, negative reviews can be very damaging, but (at least on iOS 11) not only does it say "5.0", it also says "Editor's Choice" and "#38" so I would argue that Things 3 was not really damaged too much.
      - prawn 9y ago
        Things just won an Apple Design Award in the last 1-2 weeks which gives them huge amounts of App Store support and general press. That would have put them in front of millions of new users unaware of the upgrade issue. @appstore has 4.5m followers for example. This boost is incredibly rare (10 ADAs per year). (Source: We won an Apple Design Award for our app Streaks last year.)
tarr11 9y ago
Would love to see revenue data!
- jordansmithnz 9y ago
  Not enough to make this my day job, while paying off a mortgage unfortunately. For short durations it has been, although my living expenses are much higher now than they once were. It's also very seasonal - it closely follows the download graph on the post.
djsumdog 9y ago
A lot of apps are like this. I know dev who were like "They made that all that money off Angry Birds." Didn't Rovio have a bunch of terrible ideas that failed and Angry Birds was one of their last ditch projects?
- asmosoinio 9y ago
  Yes, they spent years making games with relatively little success and bleeding money.
therealmarv 9y ago
Does somebody know which blog engine and theme was used here?
- RickS 9y ago
  http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-plus/ http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-plus/
stitcherpip 9y ago
British and Irish Lions Live @http://emostly.online/rugby/ http://emostly.online/rugby/
stitcherpip 9y ago
more info : http://geoprisms.org/forums/topic/hw-british-and-irish-lions-vs-highlanders-live-stream-free/ http://geoprisms.org/forums/topic/hw-british-and-irish-lions...
lettersdigits 9y ago
"Instead, my ‘moderate success’ story is closer to one of hard work, and slow, steady progress"
syngrog66 9y ago
agreed unless -- based on personal experience -- if it's treated as suspicious by the local police/neighbors, even if its a skinny, geeky-looking, white male who goes out walking alone late at night. if I had a nickel for every time I've been harassed by police or local do-gooders, I'd have a lot of those nickels. and I'm not even of the demographic that PC-ness says should be oppressed. (ostensibly: black+male, or male+gay, or non-white, or female, or mean-faced, or weapon-carrying, etc. in reality: straight white male, innocent, no weapons, not in a gang, no drugs, etc.) "why are you walking alone at this time? why are you looking at things? implied: are you a terrorist? a pedophile? explain immediately!" We do not (always) live in an intellectual-friendly culture. At least not in the USA, 2017. We (might, often) live in a small-minded, hyper-stereotyped, very ignorant local culture. Obviously it depends on precisely where you live. SF on Friday at 8pm? very different than Kansas, small town, Wednesday, etc. not even joking. (And I submit this knowing it's not a HN-hivemind/PC-aligned viewpoint, and thus will be downvoted. I do not care anymore.)
- lazyasciiart 9y ago
  It sounds like you are trying to suggest that because you have experienced some unwarranted poor treatment and you are a law abiding straight white man, it is not true that some people are more likely to experience such treatment because of such characteristics as race, gender, sexuality, etc. Have I understood your comment correctly?
  - wojt_eu 9y ago
    As I understood the comment, the purpose of mentioning race and appearance was only to stress that just wandering at night caused the harassment. I think this also implies syngrog66 acknowledges that people are also harassed based on their race and fitting certain stereotypes.
    - lazyasciiart 9y ago
      Then what about the comment is supposed to be not aligned with a PC viewpoint?
minademian 9y ago
really great article. It's a breath of fresh air in the sea of churnalism suffering from Mediumitis - "I did this in 3 hours and now I have self-worth".
ensiferum 9y ago
Regarding just trying again and again... "Winners never quit,quitters never win but those who never win and never quit are idiots". I'm reality most of us don't really have more than a few shots except in those rare cases of the most trivial apps.
michaelevensen 9y ago
Thanks for sharing Jordan!
jansho 9y ago
It's particularly encouraging to read the many hours of work and back-stepping he's done, to get the quality really, really high. Startups are often associated with speed, but less so on flexibility, even if lean philosophy purports it. Ship fast. Get the bare-bones MVP done. Aim for viral growth. This is probably why we have millions of apps, but only a few dozens last and actually taken up by the mass. Different types of products mean different processes after all, give or take amount of resources. In this app's case, it's about re-imagining an existing function - timetables. The designer knows that user experience is everything, and because of this he's willing to scrap everything if need to. And even when this happens, it isn't exactly waste as you understand the problem deeper and come to the design of an even better solution. Sure you can argue that an MVP can bring about those design iterations. Keeps your focus on the users too. But arguably the market for this type of product is very active - though not necessarily competitive. So rather than get buried with the hundred others, it needs to shine right from the beginning.
