WHY ?

By Allen Zhang (Zhang Xiaolong)

August 2012

Translated by Gustavo Madico

cn.linkedin.com/in/gustavo.madico

and 韩林涛

cn.linkedin.com/pub/alex-han/22/b21/a77

Original translation from the hand-written

version made by Zhensheng Hu, founder of Weipai

CONTENT

WeChat Development Review

Users Analysis

Needs Analysis

Design Analysis

Charisma analysis

UI Analysis

ACHIEVEMENT

WeChat has been running for 433 days and has attracted

100 million users.

WeChat has become a new portal of the Mobile Internet.

TIMELINE

Nov 19, 2010 Product launch

V1.0 Jan 26, 2011 User numbers exceeded 100 million

V2.0 May 10, 2011 Live Chat

V2.5 Aug 3, 2011 Look Around

V3.0 Oct 1, 2011 Shake and Drift bottle

V3.5 Dec 20, 2011 QR Code

V4.0 Apr 19, 2012 Moments and API support

V4.2 July 19, 2012 Voice Chat and Video Call

PRODUCT MANAGER IS STANDING

WITH GOD

• Understand human nature

• Understand group psychology

• Product manager is just like God, they build their own systems and

make rules, and users evolve in these systems.

USER ANALYSIS

USERS LIVE IN AN ENVIRONMENT

• My experiment:

• Difference between tweeting in front of a computer and tweeting when walking on the road

• Computer screen is an environment, so does Weibo itself and its content

• People you follow on Weibo reflect your world

• Difference between Moment and Qzone

• Product creates an environment which determines users’ response

USERS ARE LAZY

• Laziness leads to more inventions

• Laziness powers innovation

• Case: Using Voice Search to call your contacts

FASHION IS THE DRIVING FORCE

• " …because everyone is using…(why shouldn’t I use…) "

• Users tend to follow the trend

•"Fashion" is an important driving force among Internet products

• Don’t be too "instrumentalizing"

USERS HAVE NO PATIENCE

• Users do not have patience to read your user manual

• If you fail to make user fall in love with your product in one minute….Do

not introduce your product to your users before it’s good enough

USERS DO NOT LIKE TO LEARN

• Blog is disappearing. RSS?

• Theory of Reading on the Toilet: Content should be long enough that

users can finish while they are reading it on the toilet

USERS ARE “RABBLE”

• The Crowd

• Group IQ is below to individual IQ

• Internet users are groups, not individual

• Don’t treat a group of users in the way that we always use to treat a

single user. This works especially for Internet products.

PUT AN EMPHASIS ON “DIAOS”

• # My Daily thought# Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Path and other similar products solve one problem: people need “sense of presence”. The so-called “sense of presence” means that if people live without SNS, they will feel lonely, isolated and useless. The reason why these products are not popular in China is: Chinese people’s problem is that they need “sense of living” which is lower than “sense of presence”. But in China, some of the Chinese people have the pressure of living and in the meantime have the desire of “sense of presence”. These people are what they call “Diaos”. If you know what “Diaos” are thinking and what they need, you will understand Chinese Internet users’ real needs.

FIND OUT THE ESSENCE FROM

DAILY EXPERIENCE

• Galaxy Note: fashionable? It’s easy for people with long fingernails to

type.

• Touch switch. It’s closer to people's feelings

• Great products should meet the emotional needs of people

LET NON-WEIBO USERS USE

YOUR PRODUCT

• They should be your target users who are so lazy that they even don't

use Weibo

• They are right by your side

• Remember that they will be your users

PERSONALIZATION MEANS THAT

YOU CAN INFLUENCE OTHER BY

YOURSELF • You cannot understand other people. You can only understand yourself

• You need to understand the most common mental activities

USERS HAVE THREE POISONS

1. Greed or wrong desire

2. Hatred or anger

3. Illusion or stupidity or ignorance

• The final goal of a product is to meet human needs

• Don't put your moral sense into your product

• You want users to use your product, but you tell users not to use WeChat too much. The world is absurd

• “Products are all combinations of techniques and art” Steve Jobs

NEEDS ANALYSIS

SAY NO TO NEW IDEAS. YOU ARE

99% RIGHT

• Most of the “I have an idea” are not real needs

• Never guess users’ needs

DON’T DEVELOP WHATEVER USERS

NEED

• Don’t meet users’ need directly

• User needs are fragmented. The solution is to summarize these needs

• User feedback can only help you understand their thoughts

MOST OF THE NEW FEATURES CAN

BE CUT OFF

• Think about how many new features are not necessary?

