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The following features have been implemented:
The last feature (setup products to sell) was not implemented since i can’t find any walkthrough on how to do it.
Free Samples
A great way for people to notice and know your products more is to give them a free sample. It will give them a feel on the products that the company has to offer. Give a free service or a product and if people like it, more likely people will upgrade the product and will pay for it graciously.
Easy On, Easy Off
Let people try your products for free. When doing so the step to be able to try it should be easy. Signing up for the trial should be fast and easy. It should not exceed a minute. The form for signing up should be short and only needed details should be asked. At the same time you let your users to cancel their accounts. People should be able to get out easily without any hassle or any problems. People should easily get control of their data and information in websites. It is a good way of building trust in your customers.
Silly Rabbit, Tricks are for Kids
Don’t trick your customers in paying something that should be free. Do not do them to get cash. Cash should be earned. Do not let customer sign long term contracts like some cellphone companies do. Do not let your customers pay termination and setup fees also. If you do it will be much easier for people to try your service and that they won’t be afraid of anything to try the service.
A Softer Bullet
When there is a need to increase the price of a service or a product, tell the public in advance. It will at least give the customers sometime to think about it and cool off their heads. And also you can give that some incentives at a certain period of time for them to ease the pain of price increase a little.
There’s Nothing Functional about a Functional Spec
There is no need to make functional specifications document since they do not show the real application. It doesn’t almost anything have to do with the real application almost every time. They are just there to make everyone feel they are involved in it. These documents only make people confused because the texts may be the same but how they understand the text is completely different. These also make you make decision right away even if little knowledge is available. Where suppose to be that making decisions are done when there is enough information. These also results into overload in specifications. Specs also make changes more difficult. As an alternative, make only a 1 page paper in which specifying what are the needed feature for the application. Then make the interface and code it. This way it is much faster and easier to understand.
Don’t Do Dead Documents
Do not make documents if they do not evolve into something that is real. Building something is a better way to explain the application compared to documenting it. Don’t do anything that is not related to the real application.
Tell Me a Quick Story
When there is really a need to explain something, tell it in a story. Don’t give out details. There is no need to tell technical details. Tell it in a story so that it could be understood better.
Use Real Words
In making the interface, type in real words rather than typing anything. Even if it is faster, it is still not recommended since you won’t be able to see the real thing and that it will be unfair for the users. Real words are also needed in the design to know the design fits the words.
Personify Your Product
Let your product have a unique theme. And when building the product always think about the theme and think if it complements the theme that you thought of. Having a unique theme also lets the product be different from other products.
Less Software
The more codes that you put into the program, the more complicated it will become and the harder for people to maintain it. To be able to fix this problem, just code as short as possible. And the best way to code short is if the features of the software is less and that only the most essential and most important features are retained. Another way is to find out alternative solutions in a problem. Find the shortest and easiest way to solve a software problem. By doing this cost and time will be lessened.
Optimize for Happiness
Keep your programmer happy. If they are happy they will be more productive. Programmer need to have fun on whatever it is they are doing. If they don’t have fun, after sometime, they will lose their focus on what they are doing. For them to be happy, they have to use tools that they are most comfortable using. If they use tools that are not familiar to them it will cost them to not be productive since they are not comfortable using it. The more the programmer is happy the more the codes become much less complicated and easier to understand.
Code Speaks
Having a long code and taking a long time to code something are signs that the code is trying to tell you something. It is trying to tell you that there are better ways of doing it. It might be telling you that there are still ways to lessen the code may be by lessening the features of the software. Always pay attention to your code. It can even tell you what the best way of designing the interface of the software.
Manage Debt
Debt here means programs that are hacked that have unnecessary or long codes and designs that are not really that good. They are debts because even though they are good, they still have room for improvement. You can still clean the long codes short and improve the design.
Open Doors
Developers should let users or customers get the information they want every time and anytime they want to. Give them the information via feeds which will let people get updated every now and then. Offer apis to people and let them develop something using your tool which may help your software to be patronized by people.
Interface First
When building a program always start with the interface because it is what the user will see. It should be user friendly. Designing the interface is a good way to start since it will be more flexible in a way that you can easily change the design every now and then to see if there is something to improve on it. If the interface is done at first it will be easier I think for the programmer to put on codes since you now have something as a guide to help you know how the program works and looks like.
Epicenter Design
When designing, always do first what is the most essential or the most important feature. Those features are those that cannot be left out. It will be faster and less time consuming also for both the designer and programmer since if the core design is finished the programmer can start already coding. And at the same time the designer can now add the extra designs like colors, pictures and others in the interface.
Three State Solution
There are 3 states that should be remembered when making a screen. The 3 are regular, blank, and error. Regulars are those which people see when the program is doing fine. The blanks are those that are seen when there is no data yet entered by the user. And the errors are those that are seen when something goes wrong on the application.
The Blank Slate
The blank slate is a state in which the UI has not much data or information yet. It is up to the people to put in information in the interface. This state is essential for it shows the core features of the interface and not the designs nor the information in the design.
Get Defensive
No matter how good the interface is, it will still encounter problems when it is deployed online. The best thing for developers do is to frequently check what are those problems that customers encounters and help and guide them through it. Another way is also to improve error screens.
Context Over Consistency
The features in the interface should always depend on what the customer want and will be using. Putting up unnecessary features in the design is more costly and more time constraining also. You don’t have to put everything there is in the interface you just have to put the things that are just right and important.
Copywriting is Interface Design
The text that the users see is also important. The texts should be easily understood and is user friendly. The label should best describe what it is labeling. You can do this by thinking what customers or users want to see. Use words that people can understand and don’t use jargons or words that only a few people know about.
One Interface
More often than not, the interface for admin screens looks bad. This is because designers take much of their time on designing the public interface or the screens in which people see mostly. This means that there is a less time in designing for the admin screen. What designer can do is to join the 2 screen together.
