我的第一个安卓应用程序

by Daniel Novykov

丹尼尔·诺维科夫(Daniel Novykov)

我如何设计我的第一个应用程序 (How I Designed My First App)

This is a story about building a product, what went wrong, and how it changed my career into Design.

这是一个有关构建产品，出了什么问题以及如何将我的职业转变为设计的故事。

For the past ten years, I’ve built many personal side projects. Some were small daily gigs, but there was one that took awhile to accomplish.

在过去的十年中，我建立了许多个人辅助项目。 有些是小型的日常演出，但有一段时间需要完成。

This story is about an iPhone app I was working on back in 2015–2016. The automotive startup should save drivers money on gas, reduce greenhouse gases, and make autonomous vehicles a little smarter.

这个故事是关于我在2015–2016年期间使用的iPhone应用程序。 这家汽车初创公司应为驾驶员节省汽油费用，减少温室气体排放，并使自动驾驶汽车更加智能。

After many brainstorm and research sessions, I assembled a team of developers to help me build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We chose to design the iOS app first due to a better audience fit.

经过许多头脑风暴和研究会议之后，我召集了一个开发人员团队来帮助我建立MVP(最小可行产品)。 由于更好的受众群体适合度，我们选择首先设计iOS应用。

During the mid-stage development, a landing page and social channels were launched. This accumulated the first 1,000 people for the wait list and future beta test.

在开发的中期阶段，启动了登陆页面和社交渠道。 这为等待名单和将来的beta测试积累了前1000名人员。

Although we had some challenges down the road, the project was developing well. Frequent user tests confirmed we were working in the right direction.

尽管我们面临着一些挑战，但该项目进展顺利。 频繁的用户测试证实我们在朝着正确的方向努力。

Nonetheless, only days before releasing the MVP for a beta test, I decided to put the development on hold.

尽管如此，在发布MVP进行Beta测试的前几天，我还是决定暂停开发。

There were a few reasons why I made that decision, including personal things and funding. I still want to share the design process I went through, what lessons I learned, and how it reflected on my career.

我做出该决定的原因有很多，包括个人物品和资金。 我仍然想分享我经历的设计过程，我学到的教训以及它如何影响我的职业。

一切始于个人需求 (It all started with a Personal Need)

A few years ago I bought my first car and became obsessed with driving. The comfort, joy, and freedom overcame the cheapness of public transportation and traffic mess. But there were costs that came with owning a car — parking tickets, insurance, maintenance, and gas.

几年前，我买了我的第一辆汽车，开始沉迷于驾驶。 舒适，欢乐和自由克服了公共交通和交通混乱带来的廉价。 但是，拥有汽车会带来一些成本-罚单，保险，维修和汽油。

One thing that bothered me the most was the fuel price fluctuation on a daily basis. It could rise in the morning and drop at night. It could be a 10% difference around the corner, and you would know that right after leaving the pump.

最让我困扰的一件事是每天的燃油价格波动。 它可能在早晨上升而在晚上下降。 拐角处可能有10％的差异，并且您会在离开泵后立即知道这一点。

So I started digging the web and found a brilliant ( I thought at that time) solution for my needs — GasBuddy. It’s an app that shows up-to-date fuel prices at the local gas stations. I was on heaven that day imagining saving hundreds per month on gas.

因此，我开始浏览网络，并找到了一个满足自己需求的出色解决方案( GasBuddy) 。 这个应用程式会显示当地加油站的最新燃油价格。 那天我在天堂，幻想每月可以节省数百美元的汽油。

The next several years I spent using GasBuddy, I was thankful for the treasure they’ve built but frustrated with the app’s interface that drove me crazy. A confused interface and limited features are among those things I couldn’t handle any longer.

在使用GasBuddy的接下来的几年中，我为他们所建立的宝藏而感激，但对应用程序的界面感到沮丧，这使我发了疯。 混乱的界面和有限的功能是我无法处理的。

That’s why, in June 2015, I started my side project. I called it Fuelhunt.

因此，在2015年6月，我开始了我的副项目。 我称它为Fuelhunt。

The initial idea was to get GasBuddy’s data and to build a better user experience around it. But they are a large corporation and didn’t want to share any of their data even for a reasonable, startup price.

最初的想法是获取GasBuddy的数据并围绕它建立更好的用户体验。 但是他们是一家大公司，即使以合理的启动价格也不想共享任何数据。

I tried hard to find another data provider, which turned out to be Waze. But they couldn’t help me either. Besides, the accuracy of their data even today is quite terrible.

我尽力找到另一个数据提供者，原来是Waze 。 但是他们也帮不了我。 此外，即使在今天，其数据的准确性也非常糟糕。

So I thought, well, I can do everything myself. Why not. And the journey of sleepless nights begun.

所以我想，好吧，我自己可以做所有事情。 为什么不。 不眠之夜的旅程开始了。

But first, let’s find out why it all matters.