DON’T LOOK FOR NEEDS FROM

COMPETITIVE PRODUCTS

• is Graffiti important to you?

• You cannot deeply understand needs from other products

DON’T BELIEVE PRODUCT

MANAGERS

• They are not users, but they thought they can tell what users needs

• Their analysis is too rational

• They will ask you to add “Online”, “Already Sent”, “Already Read”, “Grouping”, “Filter”, ”Graffiti”, “Synchronizing in different terminals ”, “Cloud Saving”, ”post text, photo, video to timeline”, “multiple avatar”, “automatically import phone contacts”, “Group name card”……

TELL THEM TO USE OTHER PRODUCTS!

NEED COMES FROM YOUR

UNDERSTANDING OF USERS

• Need doesn’t come from survey

• Need doesn’t come from analysis

• Need doesn’t come from discussion

• Need doesn’t come from competitors

UNDERSTAND USERS’ TASTE ON

WEIBO

• Spend 1 hour reading Weibo updates everyday to know how users are

talking about your product

• What are users’ feelings? How do they use it?

• What might be the trend of this era?

• Wait for users saying: ”This product is amazing!”

LOOK FOR INSPIRATIONS FROM

USERS’ DISCUSSIONS

• Users’ weibo updates are users’ real response of your product in real

scenarios

• Case: The story of “rock-paper-scissors”

• There is nothing that can stop users playing “ rock-paper-scissors” by

using WeChat

EVERY ERA HAS ITS OWN PRODUCT

• Focus kindly on the trend of this era

• From QQ to WeChat

MEET USERS’ NEED FIRST, THEN

YOUR OWN NEED

• You cannot really understand others

• You cannot meet every specific need of all the users

• Understand the majorities’ need from your own perspective

• Case: Already Read

• Case: Voice Reminder, Voice Search

FIND OUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL

NEED BEHIND USERS’ NEED

• The nature of users’ need is always due to their psychological need

• Drift bottle: people has the need to confide; people has curiosities. This is an example of a psychological drive. People has a strong desire to trust

• Drift bottle is not designed for making friends. (Case: To send a “voice” bottle or a “text” bottle.)

TRY TO SATIATE PEOPLE’S

PSYCHOLOGICAL DEMANDS. IT’S

MUCH BETTER THAN HELP THEM

SAVE MONEY • SMS replacement tool can help users save money, but it will not succeed.

If you want to help users save more money, you will be in trouble

• WeChat is not QQ. WeChat is not just a communication tool

• WeChat is a way of life. People’s psychological demand lies on first place

BEING COOL!

• Cool! (The purpose of marketing is to let users feel "cool")

• Fun! (If you get a comment in Weibo saying your product is "fun“, then

you know you’ve made a good product.)

• The basis of word of mouth is "fun“.

• “Cool” is an experience. It’s easier to tell people about your experience

rather than tell people about what good features look like

GROUP EFFECT: LOOK AROUND

• Case: look around

• You make friends not for knowing some strangers but for curiosity

• What will happen between them?

• Everyone is observing others, and being observed in the same time

• It’s their first time to know each other in such way

DESIGNED FOR GROUP EFFECT:

SHAKE

• People love simple actions

• People will be interested in random things

• People will be interested in others who are living in a different circle

• Shake has a Group Effect

“MOMENTS” IS DESIGNED BECAUSE

OF A CERTAIN IDEA

• Idea: People need to gain a sense of presence from friends’ attentions.

Photo is the best carrier of interactive behaviors on a phone. People

only need a few friends, but people like to get together without

exposing their friends

• A community which is more intimate than Facebook and Path

• Idea is more important than features

• Design it for our own use

FOCUS ONLY ON MAIN SCENARIOS,

INSTEAD OF ALL THE FEATURES

• It’s easy to develop too many features, but it’s hard to develop a few

good ones

• If you don’t have ability to simplify things, you need to restrain your

desire to develop too many features

• To develop too many features means you’re not confident

• Case: In Moments, you can only post photos. It’s far more difficult to post

140 words than post a photo

DO NOT USE STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

TO HELP YOU FIND NEED

• Microsoft, Nokia, Google

YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND

USERS’ NEED FROM A SURVEY

• If you ask users what they need, they will tell you that they need QQ

group

• User feedback can help improve user experience, but it won’t give you

any ideas about what kind of new stuff you can develop

• You cannot know what users need from statistics

NEED COMES FROM PEOPLE’S

CURIOSITY ON GROUP EFFECT

• “Drift bottle”

