GetHelp/Fan Gang

GetHelp

A few lessons about design/user interface:

User interface != user experience

Perform AB testing to find out which design/layout generates more traffic

Do lots of user testing to find out what user interface users want

Important : Coders shouldn't be thinking. Designers should come up with the design BEFORE coders start coding and able to communicate to coders with clarity so that coders don't waste time clarifying/making unnecessary decisions relating to design. Their understanding might differ with the designers as well.

Must have an undo button! 

Try out Balsamiq Mockups

Fan Gang

Idea first or team first? Ajay is on the idea first camp, because he's had teams that failed him. Yet there are many successful companies that change their initial idea along the way. A good read would be the book "Founders at Work". I think Alan shared about it during the show and tell. One of the stories, the founders formed a team without even having any idea! They just wanted to do something cool and fun together.

Personally, I think both are workable, but either way you must have a good team AND a good idea. If either is not good, doesn't matter if idea comes first or the team comes first, it will probably not work out.

Lessons about leadership:

Decision making - There needs to be a clear leader to lead the direction. I personally feel a high level of autonomy is better but given the context of our assignments, where there isn't really much time, like Prof Ben mentioned "too much democracy and you're screwed!"

Morale management - Don't be too ambitious. Go for small wins. I guess this is similar to the divide and conquer strategy for big problems. 

I liked Kenneth's closing statement "Having a leader is important, but having the team acknowledge the leader is more important". I think it sums up what being a leader really means. If he doesn't command awe and respect, then he's pretty much just a figurehead and ineffectual in his role.

Just spent the last couple of hours coming up with the interface for admins to add content to the database(part of the final project) and keeping in mind the above points in the design(undo buttons/options! and easy to understand/unambiguous design for coders so they don't have to think), played around with Balsamiq Mockups. Its really easy to use! much better than pen and paper, and learning curve is very gentle. I think everyone should give it a go! Still figuring out how to add pop up alerts though.