但是首先，让我们找出为什么这一切都很重要。

这是怎么回事？ (What’s the deal?)

1.人们想少付汽油费 (1. People want to pay less for gas)

I bet you’ve noticed that gas prices differ from station to station, from one brand to another, or from one area to the other. The reason can be a real estate or brand issue, or any other condition that influences the oil market, like politics or hurricanes.

我敢打赌，您已经注意到，不同站点之间的汽油价格各不相同，一个品牌到另一个品牌，或者一个地区到另一个地区，汽油价格都不同。 原因可能是房地产或品牌问题，也可能是任何其他影响石油市场的情况，例如政治或飓风。

Many of us don’t consider the price difference as savings. But it can run up to $100–200 of savings per year or more, depending on what, how and where you drive. You may argue — that’s not big money. But you can invest the savings on dining, shopping or even more gas.

我们中许多人不认为价差是节省。 但根据您开车的方式，方式和地点，每年最多可以节省100-200美元。 您可能会争辩-那不是大笔钱。 但是您可以将节省下来的钱用于餐饮，购物甚至更多的汽油。

The are three main components of any gas station:

这是任何加油站的三个主要组成部分：

• Convenience

  方便

  Close to work or home, has a corner store, or other convenience.

  靠近工作场所或家，有商店或其他便利设施。

• Pricing

  价钱

  Gas cost, store deals, or other saving.

  天然气成本，商店交易或其他节省。

• Quality

  质量

  Fuel or overall service.

  燃料或整体服务。

If you know places that satisfy you with fuel, price, and location — that’s great. If you do not care and will purchase gas whenever you need it — well, that’s also fine.

如果您知道可以让您在燃料，价格和位置方面令您满意的地方，那就太好了。 如果您不在乎，并在需要时购买天然气，那也很好。

Meanwhile, there are lots of people who are not aware of the gem locations, but want to use a convenient spot with lower prices.

同时，有许多人不知道宝石的位置，但想以较低的价格使用方便的地点。

However, saving a few bucks might not be the smartest idea. The bad gas is not a myth. The fuel itself can come from the same refinery in a region, but still be different at various retail points.

但是，节省几美元可能不是最明智的选择。 坏气不是神话。 燃料本身可以来自某个地区的同一家炼油厂，但在各个零售点仍然不同。

Some factors may include fuel filters that are not maintained properly, unusual additives, “old gas” on some stations, unfair employees who can mix it with oil or other stuff to make more profit, and so forth. All this may lead to expensive car repairs.

一些因素可能包括燃油滤清器维护不当，不正常的添加剂，某些加油站上的“旧汽油”，不公平的员工，他们可以将其与石油或其他原料混合以获取更多利润，等等。 所有这些都可能导致昂贵的汽车维修。

We use Yelp, Google Maps, local magazines and ask our friends for recommendations when looking for the right places to eat. So why don’t we care as much for our cars? A well-treated vehicle can run longer without unexpected maintenance.

我们使用Yelp，Google地图，当地杂志，并在寻找合适的用餐地点时向我们的朋友提出建议。 那么，为什么我们不那么在乎我们的车呢？ 经过良好处理的车辆可以运行更长的时间，而无需意外维护。

2.气候变化是真实的，我们需要更加关注它。 (2. Climate change is real and we need to be more concerned about it.)

This is another area in which I wanted to make an impact.

这是我想产生影响的另一个领域。

In 2014 there were over 1.2 billion vehicles in the world, and this number is growing rapidly. They all produce an enormous amount of greenhouse pollution that causes:

2014年，全球有超过12亿辆汽车 ，并且这一数字正在Swift增长。 它们都会产生大量的温室污染，导致：

• Rising temperatures as greenhouse gases trap more heat.

  随着温室气体捕获更多的热量，温度升高。

  Hello global warming!

  您好全球变暖！

• Melting of the polar ice caps that can lead to a rise in sea levels.

  极地冰盖融化会导致海平面上升。

  Hello destructive flooding!

  你好，破坏性的洪水！

• Depletion of our ozone layer which causes harmful UV rays to enter the Earth. Hello skin cancer!我们臭氧层的枯竭导致有害的紫外线进入地球。 你好皮肤癌！

The question is — can we do something about it?

问题是–我们可以做些什么吗？

Well, we can’t cut the production of new vehicles as there is a growing demand for them. And we can’t recycle the existing cars as they usually get reused in third world countries. Can we switch to electric? Kind of.

好吧，我们对新车的需求不断增长，因此我们无法削减其产量。 而且，我们无法回收现有的汽车，因为它们通常会在第三世界国家/地区重新使用。 我们可以切换到电动吗？ 有点儿。

Electric cars are the future. They are quiet, quick, and cheap to operate. They are more reliable with fewer parts to break. And most important, they don’t emit carbon dioxide.