- snarf21 9y ago
  You're exactly right. I think the thing you said that people can't get their head around too is that you sometimes have to decide you are wrong and start something over. Learning from failure is the hardest thing to get right. The missing piece is usually having enough data to know if you have failed. With that, going deeper and better feels like an improvement not a reset.
  - jansho 9y ago
    Admitting that you're wrong may sound like a bruise to your ego, but only if you feel personally tied to the project. Pixar has a good approach; they vehemently emphasise that the project is always separate and thus criticism towards it are never personal. If you try and do it for your own project, you can get a more objective view and explore much more design possibilities. The downside to this is a longer process, and actually you become more prone to "analysis-paralysis". But still I would argue that it's part of developing yourself to become more objective, at least that's the experience with my project anyway. It's funny that we're taking about this because two weeks ago I had to tear down an entire product architecture, built over 3 years, to start all over again. I had made one flawed assumption at the beginning, and it got buried so deep that I didn't realise for a long time. It manifested itself into a set of problems that I kept hitting into, until I had to concede that there's something rotten at its core. It sounds like a waste, but no: the new product was actually designed at a much shorter time, and far better than its predecessor (well you'll just have to take my word for now ;)) And yes I do feel a bit silly for being in denial before.
srinathrajaram 9y ago
"What I’ve learned (aside from sucking it up, and sending a kind, helpful response) is: design your product as if it was going to be used by people that are a software literacy step below the target user." Completely with you on the 'sucking up and sending a kind helpful response'. Snark does not pay. It makes no sense to snap at a user. Regarding the other point about first-time users. I have a slightly related theory. When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span of a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old. But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you. Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task. Working that much harder on the UI pays off, or at least prevents a disaster.
- snovv_crash 9y ago
  >When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span of a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old. But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you. Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task. I think this is a common problem, and the problem is with the people creating/selling/supporting the product, not the customer. We get so invested that we are willing to overlook little pain points or special knowledge required, which are precisely the things that drive customers away. We develop our own obscure workflow, and just by being an expert in the topic we become incapable of providing the feedback to make it friendly to new users.
6stringmerc 9y ago
Personal essay strikes again in business context - I like it very much and glad to see it here. Looks like a useful read and educational.
FollowSteph3 9y ago
It's sad that people aren't willing to pay $1 for an app but are willing to purchase in app features. I feel mobile software is moving in this direction and that it will only get worse with time. The sad part is it makes software more complex and hence more expensive overall, and you probably end up spending more over the lifetime of the product...
- faet 9y ago
  I feel this way and it's mostly due to apple's return policy. Because it is near impossible to return an app I generally look towards free apps with an IAP to unlock everything/remove ads. If apple had a refund policy similar to steam with a 2h return window I'd be much more willing to pay upfront.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jaclaz 9y ago
>Sure, three million downloads is a lot, but that’s happened over more than six years. It still remains "a lot", US$ 500,000 per year, not exactly peanuts IMHO. EDIT: Ah, no wait, I misread the article, he got a handful of downlads when the app was US$1, the 3 million downloads are since it was made free/freeware.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

