Tencent Pony Ma - 馬化騰 - speaks of User-Centered Design Part 1

How Tencent (HKSE0700) (腾讯), - which is better known for its QQ instant messaging service, formulates its product development plan with a view of improving user experiences?

Tecent’s founder and CEO Pony Ma Huateng ( 馬化腾) has given his viewpoints in an article which can shed more light on its product development strategy.

Mr Ma told his staff loud and clear that the core values of product design is to meet with users’ expectations. it should help users save their time, increase their productivity and cater for their needs.

How to make it happen? Mr Ma has a few points to make:

Not to create a “me too” product, try to push technology to its limit — Users would probably compare products in order to get the best one in the market. Using QQ audio player as an example, many users would choose between Baofeng player (暴风影音) and QQ. it would be beneficial for QQ audio and video player to focus its core service as a “faster, smaller, fluid, no ad, and no-plugin player”. What QQ audio player can outdo Baofeng player will earn Tencent’s word-of-mouth branding value in the market.

Thinks twice before you make a move, act cautiously to add a new product feature– Once the core servcie is built up, product design team should make sure that the established brand are well protected. Every new feature or step they make to improve the product should be planned thoroughly. It requires double effort to gain back users’ confidence if the brand is tarnished as a result of immature design process

Know when to give up in exchange for a better user experience — In designing a new feature, product designer will have a lot of ideas, the end product may only satisfy 10% users while at the same time may upset the rest of 90% . If there is a forseeable conflict, it would be wise to get ready for a trade off and give up the idea that gets users into trouble

Focus on high-end users as they are the opinion leaders in forum and social media – Creating value for high-end users would result in high rating. For example, users can now make use of other email systems within QQ mail. Smart users as they are, they can tell Tencent has taken them into consideration and they will spread the words in forums.

Tecent Pony Ma