电动汽车是未来。 它们安静，快速且操作便宜。 它们更可靠，零件更少。 最重要的是，它们不排放二氧化碳。

But this is the future that many of us cannot afford today. Some cars are too high priced, where others can’t provide a proper value yet.

但这是我们许多人今天无法承受的未来。 有些汽车的价格太高，而另一些则无法提供适当的价值。

Everything might change with Tesla’s Model 3 (along with other manufacturers’ entry-level propositions), more extensive government support for EV’s, and other benefits. But we are not quite there yet.

特斯拉的Model 3(以及其他制造商的入门级主张)，政府对电动汽车的更广泛支持以及其他好处，可能会改变一切。 但是我们还没有到那儿。

So how can we make an impact on the environment with everything we have today — with all these vehicles with the internal combustion engines heating up the world we live in?

那么，我们如何利用我们今天拥有的一切对环境产生影响-所有这些装有内燃机的车辆都在为我们所生活的世界供暖？

我是唯一在乎的人吗？ (Am I the only one who cares?)

The first questions I had were “How many people share the same problem and vision as I do?” and “Are there enough potential users that it’s worth building a product?”

我的第一个问题是“有多少人和我一样拥有相同的问题和愿景？” 和“是否有足够的潜在用户值得开发产品？”

I ran some surveys and talked to friends who also happen to be drivers. I wanted to figure out the needs and wants of a target audience.

我进行了一些调查，并与恰好也是司机的朋友进行了交谈。 我想弄清楚目标受众的需求和需求。

Here are some insights:

以下是一些见解：

• The target audience includes most vehicle owners — casual drivers, regular commuters, taxi drivers, truckers.目标受众包括大多数车主-临时驾驶员，普通通勤者，出租车驾驶员，卡车司机。

When choosing a gas station,

选择加油站时

• Most critical factors are convenience and lower fuel prices for drivers in the North American market. The fuel quality adds up in some Eastern European countries.最关键的因素是在北美市场，驾驶员的便利性和较低的燃油价格。 一些东欧国家的燃油质量加起来。
• The brand loyalty program doesn’t seem like a factor at all among respondents in the North American market. It’s a significant factor in the Eastern European market.在北美市场的受访者中，品牌忠诚度计划似乎根本不是一个因素。 这是东欧市场的重要因素。
• Other things like a convenience store, car wash, and 24 hours operation don’t matter much among all respondents.在所有受访者中，便利店，洗车和24小时营业等其他事项都无关紧要。

• People are willing to share either good or bad experiences at the pump.

  人们愿意分享泵的好坏经历。

  They want to encourage or redirect other drivers to fill up at the particular place if there is one.

  他们想鼓励或重定向其他驾驶员到特定的地方填补空缺。

• Most drivers don’t track their gas expenses, because it’s time-consuming or they’re not aware of easy tools to do so. The majority are willing to track the costs and mileage in some “automatic” way.大多数驾驶员不跟踪他们的汽油费用，因为这很耗时，或者他们不知道这样做的简便工具。 大多数人愿意以某种“自动”方式跟踪成本和里程。
• Almost a half of respondents said they do care about the environment in some way, like garbage sorting and recycling. They’re interested in progressing with the reduction of the carbon footprint.几乎一半的受访者表示，他们确实以某种方式关心环境，例如垃圾分类和回收。 他们对减少碳足迹的进步很感兴趣。

I also wanted to know what people do while they fill up their cars. I wanted to know if I can fit a product into this 5-minute activity and make this time more entertaining.

我还想知道人们在加油时会做什么。 我想知道我是否可以在5分钟的活动中加入一种产品，并使这段时间变得更加有趣。

Among some activities were:

其中一些活动是：

• Watching the gas counter看加油站
• Staring at the nozzle盯着喷嘴
• Observing the neighbors观察邻居
• Looking for new scratches and dents on the car在车上寻找新的划痕和凹痕

驾驶员今天有什么选择？ (What options do drivers have today?)

Apart from personal awareness of gas stations and word of mouth, there are many players on this field to find a gas pump. In reality, none of the solutions matched the product my target users and myself would enjoy using.

除了个人对加油站的了解和口口相传之外，该领域还有很多参与者在寻找加油泵。 实际上，这些解决方案都无法与目标用户和我自己喜欢使用的产品相匹配。

I’ll start with the minor competition first, then move along to the more major.

我将从小比赛开始，然后再进入大比赛。

1.内置信息娱乐系统 (1. Built-in infotainment systems)

Today, even the low-end vehicles come with pre-installed infotainment systems. Drivers can get most of the information they need while driving. They can consume media content, see vehicle’s stats, navigate through the city and more. Unfortunately, this cannot be said about real-time gas prices. There are only a few systems that provide it.

今天，即使是低端车辆也预装了信息娱乐系统。 驾驶员在驾驶时可以获得他们需要的大多数信息。 他们可以使用媒体内容，查看车辆统计数据，在城市中导航等等。 不幸的是，这不能说是关于实时天然气价格。 只有少数系统提供它。

In theory, infotainment systems should be safer than peering at a mobile device while driving. But due to a poor design, most of them are actually very distracting and dangerous. You cannot replace the car’s head unit and you cannot switch the OS. Besides, modern smartphones provide a better navigation experience.

