SeatGeek Launches iPhone App

Re:SeatGeek Launches iPhone App by xoail on Tuesday December 11, 2012 @04:36PM (#4906982)

Very well designed indeed. Since so many people are raving about the design, is it really that important to launch an app with very good design or is that something you can iterate on? I am always interested to see the comparison on app performance (in terms of downloads, on-boarding and retaining users) when launched with super slick design and mediocre design which becomes better with each iteration. If anyone have anything to share please help me out! From my experience I see people tend to talk more about apps that are rich in design and tend to use them often too. And obviously design is one huge element that slows down shipping. I also hear people talk about getting the MVP right (with design and all) but hardly see any app that only does MVP. The apps that I and my friends use are quite complete and still tend to add more features with every update. I find this whole idea confusing where people talk about something (MVP, sticking to one thing, etc.) but I see something else (Very polished design, does a couple of things integrated together, other bells and whistles) winning in the market.

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Re:SeatGeek Launches iPhone App by biot on Tuesday December 11, 2012 @05:42PM (#4907387)

Something which is functional but lacking polish trumps something that is extremely polished but doesn't do much.

Putting it another way, which Minimum Viable Date would you choose?

  1. Cute and sociable. Smells nice, good conversationalist.
     Date involves picking up two packages of cup-a-soup from
     7-11 and sitting on the curb outside.

  2. Heroin addicted, hasn't showered in a week. Withdrawn
     from conversation. Date involves dinner and wine at a Michelin-
     starred restaurant followed by a limo picking you up and taking
     you to a sold-out concert where you're in the front row and you
     have backstage passes after.

Make sure you understand which is the feature and which is the polish. The feature in the above two examples is the person. That's what the date is really about. The polish is where you go and what you do with the person.

This is what Apple got wrong with their maps app. Its appearance is what you'd expect from Apple. It's really polished and likely went through their rigorous pixel-perfect prototyping [0]. But the underlying feature that people expect is accurate mapping. Having a map which is never wrong but looks like an Etch-a-Sketch would be preferable to a highly polished map which gets you stranded in the Australian Outback.

That said, you want to find the right balance. If you're providing the app to existing customers, they're probably looking for the functionality and can deal with a lack of polish. If you're using the app as a marketing tool to attract customers, be sure to make it look good but they may not sign up if the functionality isn't there.

[0] http://intenseminimalism.com/2011/apple-design-myths-a-summa...

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Re:SeatGeek Launches iPhone App by stankal on Tuesday December 11, 2012 @05:18PM (#4907224)

I don't think there's one answer, but over all I believe better design (not necessarily just prettier graphics) has better chances of winning. When I launched my first iOS app, I did the MVP and paid no attention to the design. It was a niche product that solved a problem and with no competitor on the App Store it did well. But, when a competitor with a better designed app launched we started loosing sales to them. It took hiring a professional graphics designer for our app to restore the lead position in the market.

Couple of lessons I learned:

- Customers won't necessarily comment on the design - but they care about it very much. - Having sub-par design leaves a door wide open for a competitor.

Of course, there are so many things that make a product successful and just having a great design by itself may not be enough, but it's one important piece of the puzzle.

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