Analysis of 4 factors of Keep user experience!

A week ago, QuestMobile released the "China Mobile Internet 2019 Half-Year Report", which mentioned: "From December 2018 to March 2019, the growth rate of user time slowed down... But mini programs still have opportunities. Among WeChat mini programs, the number of mini programs with MAU (monthly active users) exceeding 5 million increased from 133 in June 2018 to 180 in June 2019, and the number of mini programs with MAU exceeding 1 million has reached 883."

In 2018 and 2019, the overall environment of the Internet was not good. So, what has made mini programs so successful against the trend? From scanning, Moments, to official accounts, and now to mini-programs, why is WeChat, a national application that is already 8 and a half years old, always able to lead the trend? These issues are worthy of careful study and learning.

Mr. Zhang Xiaolong once said that WeChat is a tool. I guess Mr. Zhang Xiaolong is being modest. It is not an exaggeration to say that WeChat is a simple and easy-to-use tool.

Today, I would like to share with you a topic related to “simple and easy to use”: user experience. To be precise, it is the user experience of Keep, based on iOS v6.21.

This article will explore the following two major questions: What are the characteristics, shortcomings and advantages of Keep's user experience? And, what factors influence it? The overall situation is still biased towards the macro level, and everyone is welcome to leave a message for communication.

1. What are the characteristics of Keep’s user experience?

According to a more official definition, user experience refers to: the user's subjective feelings when using a product.

When we usually talk about user experience, we are referring more to the interaction experience between people and interfaces (UX/UI). There is a design specification that we often use, which is Apple’s "iOS Human Interface Guidelines". As the name suggests, it focuses on the interaction between people and interfaces.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet, the connotation of user experience has also become more diverse and rich.

Keep happens to be an example of this - Keep's user experience, relatively speaking, has more dimensions and greater power.

Specifically, Keep's user experience includes four dimensions: the interactive experience between people and interfaces (UX: User Experience), the interactive experience between people and content (CX: Content Experience), the interactive experience between people (PX: People Experience), and the interactive experience between people and brands (BX: Brand Experience).

In terms of user experience, it is rare to find Internet products that possess all four dimensions at the same time. Generally speaking, the more dimensions, the greater the energy... I have some simple research and thoughts on this topic, which I will share with you in the next article.

2. What are the shortcomings of Keep’s user experience?

Simply put, it focuses on the interactive experience between people and interfaces.

1. Information architecture is not simple enough

In daily life, we often report our mobile phone numbers like this: 136 1234 5678, and our telephone numbers like this: (0374) 866 1234. The card number on the bank card is written as follows: 6225 8088 8888 8888. American telephone numbers are also generally written like this: (001) 800 275 2273.

It is not difficult to find that when there is a series of numbers, we like to divide it into blocks, each block has 3 to 4 numbers, and 4 is the upper limit. In addition, the area code of a telephone number, whether it is regional or national, usually does not exceed 4 digits.

The bottom navigation bar of many mobile apps also has only 4 channels/tabs. Influenced by life experience and other factors, when the human brain sees that a mobile app has 4 channels, it may subconsciously think: Oh, 4 channels, that’s simple, and I can still master it; but when it sees that there are 5 channels, it will feel a little bit of pressure: 5 channels, that’s a bit too many.

In the latest version of Keep, the 6.0 series, a "Plan" channel has been added to the bottom navigation, making it a total of 5 channels.

Keep's first three channels are: Community, Exploration and Sports. Each channel has 5 to 6 secondary channels. The names of the secondary channels appear densely at the top of the page in the form of navigation. Take the two top secondary channels, “Explore - Courses and Challenges” and “Sports - Start Now”, as examples. The pages of these two secondary channels are relatively long, and the content volume of other secondary channels is also similar.

Users will think that a second-level channel has so much content, and then multiply it by 5 or 6 to get the content volume of a first-level channel. There are 3 first-level channels with this much content. Then think about it again, I usually just take some courses and practice some exercises, run, meditate or do yoga, and then check the community from time to time, and occasionally go to the mall to buy something, how can there be so much content? I always feel like something is not right.

1. New features and new versions are not friendly enough to old users

New features do not disturb old users . This is the design principle that iOS, WeChat and other products have always adhered to. The purpose is to make old users always feel like they are back home when using the product, and to spend as little time as possible to familiarize themselves with the new version.

