Ben Hamey, Lead UX Designer from App Development Studio Bonobo, hosted an hour-long ideas & implementation session around their unique approach to UX and design for startups in Singapore at an event organized by JFDI.Asia. The talk brought in the biggest crowd yet – over 100 people showed up to learn how to implement UX successfully in your startup or next project.
What was some of the advice he shared?
1. UX is everyone’s job
User experience should be considered during every step of development. It incorporates different areas of expertise – psychology, usability, research, behavior, anthropology, graphic design and more– which means for the best design, you need to rely on the expertise and contributions of many people. Don’t expect your UX designer to be able to take your app from blah to great with “virtual Windex.”
2. Hire a designer
Yes, they cost money. But you’ll lose lots more by not hiring a designer.
Ben recommended checking out dribbble and scoutzie to find great designers available for hire.
3. Use rough prototypes over wireframes.
Wireframes tend to be abstract (difficult for stakeholders to understand), they don’t show the flow, etc. Make rough prototypes instead. Ben recommended using Mac App Store’s Prototypes, balsamiq and mocksup.
4. Steal
Legally, of course. Need to come up with a user profile for your site? Then look at the top 10 sites that use profiles and copy the best features of their design. If something works, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. Look at how Yammer copied Facebook’s newsfeed, or how Reddit copied Facebook’s timeline 😛.
Check out these sites that feature the top apps/designs:
pttrns.com
mobile-patterns.com
patterntap.com
5. Onboarding is important
Ben suggested following the lead of games, which force you through actions and constantly remind you what buttons to press for various actions. In the apps world, look at how the to do list app Clear introduces instructions to the user.
Catch the slides from the talk here.
Bonobo is an independent software development studio, formed in 2009 by a team of developers and designers with a passion for making attractive, creative applications that people love to use. Their most recent app, “PostSecret” topped Appstore charts around the world, whilst their other apps have been featured in the New York Times, CNN, TechCrunch and many other media outlets. Over a million people use Bonobo apps. See www.bonobolabs.com for more company information or follow them on Twitter: @bonobo