491 points by jordansmithnz 9y ago

abraae 9y ago

I'd be intrigued to know what caused those spikes in your download volumes.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
jordansmithnz 9y ago
Sure, those follow the start of school/college semesters across various countries. It's actually quite nice, it means some periods of the year (like now) have relatively low usage so I can spend time on other projects. Approaching those spikes, I usually invest more time into updates etc.
- rickcnagy 9y ago
  This is really common across all of EdTech - project cycles often focus on launching in time for the school year, launching by midterms, etc.
- bfu 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

sidlls 9y ago

"So, don’t be stingy: a product with no paying users is (usually) better than a paid product with no users. It’s much easier to upsell to an existing customer than it is to find an entirely new paying customer." This is generally true, but it seems a bit like applying an Enterprise view of sales to a market of minnow sized budgets. It reinforces app consumers' view that apps should only charge for marginal value, not core value or the biggest value. This sort of "freemium" model leads to basically a market of pure crap with extremely rare gems. Edit: I'm not dumping on the author, here. Were I to "do mobile" I'd probably take a similar approach because it clearly works.

taylodl 9y ago
I must be in the minority, but I refuse to use freemium applications (those relying on in-app purchases to complete their functionality). My attitude is if you don't think your app is worth anything - I agree. Look, I'll walk into a Starbucks and spend $3 on something I'm going to consume in 30 minutes without even batting an eye. If you think your software is worth less than that then it probably doesn't warrant my time to check it out. I'm willing to concede I'm in the minority - but I'll also point out this goes a long way toward explaining why the quality of indy mobile apps is so abysmal.
- scarface74 9y ago
  Did you ever buy shareware back in the day like Doom? What's the difference?
  - bluejekyll 9y ago
    This is a great question. Shareware locked into this idea that if I could only get my game or application into people's hands, then they will love it and pay for the other features. This definitely is a similar model to a free app with in-app upgrades. The challenge is coming up with a model where the user will decide they want to upgrade. Is it more features? Is it a restricted timeframe? More game levels? I bet different app types do better with different options. I'd be curious if anyone has captured data on the best option for the different categories.
    - foobarian 9y ago
      A long time ago I made a DOS shareware app and posted it on various BBS/ftp servers. 6 months went by, and to my great surprise I got a check for $10 in the mail with an appreciative note asking for the full version with the extra features. By this time I completely forgot about the app, and of course I'd never made the full version. I think there might be a moral in there somewhere kind of like how backups don't work unless tested regularly.

sriram_iyengar 9y ago

Very impressive Jordan. Pls do consider releasing TimeTable in India - an Android version if possible. Millions of parents of primary kids (more than the students) will be happy.

guard0g 9y ago

Some profound product management wisdom there, Jordan. Wish enterprises understood it as well as you've laid out. Thanks for the post and here's to your continued mojo.

ramshanker 9y ago

TLDR: App design is equally important as coding. Design everything around first time user and simplicity.

supercoder 9y ago
Yep, for most apps design is typically the more important factor than the technical implementation.
- taneq 9y ago
  For most software, design is typically the most important factor. An app that does the right thing and has the right interface but is poorly coded and inefficient is still useful. An app that does the wrong thing, or has an awful interface, is not useful no matter how slick the code behind it.
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  Rather, software that provides value is more important than technical implementation. Design is just a way to get that value across.

firasd 9y ago

Love this bit: “Sometimes you’re stuck on a problem, and there just don’t seem to be any great solutions: maybe it’s related to a piece of code you’re writing, or decisions around how you’re going to market your app. Then, you start thinking about the problem from a wider perspective. You realize that you won’t need to even write the tricky piece of code if you architect it the right way, and that the marketing decision is one your friend (who has a knack for that sort of problem) would know how to tackle. You could sum it up as ‘taking a step back’ from the problem.” Taking a literal step away tends to help. I've often realized new approaches or epiphanies when mulling a problem while walking or in the subway.

wavefunction 9y ago
I like night-walking. The cool night air, the relative silence, the reduction of the horizon to whatever range of light my eyes can perceive... It all helps me focus and think about the primary considerations involved...
- tEMporality7 9y ago
  > The cool night air, the relative silence, the reduction of the horizon to whatever range of light my eyes can perceive... The serial killer hiding in the bushes... Edit: Jokes aside, I agree. It is very calming.
  - andai 9y ago
    Eh, still worth it if you ask me :)
lacampbell 9y ago
On solo projects I've been experimenting with a technique that sounds a bit silly but seems to help a bit. I try and take off my programmer hat, or even my analyst hat, and try and become a stakeholder. What do I want this program to do? What will make me want to use it, and what will be a deal breaker? Once I finish thinking this through, I 'become' a programmer again and get to work. Often I find that things that seem a big deal at a coding level either don't matter, or are the wrong things to worry about.

scarface74 9y ago

What's sad is because of App Store economics. He can never depend on his paying customers to ever pay for an upgrade. He will always have to chase new customers.

