What is the cool thing you built? It’s the most common question to start with, especially in the startup community. Most of them are more than just a conversation, they are a great learning opportunity for both ends. Playing with early, innovative products can provide a competitive advantage. This is the concept behind Product Hunt.
A year back, Product Hunt launched it’s iOS app to help the tech savvys hunt great product from anywhere. Check out the latest in tech, books, games and podcasts. Upvote what you like and talk about it with the makers. Just after few months of it’s inception, it had 51,000 active users, 250,000 unique viewers in 1 month and 1.7 million clicks to products in the thirty days. However, quick usability tests on the CanvasFlip tool reveal that its iPhone app has some friction points that hinder users from fully enjoying PH.
You would want to checkout the product hunt prototype in action before getting into any discussions -
I conducted a quick usability analysis on the Product Hunt app with 42 tech-inclined users.
On-boarding the app
The product hunt app has a one time, short on-boarding process. The app interface is so simple and clear that it does not require a long tutorials to explain the working of the app.
Once you have downloaded and opened the app, it immediately takes you to a feed of the top trending products. It does not demand for a login until and unless you want to leave a comment or suggest a new product.
The login for Product hunt is unique. It does not have an option to sign up with a username and password. It only has a social login with two options - Facebook and Twitter. This could have been a problem for other apps but this one does not seem to have an issue with this. Checkout this heat map below, you will not find people wandering about on this screen. They are either clicking on Sign in with Facebook or Twitter.
(Social login)
Also, with no registration barriers, product hunt ensures a negligible initial bounce rate. It’s so appealing to browse through the content of Product Hunt community without being pressured to contribute right away.
(Lower initial drop-off rate)
Sections of Product Hunt
Product hunt started with a basic section of tech, but with time it moved it focus to various other verticals. There is now support for-
- Tech
- Games
- Podcasts
- Books
Searching a product
Product Hunt is the best platform to discover new products. Once the user discovers a new product he wants to know more about the product before making a commitment.
But, the Product Hunt is still to add a section that speaks about the product. In most of the cases, the user’s understanding is based on the comments if available.
(higher drop-offs on the product page)
Unsure of what the product is actually about, users are not very willing to hit on the blue - GET IT button. They rather prefer moving around on the screen to extract as much information possible about the product.
Check this heat map, it really makes this point very clear -
(GET IT hasn’t gained much interaction)
The problem become worse when there is no media or comments on the product. Adding a description section on the product page will be a beneficial move for Product hunt (lower the drop-off rate from product page) and the users.
Hope these insights are helpful to Product Hunt and design folks relating to such experiences.