I have been using iOS 6 and now iOS 12, and I have rarely had the feeling that I suddenly don’t recognize iOS and have to spend time to familiarize myself with it again. Overall, the iOS update gives people the feeling of a smoother transition.

The same is true for WeChat. In the past two years, it has added new features such as mini-programs, Kankan, video updates, and floating windows, but we don’t feel that WeChat has become unfamiliar, unnatural, or abrupt. In fact, some functions, such as floating windows, are almost imperceptible if not used.

There are several major changes in the 6.0 series of Keep:

• 4 channels become 5 channels;
• The "Sports" channel has been moved from the left to the middle, and a plus button has been added to the lower right corner of the "Sports – Start Now" secondary channel. The content of the entire "Sports" channel has changed significantly;
• The "Discover" channel was renamed "Explore", and the content inside it has changed significantly;
• I think some new content has been added to the "Me" channel.

In fact, I am sure I don’t remember all the content on the three channels, Discovery, Sports and Me, because the amount of content is so large that I only have a general impression.

On the whole, this revision gives people the feeling that things are added and moved around. A few days after the update, I felt a little dizzy when using Keep.

1. Some innovations are not natural enough and do not follow user habits.

We humans not only like nature, we also like photos of people with natural expressions and natural smiles, we also like others’ natural and comfortable performances on stage, and we also like people who are natural and generous in their behavior... Our love for various kinds of "nature" must be deeply engraved in our genes.

So, as Mr. Zhang Xiaolong said, the goal of user experience is to be "natural" and easy to use.

In our country, we drive on the right; in the UK, we drive on the left. There is no good or bad here, just different habits. However, if there are no sufficient reasons, I believe the country will not let us learn from the UK and drive on the left, because the cost of learning and adapting is too high.

In this update of Keep 6.0 series, the first function "Sports" channel was moved from the first position on the left to the middle position. At the same time, the middle "Sports" channel is displayed by default when the App is opened.

There is no problem with the "Sports" channel still being displayed by default, but it feels a bit awkward to display the middle channel by default. I was not used to it at first because over the years, most of our users have become accustomed to displaying the home page (or the first channel on the left) by default.

Also, there is a plus button in the lower right corner of the “Exercise – Start Now” page.

Based on experience and habit, users believe that a plus button in this position and size should be used to publish new content (refer to Weibo, TikTok and Material Design). But in reality, this plus button is used to initiate a certain activity (class, action, run, etc.).

I just updated Keep and I often see this button, but I have never clicked it once. In fact, after I saw it, I immediately shifted my gaze and blocked it out because I didn’t understand what it was used for (sports channels don’t need to publish new content). Later, after being informed by customer service, I learned the function of this plus button and started using it.

3. What are the advantages of Keep’s user experience?

1. High-quality courses: interactive experience between people and content

I believe that there are many people like me who, because of Keep, have been exposed to this kind of fitness course that does not require any equipment and can be followed at home by laying out a yoga mat. When doing muscle-building training, I also looked up some exercises such as the bench press on some sports websites. Relatively speaking, Keep's movement explanations and fitness courses are really more detailed and professional.

Before Keep launched its meditation courses, I used an app specifically for meditation and bought paid courses (most courses require payment). Compared with the two, Keep's free courses are of the same quality as other paid courses, and are also more beautifully designed.

For Keep’s private lessons, I tried to buy Teacher Yan Shuaqi’s “20 Principles for Building a Good Body”. Teacher Yan lives up to his name, he is indeed handsome and the quality of his courses is indeed good. Before I bought this course, I had briefly studied the basic knowledge of fat loss and muscle gain, such as calorie conversion, the principles of fat burning, the principles of muscle growth, and how to balance eating and rest. After watching the course, I basically agree with Teacher Yan’s views.

1. Positive community: interactive experience between people

I am not a heavy user of the community, I just want to share my experience.

The impression that the Keep community gives me is that I occasionally encourage each other about sports dynamics with strangers; another thing is that I occasionally check the community to see others' persistence and transformation and absorb some positive energy; and sometimes I see some valuable fitness sharing.

Another thing that impressed me deeply was seeing many ordinary Keep users gain a lot of likes, comments and followers through persistent fitness and sharing. One of the users I follow has over 700,000 followers. I think it is a great sense of accomplishment for these Keep users, and also an incentive for other Keep users.