jamescostian 9y ago
Another sad thing is that a consumer can't tell their iDevice "hey, stop downloading updates to this app; I like it just the way it is" - the closest we can get is turning off automatic updates for all apps, and then hoping we never accidentally tap on the "Update" button for that specific app. Currently, both of the problems can be solved in one kludge: release a big upgrade as a new app. For example, I bought the app Things when it was at version 2. I liked it so much that when Things 3 came out as a separate app, I bought it too. And if I really loved the UI of Things 2 and hated the new UI in Things 3, I wouldn't have to do anything. I could keep auto-upgrade on, and never have to worry about my Things 2 app being upgraded to something I don't like.
- prawn 9y ago
  Worth noting that the makers of Things copped criticism from some users for that approach of a paid upgrade. And negative reviews can be very damaging in the App Store.
  - jamescostian 9y ago
    I was not aware of this. It definitely would suck if Things 3 had a low rating, but I just looked it up on the App Store and it has a 5 star rating. Yes, negative reviews can be very damaging, but (at least on iOS 11) not only does it say "5.0", it also says "Editor's Choice" and "#38" so I would argue that Things 3 was not really damaged too much.
    - prawn 9y ago
      Things just won an Apple Design Award in the last 1-2 weeks which gives them huge amounts of App Store support and general press. That would have put them in front of millions of new users unaware of the upgrade issue. @appstore has 4.5m followers for example. This boost is incredibly rare (10 ADAs per year). (Source: We won an Apple Design Award for our app Streaks last year.)

tarr11 9y ago

Would love to see revenue data!

jordansmithnz 9y ago
Not enough to make this my day job, while paying off a mortgage unfortunately. For short durations it has been, although my living expenses are much higher now than they once were. It's also very seasonal - it closely follows the download graph on the post.

djsumdog 9y ago

A lot of apps are like this. I know dev who were like "They made that all that money off Angry Birds." Didn't Rovio have a bunch of terrible ideas that failed and Angry Birds was one of their last ditch projects?

asmosoinio 9y ago
Yes, they spent years making games with relatively little success and bleeding money.

therealmarv 9y ago

Does somebody know which blog engine and theme was used here?

RickS 9y ago
http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-plus/ http://jekyllthemes.org/themes/kiko-plus/

stitcherpip 9y ago

British and Irish Lions Live @http://emostly.online/rugby/ http://emostly.online/rugby/

stitcherpip 9y ago

more info : http://geoprisms.org/forums/topic/hw-british-and-irish-lions-vs-highlanders-live-stream-free/ http://geoprisms.org/forums/topic/hw-british-and-irish-lions...

lettersdigits 9y ago

"Instead, my ‘moderate success’ story is closer to one of hard work, and slow, steady progress"

syngrog66 9y ago

agreed unless -- based on personal experience -- if it's treated as suspicious by the local police/neighbors, even if its a skinny, geeky-looking, white male who goes out walking alone late at night. if I had a nickel for every time I've been harassed by police or local do-gooders, I'd have a lot of those nickels. and I'm not even of the demographic that PC-ness says should be oppressed. (ostensibly: black+male, or male+gay, or non-white, or female, or mean-faced, or weapon-carrying, etc. in reality: straight white male, innocent, no weapons, not in a gang, no drugs, etc.) "why are you walking alone at this time? why are you looking at things? implied: are you a terrorist? a pedophile? explain immediately!" We do not (always) live in an intellectual-friendly culture. At least not in the USA, 2017. We (might, often) live in a small-minded, hyper-stereotyped, very ignorant local culture. Obviously it depends on precisely where you live. SF on Friday at 8pm? very different than Kansas, small town, Wednesday, etc. not even joking. (And I submit this knowing it's not a HN-hivemind/PC-aligned viewpoint, and thus will be downvoted. I do not care anymore.)

lazyasciiart 9y ago
It sounds like you are trying to suggest that because you have experienced some unwarranted poor treatment and you are a law abiding straight white man, it is not true that some people are more likely to experience such treatment because of such characteristics as race, gender, sexuality, etc. Have I understood your comment correctly?
- wojt_eu 9y ago
  As I understood the comment, the purpose of mentioning race and appearance was only to stress that just wandering at night caused the harassment. I think this also implies syngrog66 acknowledges that people are also harassed based on their race and fitting certain stereotypes.
  - lazyasciiart 9y ago
    Then what about the comment is supposed to be not aligned with a PC viewpoint?

minademian 9y ago

really great article. It's a breath of fresh air in the sea of churnalism suffering from Mediumitis - "I did this in 3 hours and now I have self-worth".

