Product tips in a comic book format | Hacker News Reader

Product tips in a comic book format

growth.design

64 pointsdanbenoni16 comments

Having just read the top article on AirBnB, the first tip I see is this:

> Oh, calling me by my first name!

> That's a good way to make Airbnb feel friendlier than other hotel booking apps.

Good GOD. Am I just too cynical or are people really fooled into committing rapport to a corporation based on such low-effort implementations?

If anything I like applications less when they pretend to have a soul. Give me a tool and I'll respect you more for getting the BS out of the way.

I like seeing the name for a different reason. I’m often signed into someone else’s account—could be a family member’s or my girlfriend’s. Most services do a good job of making it clear which account you’re signed into, but seeing the first name associated with the account right away is always nice.

Some things like Slack and Microsoft Office show your initials and full name (space permitting) which isn’t as irritatingly faux-familiar.

This looks like it could have promise.

I like the presentation. The analysis seems shallow though. It feels like your thought process is, "I have some free time, let's open up this app and see what I enjoy or think is clever, or critique some places for improvement".

I think I would enjoy it if you presented a wholly new alternative UI, instead of small changes here and there. Obviously, you would only post the new UIs that are compelling, instead of trying to fit a new UI into existing apps by default.

Thanks for the comment. Very interesting points too! Indeed, we do go through a real-life use case, highlight the + and - and attach psy / UX / data insights along the way. Some companies actually reach out after the case studies to confirm the findings and hypothesis (some even confirmed winning variants or experiments in progress). It's an interesting exercise, although not meant to be an exact science as we don't have access to all the data those companies have. We have to rely on parallel research and deep-dive user interviews. Our goal is mainly to get people from different disciplines (engineering, design, marketing, sales, etc) to focus on what matters most but is often overlooked: the real-life experience of the customer. Cheers and thanks again for your comment BC!

I would emphasize whenever an analysis has been validated or commented on by the company itself. That elevates the veracity of your analysis from an "amateur blog" level to a "legitimate source for UI examples/successes" level. I think it makes sense to prioritize collecting feedback from those companies as well. Could make or break user engagement.

Very good point. If you look at the Superhuman case study, their CEO went through the slides before the release and accepted to have "their stamp" in there. Other companies don't want that information public though, that's the only problem :-/.

I've read a few of these "case studies" and I cannot really recommend it for anyone really. The format used to present is annoying and slow to ingest, basically bitmoji level comics that look silly.

The information presented might sometimes be inaccurate or the results stated might be wildly inaccurate. If you want to learn about usability, user experience design or product design, there's a lot of better resources available. I recommend keeping an eye on http://sidebar.io (and remember to take thode articles with a grain of salt)

I loved these case studies, and are presented in a great way to engage non-interested stakeholders into usability design.

It surprised us at first, but this is legit how many design teams use them…!

https://growth.design/case-studies/duolingo-user-retention/

Reading this sent a feeling of disgust down my gut. This is exactly the stuff HackerNews hates on Facebook and the like for doing and exactly what's killing my joy of technology / any love for the industry.

Not that you can't learn a language with it, if you are persistent, but Duolingo is a Game first before being a learning tool. It employs all the mobile gaming tricks that get you addicted.

I closed that one after the first few screens as even the first pattern was absolutely disgusting. I don't like when companies behave like needy little children and spam you "play with me" all the time. This whole engagement-based/time-wasting-based business model needs to die.

I don't know, it's one way to do things. You're signing up for an experience like this. Hopefully you're aware of that. If you're not, and you find you dislike the experience, you can stop without any significant loss.

It would be interesting to see multiple user experiences that you can choose between. If you find gamification motivating, you can choose that. If you just want a list of lessons and exercises with no artificial progressions, you can choose that as well. That would be an interesting next step for UI design to take, seeing as many of our objections to an offering are UI based. If companies can capitalize on that fact, they can cater to a larger user base, and alienate fewer people.

Thanks @danbenoni for putting this together, I appreciate the insights!

Sure thing! Thanks for the kind words!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com