从理论上讲，信息娱乐系统应该比开车时凝视移动设备更安全。 但是由于设计不佳，它们中的大多数实际上是非常分散注意力和危险的 。 您无法更换汽车的主机，也无法切换操作系统。 此外，现代智能手机可提供更好的导航体验。

2.苹果地图 (2. Apple Maps)

Apple Maps is a first navigation option for millions of users on iPhone. Yet it’s limited in many features and provides only basic information such as contacts and directions.

Apple Maps是iPhone上数百万用户的第一个导航选项。 然而，它在许多功能上受限制，并且仅提供基本信息，例如联系方式和路线。

Also, it doesn’t show gas prices and has a weak map coverage for many areas of the world. These two components are critical for the driver.

此外，它没有显示天然气价格，并且在世界许多地区的地图覆盖范围都很弱。 这两个组件对于驱动程序至关重要。

3. Google地图 (3. Google Maps)

Google has more experience in building maps than Apple. This is by far the best global cartography mobile app on any platform.

与苹果公司相比，谷歌在建筑地图方面拥有更多经验。 这是迄今为止任何平台上最好的全球制图移动应用程序。

Along with the basic info, it has consumer reviews, user images, street view and they started to pull fuel data from Waze in December 2015!

除了基本信息外，它还具有消费者评论，用户图像，街道视图，并且他们于2015年12月开始从位智提取燃料数据！

When you’re building a startup, such an update from a market leader feels like a knockout! But, it only proved to me that this feature is in demand, or at least Google’s engineers think so. Which is, apparently, true.

当您建立一家初创公司时，来自市场领导者的这种更新感觉就像是淘汰赛！ 但是，这只是向我证明了此功能的需求，或者至少是Google的工程师这么认为。 显然，这是对的。

They kept this feature simple. There was no filtering, user contributions, or other social engagements.

他们使此功能保持简单。 没有过滤，用户贡献或其他社交参与。

4. 场地发现应用 (4. Venue discovery apps)

The venue discovery apps include Foursquare, Yelp, and Yellow Pages. They provide a variety of details like reviews and deals. Yet the surveyed drivers responded that this is not their go-to solution to find a gas pump.

场地发现应用程序包括Foursquare，Yelp和Yellow Pages。 他们提供了各种详细信息，例如评论和交易。 然而，接受调查的司机回答说，这不是找到加油泵的首选方法。

5.加油站定位器 (5. Gas station locators)

Here is an exciting thing — almost every country has a source to get fuel prices. Certain countries have a single price for the gas because it is government controlled. But in general — it’s all different by brand, place, and time.

这是一件令人兴奋的事情-几乎每个国家都有获取燃油价格的来源。 某些国家/地区的汽油价格统一，因为它是政府控制的。 但总的来说，品牌，地点和时间都不同。

I won’t go deep into the analysis here, but in short:

我不会在这里深入分析，但总之：

• Some websites are only for desktop use and are not responsive to the mobile world. They also tend to have a terrible UX.一些网站仅用于桌面使用，对移动世界没有响应。 他们也往往会遇到糟糕的用户体验。
• The vast majority of apps are not global. They may cover one or sometimes two countries for the bigger “local market,” like the United States and Canada.绝大多数应用不是全球性的。 它们可能会覆盖一个或有时两个更大的“本地市场”的国​​家，例如美国和加拿大。
• Some apps are not informative enough. Additional apps need to be installed to complement the “driver’s experience.”某些应用信息不足。 需要安装其他应用程序以补充“驾驶员的经验”。

• There are cases when apps are not localized to other languages and territories. Why do you need another account to download an app?在某些情况下，应用程序未本地化为其他语言和地区。 为什么需要另一个帐户来下载应用程序？

• In the end, having a bunch of apps for various locations is not a solution.

  最后，在不同位置拥有大量应用程序并不是解决方案。

  They all will have a different UI, multiple accounts, and take storage on the device.

  它们都将具有不同的UI，多个帐户，并需要存储在设备上。

6.大石油品牌的应用程序 (6. Big Oil branded apps)

At first, I thought that Top Tier brands can invest a ton of money to develop their own apps and make them great. Nope.

起初，我认为Top Tier品牌可以投入大量资金来开发自己的应用程序并使它们变得更好。 不。

Some took an approach of squeezing a mobile website into the app. Others thought that tiny buttons with unreadable text are good options for drivers.

有些人采取了将移动网站挤入应用程序的方法。 其他人则认为带有不可读文本的小按钮是驱动程序的不错选择。

But, most of them contain gas pricing info and it’s very accurate where it’s applied.

