If you want to build a good product, whether it is Internet websites, mobile applications, WeChat official accounts/mini programs, content products, or even physical products, you need to define priorities at all levels at any time to reduce losses.
Humans have endless desires, but only limited resources
The scarcity of resources is one of the basic assumptions of economics. The hypothesis of scarcity of resources is that relative to people’s desires and needs, resources are always insufficient. Because of the scarcity of resources, we will continue to be restricted by various resource conditions in our lives and consider various costs.
Throughout their lives, people have to decide:
- Should I spend more time entertaining or studying?
- Is it better to go to work, or go to KTV to sing, or go to the movies?
- Should you spend more time reviewing advanced mathematics or college physics?
- Should I spend time with my family or hang out with friends?
- Is it better to spend the money on a piece of clothing, or to buy a book?
As the saying goes:
You can’t have both fish and bear’s paws.
Time, money, our energy or other resources are scarce. When we make these decisions, we are assigning priorities to these things. 
Product design must first solve: the optimal allocation of scarce resources
Scarcity is also a fundamental issue in product design and user experience. No matter from the perspective of the machine or the user, resources are scarce. In terms of machines, computers, mobile phones, smart watches, and various smart devices have limited screen sizes and human-computer interaction technologies that they use. We need to “cram” interface and content data into a limited space, and It can only be used by users with limited interactive methods (such as touch, voice, etc.). On the user side, people’s cognitive abilities are scarce, and their comprehension, memory, existing experience and knowledge are all limited. Even if people are surrounded by screens, they can only process limited information at the same time.
Product design must first solve the problem of optimal allocation of these scarce resources, strike a balance between the resource constraints of the machine and the cognitive ability of users, make full use of resources as much as possible to achieve user goals and business goals. In the process of configuring machine resources and user cognitive capabilities, the first thing is to clarify priorities, determine which are important and which are secondary, and allocate appropriate resources to appropriate objects.
From a business perspective, product development resources, operating resources, and market resources are also scarce. Regardless of the size of the company, there will always be more things to do than existing resources. Many times we will hear complaints, why the company does not do this thing, not do that thing, in the final analysis is because of the allocation of resources. And in the product, it is also necessary to invest effort, in some places to increase the user experience more, but in some places, the user experience improvement is less. Good steel must be used on the cutting edge, and the company’s various resources must be allocated where the user experience effect is large enough. Therefore, we must also understand the priority of various objects in product design and R&D.
The definition of “priority” is related to product success or failure
The design of Apple’s early iPhone is a model of priority control. The design of only one button on the front of the phone, although it seems to be taken for granted now, it was a very brave and controversial decision at the time. I have studied the early design of the iOS system in depth, and I have made good choices in many places. I can boldly cut off the common functions and interface elements of the mobile phone system before, so that the focus becomes more important, and the content that needs to be highlighted becomes more important. prominent.
In contrast, although Nokia’s system had a large number of functions in the same period, it did not handle the priority when presented to the user. It was relatively more complicated for the user. If the reader still has an impression, you can imagine opening a contact and watching Look at the usual function menu corresponding to it. At that time, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile system moved a large number of PC experiences to mobile phones, and there was a mismatch between the user’s cognitive resources and the system’s limited display and interaction resources.
Increasing the user’s choice cost will bring about the loss of human-computer interaction. When people have only one way to choose from, things become very simple, but when faced with three ways, they often hesitate. Every choice means a loss, which may be energy, patience, and imperceptible goodwill. This loss is difficult to quantify, but the loss is obvious.
If you want to build a good product, whether it is Internet websites, mobile applications, WeChat official accounts/mini programs, content products, or even physical products, you need to define priorities at all levels at any time to reduce losses.
Processing priority is doing subtraction
We often talk about subtraction, but in fact the core is processing priority. The grasp of priority in design is to allow us to put the truly important functions, content, and interface elements in a prominent position, display them with the most system resources and interface resources, and weaken and hide the secondary parts. , The part that is needed again is simply cut off.
When we put all the important things on the table, there is no important thing. No matter how unwilling you are, you must distinguish between the high and low, and the priority. The reason why there is a part with a higher priority is because we have clarified the other part with a lower priority. The problem that I often encounter is “reluctant to give up” and think that all of them are important. No matter how important things are, the priority can always be distinguished. The grasp of priority should be a habit.
Grasp the priorities at different levels
The story of Pao Ding Jie Niu is very vivid, ordinary people see a cow just the cow itself, and Pao Ding sees the various structures and parts of the cow, so he can do his work more professionally. Product decision makers, product managers, designers, and other professionals have different perspectives on products from ordinary users.
When we face a product, what should come to mind clearly, it should be a structured priority, including strategic priority, user priority, demand and business priority, content and information priority, interaction Priority, visual priority. Strategy, users, demand and business, content and information, interaction, and vision, these themselves also cover all aspects of the product, we will talk about them one after another.
The definition of priority is continuous and in-depth. From the strategy to the beginning of the product, to every functional iteration, every interface, every piece of content, the priority is constantly being defined. Dealing with priorities at different levels and periods is one of the most important tasks in the process of making products.
