Tuesday 1 September 2015

App Presentation: Pinterest

I thought that the presentations yesterday were a good way to get to know more about the strengths and flaws of apps out in the industry today, The app presentation that I've been tasked to talk about is Pinterest. I thought the presenter spoke well and was able to bring the group's thoughts and opinions across very well. I'd like to bring out a few points that caught my attention during the presentation.

I really liked their suggested improvements to the logic flow of the app. I really feel that this might be a better way of having users test and try out what the app uses before deciding to log in and create pin boards and contribute on their own. In my experiences with similar social content sharing sites like Deviantart, Tumblr and the sort, most people start off as passive users. It takes time for them to come to like and use the app. It would do Pinterest good to do the same. The book 'Rework' by Jason Fried and David Hansson, talked about something similar to this. 'Don't be afraid to give a little away for free, as long as you've got something else to sell'. In this case, it would be the 'free' trial of using the app without logging in.

I have not used Pinterest before, so I went to check it out. You can actually explore the site without logging in, but that is if you search on google for your categories on Pinterest (which should not be the way to go). But after awhile the website prompts you to log in and you can't close the prompt, so I guess it's not really counted. :P Anyway, kudos for picking that point out.

The commercial element of Pinterest was nicely stated. It is true, that a new model of business is arising through social media apps where users get inspired to buy from looking at pretty things. Pinterest seems to have that platform ready to pin the things that you are interested to buy. Businesses can use this to promote their products, by marketing them well to Pinterest users. As mentioned, Pinterest already has ad features like promoted pins and machine learning. Combining these two, businesses can definitely benefit by advertising their items to people who are actually interested in buying similar items. Higher chance of them clicking on the ads. Native advertising ftw!

Lastly, they mentioned about little UI/UX flaws, such as inconsistent texts and weird video displays and I believe that these small mistakes can really undermine the app. It makes it look unprofessional and feel like testing had not been thoroughly done. It is important to have a stable app when releasing production. We should learn from others mistakes and try not to repeat them.

I feel that Pinterest has its own specialized user base and I think that is a good indication that an app has been successful. These loyal followers are emotionally attached to this app and may be able to help Pinterest by asking their friends to join and use the app as well. Social sites have that kind of advantage when it requires users to be social so in turn leading to more users using the app. Of course when starting out, this might be hard because people do not want to start using a social site if it is empty. Like it was mentioned in the Growth Hacking session last week, it is important to understand the psychology of users as well, when marketing the app. (and for UI/UX too!)

2 comments:

  1. Hey, Haritha! :)

    Good post up there!

    I'd have to agree on the "free trial" by allowing users to not log in for a while and the continuously appearing login prompt could sure be irritating. Sometimes I do want to stroll around pages and apps just to see whether it fits my interest and style before subscribing to the app.

    Talking about logic flow, I'm biased towards not liking Pinterest's flow. My friends once told me to visit the site and I did so. I was so confused on what I should do. The terms "pin", "board", etc. wasn't that natural to me. I wonder whether it is just me, or...? I suppose, Pinterest do have their own specialized user base, just like you said.

    It's interesting to see how social and interest-based apps are starting to expand into commercial markets. Perhaps, there are too many social-based apps nowadays and the stronger ones should start finding their ways out of the crowd to survive? Just a naive thought.

    Oh, and I like your quote "Don't be afraid to give a little away for free, as long as you've got something else to sell" :)

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    1. Hihi

      Thanks! Yes I've thought about that too. Social apps are everywhere and it seems so difficult to start our own successful social app. We need to find something compelling enough to make users want to switch.

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