但是，其中大多数包含天然气定价信息，并且在哪里使用它非常准确。

7.位智 (7. Waze)

Waze, which is owned by Google today, is my favorite navigation tool. It’s a crowdsourcing network of 90 million of drivers worldwide. It shows traffic, road conditions, accidents, and police traps.

Waze，今天由Google拥有，是我最喜欢的导航工具。 这是一个由全球9000万驾驶员组成的众包网络。 它显示交通，道路状况，事故和警察陷阱。

Waze also provides fuel prices for many locations. Unlike its excellent navigation experience, the fuel data is quite inaccurate.

位智还提供许多地方的燃油价格。 与出色的导航体验不同，燃油数据非常不准确。

I did a quick investigation to find out why drivers don’t use this feature. The assumptions are:

我进行了快速调查，以了解为什么驾驶员不使用此功能。 假设是：

• The element to find a gas station is hidden deep in the menu and is not intuitive to use.查找加油站的元素隐藏在菜单的深处，使用起来不直观。
• Waze displays the label when the fuel price was last updated. It’s good to know. Yet, when you see “updated a few days ago” on any location — it’s almost certainly a signal of weak community contribution. If people don’t contribute enough to make it usable, why one would trust and use it?燃料价格上次更新时，位智显示标签。 很高兴知道。 但是，当您在任何位置看到“几天前更新”时-几乎可以肯定，这是社区贡献薄弱的信号。 如果人们没有做出足够的贡献以使其可用，为什么人们会信任并使用它呢？

8. GasBuddy (8. GasBuddy)

Here is a big one — GasBuddy. It was founded in 2000 and currently has 65 million users. It operates in the United States and Canada. It was recently launched in Australia.

这是一个很大的– GasBuddy。 它成立于2000年，目前有6500万用户。 它在美国和加拿大运营。 它最近在澳大利亚推出。

When talking about the United States and Canadian markets, their data is quite phenomenal — especially since it’s gathered from a crowdsourcing community and other sources. Yet their app failed on usability and performance.

在谈论美国和加拿大市场时，它们的数据非常出色-特别是因为它是从众包社区和其他来源收集的。 但是他们的应用程序在可用性和性能上都失败了。

While conducting research and observing people performing usability tasks, I found out that:

在进行研究并观察执行可用性任务的人员时，我发现：

• Many users, who were unfamiliar with the app, couldn’t complete a simple thing such as setting directions to a location. It required seven taps to accomplish that task.许多不熟悉该应用程序的用户无法完成简单的事情，例如设置位置指南。 它需要七次轻按才能完成该任务。

• The majority of drivers didn’t use the default list view and immediately switched over to a map view. The problem is that information on the list view is not that clear. It’s hard to understand in which direction the gas station is located. It can be close in distance, but may take longer to drive due to traffic, difficult intersections, U-turns, or a dozen stop signs.大多数驱动程序没有使用默认的列表视图，而是立即切换到地图视图。 问题在于列表视图上的信息不清楚。 很难理解加油站位于哪个方向。 它的距离可能很近，但由于交通，困难的十字路口，掉头或十几个停车标志而可能需要更长的时间开车。
• Overall, the UI is quite confusing and distracting. The information architecture lacks logic in some places. Annoying ads consume cellular data and screen real estate. Elements unreadable from a distance and tiny buttons make it hard to perform a task without giving too much attention to the smartphone.总体而言，用户界面非常令人困惑和分散注意力。 信息架构在某些地方缺乏逻辑。 烦人的广告会消耗手机数据和屏幕空间。 远距离无法读取的元素和微小的按钮使您难以在不对智能手机给予过多关注的情况下执行任务。

• GasBuddy, as well as many other competitors, state that drivers can save money with their app — and it’s true. But it’s not clear how much the person saves at the pump, as there is no savings indicator.

  GasBuddy以及许多其他竞争对手指出，驾驶员可以使用他们的应用程序节省金钱—的确如此。 但尚不清楚该人在泵上节省了多少，因为没有节省指标。

  The app displays locations with lower prices but doesn’t show the value of using the app over a period of time.

  该应用程序会显示价格较低的位置，但不会显示一段时间内使用该应用程序的价值。

• Users can win $100 of gas daily by exchanging in-app points earned for price submissions into the entries to win. Yet the chances to win are roughly 65 millions to 1.

  通过将为提交价格提交的应用内积分兑换成参赛作品，用户每天可以赢得100美元的汽油费。 但是获胜的机会大约是6500万比1。

  Nonetheless, it looks like it works for user engagement and retention.

  尽管如此，它看起来可以有效地吸引用户并吸引他们。

9.储蓄追踪器 (9. Savings Trackers)

There are many apps to gather vehicle’s stats and track various expenses. The majority of them require a significant effort to enter the data, whether it’s a manual operation with dozens of fields or scanning receipts with unreliable text and field recognition. The visual part of these apps is unpleasant and “scary” — as most drivers responded.