• “look around”

• “Shake”

NEED COMES FROM YOUR OWN

NEED AND FEEDBACK OF YOUR

FRIENDS

• Bluetooth support

• Web WeChat

• Stick to-do emails

• Data transferring from phone to phone

NEED COMES FROM YOUR

UNDERSTANDING OF CURRENT

LIFESTYLE • “Moments”: People need to gain a sense of presence from interacting with

friends which make them feel comfortable

NEED COMES FROM YOUR

UNDERSTANDING OF THE PLATFORM

• API of the Open Platform is beautiful

• The ecosystem of Open Platform is very attractive

• People are looking forward to the uncertainty of Open Platform

• Open Platform is a ecosystem rather than a product

NEED COMES FROM YOUR

UNDERSTANDING OF

INFORMATION FLOW

• Subscribe Platform: All information can be pushed

• Each individual can stand out

• Make brand spread through friends

NEED COMES FROM BUILDING A

NEW SYSTEM

• Make QR code popular and make it a portal

• Meet users’ psychological or economic needs by building a simple rules

and create a self-running system

DECIDE WHAT ARE THE NEW

VERSION’S FEATURES AT THE LAST

STEP • Don’t pre-plan future versions. Decide what the needs of next version are after finishing developed the current

• Always think about all possibilities of product features

• Important needs will come out at the right time

• Case: look around

THE WORLD IS NEW

• Forget the past data and even experience

• What’s important is insight of current trend and future trend

• Search box is the portal of PC; QR code is the portal of phone

PRODUCT DEVELOPS STEP BY STEP.

IT’S NOT PLANNED

• What the features of each WeChat version are is determined after the launch of last version

• We cannot know what the product should be in half a year. Don’t believe planning

• Don’t determine what the features of next version should be too early. It all depends on the user environment and our judgment on current situation

GOOD PRODUCT SHOULD HAVE

THEIR OWN DNA

• DNA is the value and people’s cognition of a product

• If we treat a product as an entity with life, then it should have DNA

GROUP EFFECT IS THE CORE OF

SOCIAL PRODUCTS

• Through observing into the deep heart of human, and the rules of

building a virtual community, people can create a group effect. A group

of people can change the rules

• Case: How to interact with Stars

IT’S WRONG TO DIVIDE USERS INTO

3 LEVELS: LOW-END, MIDDLE-END

AND HIGH-END

• Develop a product that everyone loves to use

• A universal product is not supposed to be designed like designing for

very young users. This is not professional.

• Every user is equal to each other.

DESIGN ANALYSIS

TO DESIGN PRODUCT STRUCTURE

FIRST, AND THEN DESIGN DETAILS

• Product structure is the skeleton. It cannot be varied and complex

• Creation starts from the skeleton, rather than muscle

• Case: product structure of WeChat

FUNCTIONAL MODULES ARE

ORGANICALLY LINKED TO EACH

OTHER

• Case: Moments and personal photo album

DESIGNING IS CLASSIFYING

• Classification is the recognition mode of human brain

• Classification is used to simplify things

• Product manager should think about how to make things more organized

• Case: WeChat ensures that there are only four bottom tab

USE ABSTRACT METHOD TO

SIMPLIFY THINGS

• Using abstract method is to find common characteristics of things

• Using abstract method means that we can use a simple model to solve different problems

• Simplification is a high-level abstract method

• Case: content in Moments

• Case: a certified account, covering celebrities, artists, enterprises, restaurants, traditional media, internet media, etc.

SIMPLER CLASSIFICATION CAN BE

EASILY ACCEPT

• QQ Mail didn’t become more complicated

• WeChat will be updated, but the structure of WeChat will still be very

simple

FIND THE REAL NATURE OF THE

USER NEED

• Case: Should we add a grouping feature in the address book of

Moments?

• Some users said they want a grouping feature, but how many of them

really need this feature?

• How if nobody use grouping feature after you add it into WeChat?

PRODUCT SHOULD BE DESIGNED

ACCORDING TO SPECIFIC

SCENARIOS RATHER THAN A

COLLECTION OF FEATURES.

