Remember the first-timer, and other design tips to woo Indian users

Luke Sequeira, Jai Mani, and Manoj Mohan (L-R).

Designers make for an interesting bunch. You can be sure they care about first impressions – they want to control how you experience them!

Beards, glasses, hairstyles… those are some ways to fine-tune one’s appearance, and at Tech in Asia Bangalore 2016’s roundtable on user experience, each panelist sported a unique interpretation of the theme.

Veteran user experience designers Manoj Mohan of Wow Labz and Luke Sequeira of Dccper were interviewed by Jai Mani, product manager at Xiaomi India. They talked about best practices in their profession and what founders should focus on.

Assume a customer doesn’t want your product

Luke said he is building a product for truckers – guys who tend to be apprehensive about trying new apps and get put off if these come across as too complicated.

“Instead of onboarding, I think pre-boarding is more important,” Luke says. “Tell them first what the app will not do. Then start with one feature at a time.”

Your product should be able to measure which pages or features a user has already accessed. Each time a user encounters a new situation, an onboarding message should tell them what to expect, and what they can get out of it.

Localization is powerful

Photo credit: Adam Cohn.

Manoj said when building for markets like India, localization is key.

He reminded listeners that not everyone is capable of reading English, and that simple translation may not be enough. A complex product requires more than reading comprehension.

“Think about how difficult text input in different languages is. This is a huge drawback. Can you go for a mostly textless interface?” he asked.

He picked ecommerce as an example. Here, a minimum viable app consists of just two categories. “You have product and you have price. That’s language independent. There you have your UX.”

Beyond language, the other areas a designer of user experience needs to consider when localizing are functions related to connectivity, bandwidth, and the effects these have on things like loading speeds and reliability of location tracking.

Give first-time users a good experience

What the UX designer does – and doesn’t do

The UX process

Build in feedback loops