How To Build An App That Resonates

How To Build An App That Resonates

Danny Trinh Designer, Path An intimate social network, intended for small groups--close family or friends, say--to share on-the-go video, photos, and updates	Lee Linden Cofounder and CEO, Karma An app that monitors friends' birthdays and milestones, and helps you send them gifts	Andrew Hsu Founder, Airy Labs Educational apps for kids such as Mini Minute, in which a player shoots monsters while learning to tell time
How do you start planning?
"I tend to sit around for days, sketching ideas on paper and then bouncing them off other people in a high-velocity way. And once you know something is good, the time between implementation and execution is not that long."	"We start with pinpointing ourselves. For Karma, we had a need. We know we're not the only ones who live far from friends and family. The key is that when you have a problem yourself and you're looking for a solution, that's a good place to start."	"I move around a lot. I draw on whiteboards. I think brainstorming is good, but also I go to a private place to work, or I go outside. I've started the habit of walking meetings. I walk the person around the block and we talk along the way."
How do you make good first impressions?
"One of the key parts is transitions. All good apps have really good transitions, which enable the app to tell a story. I'd take Path's plus button as an example. It's an attempt to use animation to delight people, to make an action seem attractive."	"Focus on a single task or user problem. Mobile services that do many things are confusing. People want to get in and get out doing one thing."	"Parents are the ones holding the credit cards to pay for the app, but I think it's important that the push is not just from the parents' side. We want to make it attractive and fun for the kids, otherwise we could just be designing textbooks."
What are you doing to keep your app relevant?
"Our idea at Path is that you'll share more when it's with people you care about. We came out with Path 2.0 in December, which has new features to help share your location and who you're with, thoughts, music you're listening to, even when you wake up and go to sleep."	"You build customer trust, and if they understand what your product does for them, they will come back again and again. Karma, for example, will remember all of the gifts you've given people. We can use that social data to make you feel at home in the app."	"We solicit endless feedback. We even have a feedback option inside our apps that people can type in. We always ask, How do kids interact with these devices? What do they want? How can we make the interface understandable?"