有许多应用程序可以收集车辆的统计数据并跟踪各种费用。 无论是对数十个字段进行手动操作还是对文本和字段识别不可靠的收据进行扫描，其中大多数都需要花费大量精力来输入数据。 这些应用程序的视觉部分令人不快且“恐怖”，因为大多数驾驶员都对此做出了回应。

On the other hand, there are solutions for car monitoring, like Automatic. They carry their pros and cons, but the biggest issue with them is that a special adapter is required for their operation, which is an additional investment.

另一方面，还有汽车监控解决方案，例如Automatic 。 它们各有利弊，但最大的问题是操作需要特殊的适配器，这是一项额外的投资。

At that point, after the research and user testing sessions I’ve done, the picture was clear — there was a niche on the market and I could fill it with a new product.

到那时，在我完成研究和用户测试之后，情况就很清楚了-市场上有一个利基市场，我可以用新产品填充它。

设计Fuelhunt (Designing Fuelhunt)

I wanted to create a product which embraces best practices in usability. At the same time it eliminates the pain points that users have with other apps in this segment.

我想创建一种包含最佳可用性实践的产品。 同时，它消除了用户对该细分市场中其他应用的痛苦。

I didn’t want to create “yet another app to find a gas station.” I wanted a product that will have a more significant impact on our lives in the future.

我不想创建“还需要另一个应用程序来找到加油站”。 我想要一种对未来的生活产生更大影响的产品。

I’ll skip over the dozens of iterations, sketches, and wireframes right to the final MVP build that was successfully tested with potential users.

我将跳过数十个迭代，草图和线框，直到最终的MVP构建已通过潜在用户成功测试。

Here are some key improvements upon the competition:

以下是比赛中的一些关键改进：

1.涵盖全球燃油价格的单个应用程序 (1. A single app to cover global fuel prices)

I’m talking a post-MVP phase. But the database architecture had to be developed beforehand for an easy expansion.

我说的是MVP后阶段。 但是必须预先开发数据库架构才能轻松扩展。

At first, it didn’t seem like a challenge.

最初，这似乎不是一个挑战。

I needed to solve the problem of any social network: no content=no users, no users=no content.

我需要解决任何社交网络的问题：没有内容=没有用户，没有用户=没有内容。

In this case, the content was pump locations with fuel types, current gas prices, and user reviews. To get that content fast, we collected everything we could find on the market and built — as we called it — a dirty database.

在这种情况下，内容是带有燃料类型，当前汽油价格和用户评论的泵位置。 为了快速获取该内容，我们收集了我们在市场上可以找到的所有内容，并建立了一个肮脏的数据库(我们称之为)。

Even though there were lots of open data out there, it was all a complete mess. Some sources provided clear API’s, others only had Excel spreadsheets. Then we needed to find a way to pull the data and make it usable.

即使那里有很多开放数据，也完全是一团糟。 一些资料来源提供了清晰的API，其他资料仅包含Excel电子表格。 然后，我们需要找到一种方法来提取数据并使其可用。

Another issue was a difference in brand lists and octane levels in various regions. North America and Europe calculate the octane rating in different ways. North America’s 87 is like Europe’s 95, where NA’s 91 is more like E’s 98, and so forth.

另一个问题是各个地区的品牌清单和辛烷值不同。 北美和欧洲以不同方式计算辛烷值。 北美的87很像欧洲的95，北美的91更像是E的98，依此类推。

To be honest, it took a while to bring everything under one roof.

老实说，花了一段时间才把所有东西都放在一个屋顶下。

Finally we had the data, but it was inaccurate. Fortunately, fuel prices are changing so fast, that it actually didn’t matter if the price is a day old or a week old — it was still wrong. So, we were pretty close to Waze and Google Maps accuracy.

最终我们有了数据，但是它不准确。 幸运的是，燃油价格变化如此之快，以至于价格是一天还是一周都不重要，但这仍然是错误的。 因此，我们非常接近Waze和Google Maps的准确性。

2.清晰的用户界面和简单的应用导航 (2. Clear UI and simple app navigation)

It doesn’t matter how unsafe it is to use a smartphone in the car or how high the tickets are for the handheld devices. People still use their phones while driving. They are either holding them or the phone is mounted on the dashboard.

在汽车中使用智能手机有多不安全 ，或者手持设备的门票有多高都无所谓。 人们在开车时仍会使用手机。 他们要么握住它们，要么将手机安装在仪表板上。

Our job as designers is to build well organized and easy-to-use features and to think through all possible ways of using our product. We have to make sure that ergonomics minimize distraction and don’t harm the end user.

我们作为设计师的工作是建立组织良好且易于使用的功能，并考虑使用我们产品的所有可能方式。 我们必须确保人体工程学将干扰降到最低，并且不会伤害最终用户。

Large text, bigger touch points, clear screen flow, smart notifications, no ads. These are only a few of the criteria I kept in mind.

