How to Design a Mobile Application in 5 Steps - Part 2
Validation
📅 2020.05.19 - 👤 Borbély Viktor
This is part 2 of my 5-part “How to Design a Mobile Application in 5 Steps” article series. In the first part, we discussed coming up with the idea. Let’s continue with validating our idea.
Validation
The previous step, when we’re still just brainstorming, can often be enough to find out if it would work? We can show the written plans and drawings to a few acquaintances and get important feedback from them. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to pay attention to whom we get feedback from.
The 3F (Friends-Family-Fools) opinion can easily lead you astray. Rob Fitzpatrick analyzes this at length in his book: Mom test. The point is that you surely won’t get real opinions from your close relatives and friends, because they don’t want to break you down and take away your enthusiasm. (Who would dare to take on such a thing nowadays?) Based on the book, the point is that we should base things not on future promises, but on events that happened in the past. What does this mean exactly?
Dialogue between your Mom and you (wrong path):
You: Hi Mom! Mom: Hello Darling! You: Imagine, I painted a very beautiful picture. What do you say, would you buy it from me? Mom: Wow, but beautiful! Of course I would pay for it. You can go far with this. - and so on… You: Thanks, I knew you’d like it.
Well, anyone can promise. It’s obvious she didn’t want to hurt you, because she wants to encourage you. So she doesn’t get into the game of breaking you down at the beginning. It’s palpable that this won’t result in million-piece sales.
Dialogue between your Mom and you (mom-test):
You: Hi Mom! Mom: Hello Darling! You: Imagine, I painted a very beautiful picture. What do you say? Mom: Wow, but beautiful! Who did you paint it for? You: Actually for myself. Do you usually buy similar pictures? Although it’s true, I don’t see anything similar in our house either. Mom: Not really. This style is novel from you, but I certainly wouldn’t put something like this in the apartment. You: What is it that you don’t like about it? Mom: For example, that… You: Thanks, I knew I could count on your opinion.
Here it’s visible that the conversation turned out quite differently. The mom didn’t feel she necessarily had to rave about the painting. The conversation was steered onto a more objective plane, where the truth about the work was revealed. Success!
If the 3F club members have run out, how can you get more info? Read forums, blogs on the given topic. Register on a page, join a group, and ask there. Then just watch what responses come. This can already be a good starting point, and you can further refine your idea. This also gives an opportunity to narrow your solution to a niche market, because you don’t want to solve EVERYONE’S problem. You want to “give a mobile development course to 24-26 year old, career-starting, university-educated, male, city-dwelling programmers.” This is just an example, but it’s visible how specifically I formulated it.
These are of course just a few examples of how you can validate. Interviewing (f-2-f, O3), filling out questionnaires, reading reviews on mobile app markets further color the picture.
Based on the collected answers, you can outline person-groups (persona) for yourself that you can visualize while you develop the small details, or when you write posts, or compose advertisements.
In the next part, we continue with interfaces. If you liked this part, subscribe to the newsletter to be notified about new parts. I’m curious about your opinion, write to me.