ensiferum 9y ago

Regarding just trying again and again... "Winners never quit,quitters never win but those who never win and never quit are idiots". I'm reality most of us don't really have more than a few shots except in those rare cases of the most trivial apps.

michaelevensen 9y ago

Thanks for sharing Jordan!

jansho 9y ago

It's particularly encouraging to read the many hours of work and back-stepping he's done, to get the quality really, really high. Startups are often associated with speed, but less so on flexibility, even if lean philosophy purports it. Ship fast. Get the bare-bones MVP done. Aim for viral growth. This is probably why we have millions of apps, but only a few dozens last and actually taken up by the mass. Different types of products mean different processes after all, give or take amount of resources. In this app's case, it's about re-imagining an existing function - timetables. The designer knows that user experience is everything, and because of this he's willing to scrap everything if need to. And even when this happens, it isn't exactly waste as you understand the problem deeper and come to the design of an even better solution. Sure you can argue that an MVP can bring about those design iterations. Keeps your focus on the users too. But arguably the market for this type of product is very active - though not necessarily competitive. So rather than get buried with the hundred others, it needs to shine right from the beginning.

snarf21 9y ago
You're exactly right. I think the thing you said that people can't get their head around too is that you sometimes have to decide you are wrong and start something over. Learning from failure is the hardest thing to get right. The missing piece is usually having enough data to know if you have failed. With that, going deeper and better feels like an improvement not a reset.
- jansho 9y ago
  Admitting that you're wrong may sound like a bruise to your ego, but only if you feel personally tied to the project. Pixar has a good approach; they vehemently emphasise that the project is always separate and thus criticism towards it are never personal. If you try and do it for your own project, you can get a more objective view and explore much more design possibilities. The downside to this is a longer process, and actually you become more prone to "analysis-paralysis". But still I would argue that it's part of developing yourself to become more objective, at least that's the experience with my project anyway. It's funny that we're taking about this because two weeks ago I had to tear down an entire product architecture, built over 3 years, to start all over again. I had made one flawed assumption at the beginning, and it got buried so deep that I didn't realise for a long time. It manifested itself into a set of problems that I kept hitting into, until I had to concede that there's something rotten at its core. It sounds like a waste, but no: the new product was actually designed at a much shorter time, and far better than its predecessor (well you'll just have to take my word for now ;)) And yes I do feel a bit silly for being in denial before.

srinathrajaram 9y ago

"What I’ve learned (aside from sucking it up, and sending a kind, helpful response) is: design your product as if it was going to be used by people that are a software literacy step below the target user." Completely with you on the 'sucking up and sending a kind helpful response'. Snark does not pay. It makes no sense to snap at a user. Regarding the other point about first-time users. I have a slightly related theory. When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span of a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old. But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you. Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task. Working that much harder on the UI pays off, or at least prevents a disaster.

snovv_crash 9y ago
>When you design something, design it for someone who has the attention span of a two-year-old. Not because your app is going to be used by a two-year-old. But because that is how much mental bandwidth a user is going to give you. Your user is probably busy or just likes to multi-task. I think this is a common problem, and the problem is with the people creating/selling/supporting the product, not the customer. We get so invested that we are willing to overlook little pain points or special knowledge required, which are precisely the things that drive customers away. We develop our own obscure workflow, and just by being an expert in the topic we become incapable of providing the feedback to make it friendly to new users.

6stringmerc 9y ago

Personal essay strikes again in business context - I like it very much and glad to see it here. Looks like a useful read and educational.

FollowSteph3 9y ago

It's sad that people aren't willing to pay $1 for an app but are willing to purchase in app features. I feel mobile software is moving in this direction and that it will only get worse with time. The sad part is it makes software more complex and hence more expensive overall, and you probably end up spending more over the lifetime of the product...

faet 9y ago
I feel this way and it's mostly due to apple's return policy. Because it is near impossible to return an app I generally look towards free apps with an IAP to unlock everything/remove ads. If apple had a refund policy similar to steam with a 2h return window I'd be much more willing to pay upfront.

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jaclaz 9y ago

>Sure, three million downloads is a lot, but that’s happened over more than six years. It still remains "a lot", US$ 500,000 per year, not exactly peanuts IMHO. EDIT: Ah, no wait, I misread the article, he got a handful of downlads when the app was US$1, the 3 million downloads are since it was made free/freeware.

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