• “If you want feature X, buy a HTC / Samsung whatever instead” Jony Ive (Apple)

• Don’t put a bunch of features together. Features are not isolated and should be used in certain scenarios

• Case: To link your phone with a keyboard or to use Web WeChat

• Case: auto-play, or driving mode

PRODUCTS SHOULD BE SCENE-

ORIENTED

• Showing “Online” status? Mobile phone is always online

• PC version? PC version will be off-line, you cannot send SMS in real-time

• When using QQ, users love to use “88” to express ”Goodbye”. We don’t

like this

FEATURES SHOULD BE INVISIBLE

• Case: the food businesses plugin is not visible, and you need to scan QR

• New updates should be invisible in new version

• Only newbies will list all the new features in an obvious place

THE DIFFERENT BETWEEN PHONE

AND PC

• The phone is an extension of the limbs. Mobile phones and human are connected through a variety of sensors. PC stays in an external environment

• Mobile Internet products are not simple transplants from PC to phone

• Without a phone, you won’t see this PPT. (I recorded my thoughts using Evernote. I cannot do it on a PC)

• To develop Mobile Internet products without a web version

DON’T OVERDESIGN

• The more you design, you are much more possible to be wrong

• Focus more on designing main features and less on side features

• Case: Look around

TRY TO ACHIEVE THE BEST USER

EXPERIENCE EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO

CUT SOME FEATURES

• Receiving too much visits is not the purpose, so that we don’t have to add

too much channels

• Case: Why shouldn’t we add an Edit button in the upper left corner of the

chat interface?

PRODUCTS OR OPERATIONS?

• Get your work done once and forever

• Are you developing a Class or an Instance?

• A good feature doesn’t need to be improved again and again. Make it the

best in one time

• Difference between QQ Mailbox’s Drift bottle and WeChat’s Drift

Bottle

• “A good product will attract users”

LET USERS HELP USERS

• Let users help users, rather than let the system administrators

help them

• Case: how users set their avatar?

NO PRODUCT CAN BE SIMPLER

THAN THE SIMPLEST ONE

• Case: Shake. Pony said, nothing can be better than Shake, because it’s

already the best and simplest

DESIGN FOR THE FUTURE 2 YEARS

• Case: Is “Message Sent” necessary? Network condition will be good

enough to send a message successfully in 2 years

OPERATING RESPONSE SPEED IS

ALWAYS THE FIRST USER EXPERIENCE

• Case: fluency of the timeline of Moments

IF A FEATURE IS NOT EXCITING, IT IS

BETTER NOT DEVELOP IT

• You cannot really understand the need that you are not interested in

• Curiosity is the driving force of a Product manager

• A perfect logic is also exciting

• Show users the best features to attract them. It’s unnecessary to list all

features

• (Case: QQ mailbox transfer station)

THERE IS NO NEED TO DEVELOP

ALL FEATURES IN ONE TIME

• Don’t add Version 2.0’s features into 1.0.

• If you’re not sure about feature, don’t develop it

• Launching a version means you want to test your hypothesis. It’s

beginning of product improvement

• Case: Web WeChat is not exactly the same as the mobile version

• Case : Replying a comment in Moments

IF THERE IS NO NATURAL GROWTH,

PROMOTION IS UNNECESSARY

• If you force users to use your products, you will only leave a bad

impression to your users. They won’t use it anymore

• KPI is a by-product of a good product. Don’t change your product for

KPI

BE EXTENSIVE, AND BE CLUMSY

• If you don’t have a good solution, then don’t solve the problem

• Case: send information to wrong group

• Case: Group name card, group messages screening

• Focus on important scenarios

• If a feature is not important, you can put it into “Settings”, or never

develop it

IF THE SOLUTION IS VERY COMPLEX,

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING

WRONG WITH THE PROBLEM YOU

WANT TO SOLVE

• Case: Video call

YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF A

PRODUCT IS EMBODIED IN EVERY

DETAIL

• You yourself should be satisfied with every detail

• Whether you’re satisfied depends on your own standard0

• Case: “ Sent from my iPhone" and “Sent from Shenzhen"

GIVE USERS OPTIONS

• Plug-ins can be uninstalled except for core features

• Keep it simple

RESPECT USERS

• Protect user privacy (Get users’ permission to upload contacts to; inform users that LBS exposes location)

• Do not mislead users

• When developing a feature, focus on user experience. Case: in all text editing field, content should be auto saved in case of crash

• Case: system email. Use a real product manager’s signature, rather than using “System administrator"

ONE VERSION IN THE WHOLE

WORLD

• Case: Mailbox

• Case: WeChat internationalization. Wechat will not develop a localized

version for different regions but only one global version

ACHIEVING THE BEST USER EXPERIENCE IS

THROUGH INNOVATION

• When your user use his hand to cover that iPhone screen, why it doesn’t

switch to loud speaker mode? Why it can when it’s near to your ear? Why

WeChat can recognize your ear?

