Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger recently spoke at a 500Startups event. He shared eight ways to design a beautiful, functional app.
Here are his tips via The Next Web's Ken Yeung, who was there taking notes:
- Understand what you're building. Krieger warned the crowd not to start creating an app with any pre-conceived notions. Talk to experts or immerse yourself in the field before you start coding so you're armed with knowledge.
- Decide how you'll be different. Krieger suggests putting together "Product Mad Libs." : ___ is ____; it does ___. Unlike ___, we ___.
- Sketch first, code second. Instagram ended up trashing entire features it had built. Talk out the functionality and design with someone before you get started.
- Build in weeklong increments. Krieger says Instagram would focus on answering one big question per week, such as "can we build great-looking filters?" and ship an updated product every Friday.
- Be able to explain your product quickly and easily. Krieger says if you can't explain it to a stranger at a bar, it's not simple enough.
- Control what you reveal to the world. Krieger says to choose what you share wisely with a carefully selected number of individuals. Private betas can be a good way to start testing concepts.
- Know when to move on to the next feature. Keep things moving.
- Create and ship. Watch what your users are doing and iterate.
For more design tips, check out the full presentation Krieger gave, below:
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