较大的文字，较大的接触点，清晰的屏幕流，智能通知，无广告。 这些只是我记住的几个标准。

Speaking of navigation, the Fuelhunt app consists of 4 screens:

说到导航，Fuelhunt应用程序包含4个屏幕：

• Main screen

  主屏幕

  to find gas stations

  寻找加油站

• Add screen

  新增画面

  to add content

  添加内容

• Activity

  活动

  to see user’s and friend’s public activities

  查看用户和朋友的公开活动

• Profile

  个人资料

  to see all user’s activities and stats

  查看所有用户的活动和统计信息

3.超快速泵搜索 (3. Super fast pump search)

The primary app’s role is to find an optimal gas station and set directions for that station. The flow was optimized to complete this task under 10 seconds.

主要应用程序的作用是找到最佳加油站并设置该加油站的方向。 流程经过了优化，可以在10秒内完成此任务。

Upon launching the app, it displays the map view with pump locations and — using a combination of distance, user’s moving direction, price, and review score, it preselects the best option to fill up. No intermediate screens or additional taps needed.

启动该应用程序后，它将显示带有泵位置的地图视图，并且-通过结合距离，用户的移动方向，价格和评论得分，它会预先选择最佳选项进行填充。 无需中间屏幕或其他水龙头。

The bottom banners contain all info the driver needs at the moment: brand, gas price, an indication how “current” that price is, and the rating emoji.

底部的标语包含驾驶员当前需要的所有信息：品牌，汽油价格，指示价格“当前”程度以及等级表情符号。

Instead of showing the distance to the location, the time of driving is provided. Traffic and road conditions may play a bigger role.

提供行驶时间而不是显示到该位置的距离。 交通和道路状况可能会发挥更大的作用。

The button to get directions is always visible, making it faster to set the route. This decreased GasBuddy’s seven taps to one.

获取方向的按钮始终可见，从而可以更快地设置路线。 这使GasBuddy的七个抽头减少到一个。

All location pins are color-coded by the time relevancy:

所有位置引脚均按时间相关性进行颜色编码：

• Green if they were updated today — It’s the most accurate.如果今天已更新，则为绿色-这是最准确的。
• Orange if they were updated yesterday — It’s somewhat relevant.如果昨天更新了，则为橙色-有点相关。
• Grey if they were estimated — Everything that’s older and everything collected from 3rd party sources.如果是估计的，则为灰色-较旧的东西以及从第三方来源收集的一切。

In case of inaccurate pricing data, this approach is more effective. It focuses the user on data accuracy.

如果定价数据不正确，此方法会更有效。 它使用户专注于数据准确性。

Waze marks locations by a pricing scale, with green for low and red for high. This green-cheap gas station may have the old price and may be more expensive than a red, but has a currently updated price.

位智按价格标尺标记位置，绿色代表低价，红色代表高价。 这个绿色廉价的加油站的价格可能较旧，价格可能比红色的贵，但目前的价格已经更新。

Choosing Google Maps as a map provider instead of native Apple Maps adds a better world coverage and one finger zoom. This is quite handy in the car.

选择Google Maps作为地图提供者，而不是本地Apple Maps，可以更好地覆盖世界，并可以单指缩放。 这在车上非常方便。

Filters are a rarely used but useful feature. They are hidden under the search functions. This not only makes the overall UI cleaner, but gives the user the power to create a personalized map, and display the brands and fuel types the user needs.

过滤器是很少使用但有用的功能。 它们隐藏在搜索功能下。 这不仅使整个UI更加整洁，而且使用户可以创建个性化地图并显示用户所需的品牌和燃料类型。

4. 避免不良位置 (4. Bad locations avoidance)

The research demonstrated that almost no one reads a review upfront when heading to the pump. This is something we do spontaneously. We drive, feel the need, see a gas station and fill up.

研究表明，几乎没有人在上泵之前先读过一篇评论。 这是我们自发进行的。 我们开车，感觉到需要，看到加油站并加满油。

People still keep writing reviews. Many drivers share their negative feedback if something is wrong. In this scenario, the driver won’t know anything beforehand, but he may feel consequences of bad fuel the next day or in a month.

人们仍然继续写评论。 如果出现问题，许多驾驶员会分享他们的负面反馈。 在这种情况下，驾驶员不会事先知道任何信息，但是他可能会在第二天或一个月内感觉到燃油不良的后果。

To solve this problem, a notification system was designed to alert the driver if there is a problem at the location.

为了解决这个问题，设计了一个通知系统，以提醒驾驶员该位置是否有问题。

5.轻松提交内容以供用户贡献 (5. Easy content submission for user contribution)

There is a button to make it easy for drivers to make a new submission. They can provide a price update, fill up data or a new review. It’s always visible on the tab bar no matter which screen the user is on.

有一个按钮可以使驾驶员轻松进行新提交。 他们可以提供价格更新，填写数据或进行新的评论。 无论用户在哪个屏幕上，它始终在选项卡栏上可见。

It the fuel price was updated, the app asks the driver to enter the fill up data. In the same way, it asks for a price update after the fill up data had been added.