YOUR VALUES (ATTITUDES) DETERMINE

YOUR PRODUCT FEATURES

• How did we decide to develop photo filter, and how did we do that?

• Rational analysis is utilitarian and not perfect

• It’s all depends on your attitude to photo. Will photo be more beautiful with a filter or without a filter?

TO CHANGE USER HABITS

• For a hundred years after telephone was invented, it has been always

annoying people

• WeChat doesn’t allow a sudden phone call

• You cannot re-invent the telephone, but you can change the way how

people make phone calls

• New habits make users more comfortable

ABANDON ALL THE INNOVATIONS

THAT ARE NOT USER-FRIENDLY

• Innovation is not based on rational thinking

• Innovation is not to serve others

• “Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?” By

Bezos

• Case: Press (not hold) the button on your earphone and start to speak.

This is unacceptable.

AVOID REPLACING REAL NEED

WITH STRATEGIC BEHAVIOR

• If you want put all features together to meet users’ need, it means all of

these features are not good

• If you have to invite people to use your product, it means your product is

going to die

• Don’t build a platform when you want to. You build a platform for a

certain reason

• Your product shouldn’t be comprehensive. Otherwise, it will have no

shining points

BE USER-ORIENTED AND CHANGE

YOUR BUSINESS MODEL

• Brand spreads among friends

• Digitalization of media

• How do stars communicate with each of their fans?

YOU’RE NOT DESIGNING A PRODUCT,

BUT SOLVING A PROBLEM

• Avoid design-oriented development

• User-oriented development

INNOVATION OR PLAGIARISM?

• You cannot re-invent the telephone

• But everything you do could be brand new

• Follow your users, rather than other products

• Speak by using your product

THE STORY OF DEVELOPING

MOMENTS

• Repeatedly compare various of scenarios

• Think about what will happen when thousands of people start to use this

product

• Find out the key points and give up details which are not important

(Comment reply, grouping and so on)

HOW TO BE NATURAL

BEING NATURAL

• Being natural is an instinctive behavior and psychic reaction of human

• Inspirations: being simple; users even don’t have to think about it

DON’T THINK IN A TECHNICAL

WAY

• How iOS hides its technology: file? Folder ? Uninstall? Process ?

• Complex technology should be hidden from users, but with extremely good usability

• Product is built rationally, but used to express emotions

• Don’t use “support” in product instructions

• “We support XX features“ is an out-of-date expression

SHAKE: A SERIES OF NATURAL

REACTION

UI SHOULD BE NATURAL

• Use animation effect to become natural: the animation effect of showing

comments in Moments

• UI helps to get feedbacks

• Generate a natural feedback which is easy to understand

SINGLE PATH

• A fixed path is better than providing several paths for users, even if the

fixed path is very long

• Home button

• Shortcut is not important. Users cannot depend on shortcuts

• Multiple functions into a single operation, increasing complexity

“BEING COOL" IS THE FUTURE

• Being cool is a natural and simple

• Case: Taking a capture

DEVELOP A FEATURE THAT USERS

CAN EASILY LEARN IN 3 SECONDS

• Remove all text description (or at least hide them all)

• Case: instructions of Shake.

• Being clear and understandable is better than all other decorations

“MANAGEMENT" IS NOT NATURAL

• Don’t let users get stuck into management work

• Calendar?

• Contact grouping? (Weibo grouping, Google+)

SINGLE DIMENSION IS MORE

BEAUTIFUL

• One dimension is better than two dimensions

• Timeline of Twitter and Weibo is an example of one dimension

• Can Mail be one-dimensional? How about checking emails like checking Twitter updates?

• In your phone interface, try not use TAB or drop down list on your title bar

• How about the drawer design of Facebook?