1. Inspiring brand spirit: the interactive experience between people and brands

"Just Do It" conveys a spirit of bravery and hard work. When talking about sportsmanship, everyone may think of various sporting events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. It seems that once we leave school and finish physical education class, the word "sports" gradually fades away from us.

"Self-discipline gives me freedom" conveys a kind of desire and effort. No matter how small an individual is, he or she can have his or her own brand. No matter how ordinary we are, we all have deep desires in our hearts, and we will all work hard for our lives and ideals. So I think that the slogan "Keep" not only hits the mark of many people, but also brings many of us ordinary people closer to sports and fitness.

A sports app with beautiful design, excellent courses, a community that always gives people positive energy, and a resonant brand slogan, it is easy for people to like it. I personally like Keep very much.

4. What factors affect Keep’s user experience?

1. Balancing commercialization and user experience

As Keep users, even without reading the news, we can feel that Keep is accelerating its commercialization layout. There are three more obvious points: private lessons and memberships, e-commerce related (hardware, sports peripherals, light meals, etc.), and advertising.

The new version 6.0 series adds a separate first-level channel for paying members, which can be regarded as a strong commercial move.

The name of this channel is "Plan", not "Membership" or "VIP". When non-member users see this channel for the first time, they will think it may be related to them. Then I came over and opened the door, and saw that it was a VIP room, and I had walked into the wrong door. I had no choice but to close the door and leave feeling a little embarrassed.

The "Sports" channel has a secondary channel called "Smart Hardware", which contains e-commerce related content. The “Discovery” channel has a total of 5 secondary channels, 3 of which are e-commerce related. To put it another way, 4/5 of the content on the Discovery channel is e-commerce related.

There are indeed more advertisements. For example, there are advertisements before the course starts (but you can exit it immediately), there are advertisements in the information flow on the community homepage, and there are advertisements on the page after posting a Keep update. But overall, I personally feel that except for the advertisements before the course starts, other advertisements have little impact on the experience.

Commercialization and user experience are both critical, and there needs to be a balance between the two. At present, the balance is tilted towards commercialization.

1. Balance between operations and user experience

Keep has always been very good at operations. Keep's rapid development is also inseparable from the excellent operations behind it. This is something that is very worth learning from.

Currently, the operational activities in the Keep App are mainly divided into two categories: activities and challenges, and discounts and promotions.

A few days ago, Keep recommended an activity to me through message push, in which I could win swimming equipment by checking in regularly while swimming. I tried to participate, but gave up after posting once. Because updates need to be accompanied by pictures or videos, have to be posted under specific topics, and have to be long and valuable text written in a fixed format, just like writing a short essay, the time cost is too high.

I have tried to participate in some activities or challenges before, but unless they were particularly easy, I gave up on most of them because I felt that many of them were not suitable for me. I still prefer to exercise at my own pace. Participating in activities is either too restrictive or too time-consuming.

In general, the quality of Keep's operations is still very good, and you can feel Keep's dedication, but many of them may not be suitable for users like me.

The problem is, regardless of whether it is suitable or not, it seems that all users can see a lot of activities on the homepage of the "Sports" and "Discovery" channels. Keep also frequently pushes many operational activities through messages. In fact, I have about 10 red dots for activity messages, but I never click on them because I basically don’t need them.

Conclusion

According to a report by Huanqiu.com in 2016, "Wang Ning's requirement for the human resources department is that everyone who submits a resume must respond... Wang Ning is thoughtful and humane. In the eyes of Keep's employees, he is an all-rounder who can organize parties, cook, deal with property management, pay salaries, and even repair air conditioners... Keep has overseas tours every year. The first year it went to Thailand, and the second year it went to Hokkaido, Japan. Wang Ning privately asked Zhang Meng to buy everyone a White Lover cookie, and Keep's cleaning ladies all had them..."

According to the recruitment website, Keep does not encourage overtime work; according to some comments in Maimai’s job forum, Keep does not encourage overtime work, and the actual overtime situation is also rare.

The Zhihu question "What is it like to work at Keep" has 189 answers, most of which are positive.

As a Keep user, I hope that the commercialization of Keep will go smoothly. At the same time, the question I am more concerned about is: What will the interactive experience of Keep’s human-computer interface be like in the future?

The answer may lie in the above details. Let us wait together for time to reveal.

above.

Author:Leeo

Source: SnowDesignStudio (ID: snow-design)