PROVIDING A “CHANGE YOUR THEME”

FEATURE SHOWS THAT YOUR ARE NOT

CONFIDENT

• If you’re not confident in your default them, you product won’t have a

good visual effect. (Except for some certain Apps, like Weibo, that focus

on personalized theme design)

• Focus on designing the default theme

DON’T LET USERS SELECT

• You only have to provide the most common pattern

• Do not provide any options. (For example, you provide a list view and a

waterfall view for users to select)

• Whenever you provide an option, you will confuse your users

WHY WE DON’T SHOW “ALREADY

SENT” AND “ALREADY READ”

• It’s unacceptable for users to look at whether their messages are sent

successfully or read by other users after they send a message

• A message with a “tail” is not simple and natural

• Being natural is an intuition

LESS IS BETTER

• Too much content will destroy the community atmosphere

• Too much friends will lead to social phobia

• Focus on too much will lead to a lack of attraction

• Case: Wechat does not have a bulk import feature. It doesn’t import batch list of your phone contacts and QQ friends.

• Case: Moments does not display articles of your QQ space.

100 MILLION USERS IS JUST ONE

USER

• They are the same

• If you listen to them carefully and understand their need, you can easily

become them naturally

• You need to know whether they are happy, angry or sad

• Always remember you are providing service to 100 million users.

BECOME A “FOOL USER” INSTANTLY

• Try to become a “fool user” instantly

• Understand how users use your product by using CE

• You can find more problems from the view of a fool user

• Focus on the first time of using a product. After you get used to it, you

cannot easily find a problem

IMPROVE YOUR INTUITION ON

"NATURAL THING"

• Intuition comes from your analysis of thousands of problems

• Forget about your past experience. Take a loot at this world with a more

natural way. For example, this world is not too technical

• The solution of a complex problem may not come from reasoning, but

intuition

ATTITUDE OF THE PRODUCT

MANAGER

• Seek for knowledge, not for fighting for self-esteem

• Don’t be emotional, then you go deep into the nature of the problem

• Prove yourself with statistics and survey data

• Your disadvantages might be what you are good at. For example, a person

who has social phobia might know how to develop a social product

CHARISMA ANALYSIS

A DESIRE TO CHANGE THE OLD

WORLD

• My own expectation to iPhone5 is: It’s like an iPad(3G). It’s not a phone. I

don’t have to pay the phone call fee. You can send me messages via Kik,

talk to me via Google Voice and take a video call with me via Facetime.

• I said this one day before we decide to develop WeChat

YOU NEED TO HAVE YOUR OWN

IDEAS AND VISIONS

• Wechat is "a way of life“

• Ideas determine the height of your product

• Your attitude will be reflected in all details of your product. You cannot

avoid this

WECHAT IS "A WAY OF LIFE"

• "a", not “a type of"

• The difference between WeChat and QQ lies in here.

AN IT PRODUCT SHOULD LET USERS

EXPERIENCE THE CONSCIOUSNESS

OF HUMANITY

• 1,000 users have 1,000 feelings

• The start page of WeChat

“DON’T ALWAYS USE WECHAT”

• Do you see any product that is not recommended to use? (Except for

tobacco)

• This sentence reflects your understand of your products and your users

• You say this not for marketing purpose, although it do have a marketing

effect

LAUNCH YOUR PRODUCT BY

USING YOUR WELCOME PAGE

• Do not list features. It’s too technical

• Launch your product online, not offline

• Each welcome page is a story

• The welcome page is one of the several places where you can express

your own feelings

• Let users expect your products

A GOOD PRODUCT MANAGER

SHOULD BE A ROCK MUSIC FAN

• Rock means anti-tradition, humanity, freedom

• Rock helps find the nature of the human, and this nature will be reflected

in the product

• Story between PINK FLOYD and MJ

• We won’t give you an iPad

• Think different and do different

CREATE USER-FRIENDLY ADS

• Don’t create ads when you think you should have one

• Get inspired from user feedback (many ads words came from users’

comment, for example: WeChat makes family sounds sexy. )

• WeChat ads in the mailbox

WORK WITH THE BEST PARTNERS

• Tuski

• National Geographic photographer

• NIKE

TEXT REFLECTS CHARISMA

• What you write down shows how you speak which shows your own

charisma.

• Be clear and easy to understand which shows that you are logical

• Treat your users as friends. Don’t please users nor think too much of

yourself

• Bad Case: tips showing on the screen when you’re sending a picture

SOME WORDS THAT YOU SHOULD

AVOID USING

(Translator note: It’s quite hard to translate this page, because the Chinese

words mentioned in this page are note translatable.)

THE SENSE OF FUTURE

• Keywords: future, technology, abstract, simplicity

• Forget about any Chinese elements?

• Abstract or simulated reality?

• You can apply it only when you feel the beauty of simplicity.

• When taking a video call, should we use any blue sky and white cloud

pictures as the background?

YOU DO NOT HAVE COMPETITORS

• What’s important is what you want to do, not what they’re doing

• WeChat doesn’t have a competitor, nor does it analyze any other similar

products

• They are not our product managers

• Focus on future rather than focus on your competitors

A PIECE OF ART RATHER THAN A

PRODUCT

• “A piece of art will defeat the utilitarian product” Steve Jobs commented

on Apple’s competition. Microsoft

• A piece of art desires for perfection

DEVELOP A PRODUCT WHICH HAS

A SOUL

• Product should have a soul: organic structure (product structure),

muscle (functions), charisma(values), quick responding (high speed), rational (logical and reasonable interactive method), way of speaking(copywriter).

• Like a human, the product is a harmonious entity without schizophrenia

• Persist in your product so that your product won’t be split. Collective decision-making leads to mediocrity and products being split into various parts. But you need opinions and feedbacks by brainstorming and listening to others

• Product has a personality. It may not be perfect, but it should be delicate like a good handicraft with harmony inside

AN INDIVIDUAL SHOULD ENJOY

MORE FREEDOM

• Internet products should give individuals more freedom

• How to evaluate the comment mechanism of Weibo?

• Personalized long tail product is the future

• Industrialization meet the low-cost need; personalization reflects unique value

UI ANALYSIS

NEVER USE YOUR COMPETITORS’

PRODUCT

• UI designers are prohibited to use competitors' products so that they

can’t be misled.

• Product managers can experience a little bit, but don’t use too much

FEATURES DETERMINES THE UI,

RATHER THAN VICE VERSA

• Features first, then UI

• Avoid changing the applications scenarios and product features due to a

good UI design

A GOOD LAYOUT IS BETTER THAN

VISUAL PERFORMANCE

• Classification is important

• Indentation shows whether the classification is good

• A clear layout is important than being quick

• Case: For the dialogue input bar, is one line good or two lines?

THERE SHOULD BE ONLY ONE

STYLE

• In order to maintain consistency, try to use only one font, one type of

control, one background ... in one application

• A variety of styles may confuse users

• Try to use standard interface

• Being reasonable is more important than being different

EACH INTERFACE SHOULD ONLY

HAVE ONE THEME

• Photography principles: a photo should only have one theme

• Do not split the interface into two parts

• Highlight the theme

EVERY DIALOG BOX HAS AN

OBVIOUS DEFAULT BUTTON

• Don’t let me think

• Case: Users are confused when being noticed that they can send the

original picture to their friends

FREQUENTLY USED FEATURES SHOULD

BE IMPROVED BETTER AND BETTER

• When users scroll to the top of the screen, the automatic loading feature

should be smoother

• Improvement of the Chat Background

Chat Background: the background picture you see when you’re chatting.

A GOOD FEATURE DOESN’T NEED

INSTRUCTIONS

• Do not assume that users will look at the instructions

• Do not assume that the user understand the background information

• Goal: users will know how to use your product without any explanations

• Avoid using “Tips”. A tip is like a bandage.

HIDDEN NUMBERS

• N photos

• N contacts

• downloading 78.56%

EXPLORE NEW INTERACTIVE MODE

• Mobile phones are usually used to interact

• There are many sensors on a phone

• Case: how to identify people in a room?

• Case: auto picture zoom-out feature of Moments

IMPROVE YOUR AESTHETIC

JUDGMENT

• Your product will not be better than your aesthetic judgment

• Your aesthetic judgment is embedded in every detail of your product

• Case: the drop-down wheel in Moments

• Case: Simple sense of beauty

THANKS!

WHAT I SAID IT IS ALL WRONG ;)

WHY ?

By Allen Zhang (Zhang Xiaolong)

August 2012

Translated by Gustavo Madico

cn.linkedin.com/in/gustavo.madico

and 韩林涛

cn.linkedin.com/pub/alex-han/22/b21/a77

Original translation from the hand-written version made

by Zhensheng Hu, founder of Weipai