如果燃油价格已更新，则该应用会要求驾驶员输入加油数据。 同样，它会在添加完填充数据后要求价格更新。

Unlike competitors that only say that users save with their app, Fuelhunt demonstrates right away the amount saved at the pump. After each fill-up, Fuelhunt instantly calculates the price difference between local stations and provides clear value to the user.

与竞争对手只说用户使用他们的应用程序进行储蓄不同，Fuelhunt会立即演示在泵上节省的金额。 每次加油后，Fuelhunt都会立即计算本地站点之间的价格差，并为用户提供明确的价值。

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort for the user to submit a review. I made it simple with a fuel quality and overall experience evaluation along with an optional description.

有时，用户需要花很多精力来提交评论。 我通过燃油质量和整体体验评估以及一个可选的说明使操作变得简单。

6.活动和统计跟踪器 (6. Activity and stats tracker)

The Activity screen displays user’s and friends’ public activities, like points earned, money saved and reviews written.

“活动”屏幕显示用户和朋友的公共活动，例如获得的积分，节省的资金和撰写的评论。

After testing, we debated whether to include this feature in the app. Nonetheless, I wanted to see how the audience would react to it. I also wanted to make Fuelhunt a little more social. So it made it to the MVP build.

经过测试后，我们讨论了是否在应用程序中包含此功能。 但是，我想看看观众对此有何React。 我还想使Fuelhunt更具社交性。 因此，它进入了MVP构建。

The Profile screen contains a user’s content only. The user can see various stats broken down into time periods:

“个人资料”屏幕仅包含用户的内容。 用户可以看到按时间段细分的各种统计信息：

• Money spent on gas and the amount of fuel burnt花在汽油上的钱和燃烧的燃料量
• Money saved with its equivalent of mileage saved节省的钱，相当于节省的里程
• Vehicle’s mileage itself and fuel consumption车辆的行驶里程本身和油耗

This tracker can serve many purposes from knowing the state of your car and wallet to easing the calculation of business trips and filling tax forms. But the main idea has been kept for future releases.

从了解您的汽车和钱包状态到简化商务旅行和填写税单的计算，此跟踪器可以用于多种目的。 但是主要思想一直保留在将来的版本中。

7.用于用户参与和市场化的游戏化机制 (7. Gamification mechanics for user engagement and monetization)

Gamification is used in many products, but sometimes it’s not done right. Often, it benefits the top users where beginners struggle to get on top, no matter how good they are. Top users usually get more attention, likes, and benefits.

游戏化被用于许多产品中，但有时做得不好。 通常，无论初学者多么优秀，它都会使初学者难以获得较高成就的顶级用户受益。 顶级用户通常会得到更多关注，喜欢和好处。

Fuelhunt’s gamification was designed to eliminate the barrier for new users and make everyone equal to compete.

Fuelhunt的游戏化旨在消除新用户的障碍，并使每个人都平等参与竞争。

For every price report and written review, the user earns points. Those who are active for a certain number of consequent days earn enough points to redeem premium features for free. Once they become inactive users, they lose that benefit and need to start over.

对于每个价格报告和书面评论，用户都将获得积分。 连续活动了几天的用户可获得足够的积分，可以免费兑换高级功能。 一旦成为非活动用户，他们就会失去这种利益，需要重新开始。

8. MVP后的增长 (8. Post-MVP growth)

Enough about what’s been done. The app’s roadmap looked pretty interesting at that time with a number of cool features, but I would identify two large milestones:

足够完成的事情了。 当时，该应用程序的路线图看起来很有趣，具有许多很酷的功能，但我会确定两个重要的里程碑：

First, Global expansion — it is a key element to build a big data company. Why is that important?

首先， 全球扩张 -这是建立大数据公司的关键要素。 为什么这么重要？

I had the vision that someday, with such data, self-driving cars would be able to drive from point A to point B and be smart enough to make decisions for themselves.

我的愿景是，有一天，有了这样的数据，自动驾驶汽车将能够从A点驾驶到B点，并且足够聪明，可以自己做出决定。

They could set the most optimal route and take into account traffic, road conditions, fuel level, and where to fill up most efficiently. That is the future.

他们可以设置最佳路线，并考虑交通，道路状况，燃油水平以及最有效地加油的位置。 那就是未来。

And second, I started all this to try to decrease the carbon footprint with technologies we have today. Without the need for drivers of extra investments and extra gadgets to install.

其次，我开始了所有这些工作，以尝试利用我们今天拥有的技术减少碳足迹 。 无需额外投资和安装额外小工具的驱动程序。

To do that, I wanted to extend Fuelhunt’s database with all vehicle models released to date and their city, highway, and combined fuel consumption. Then compare it with real data from my users to determine the driving inefficiency. And if more gas is burnt than it needs to be, update the user with suggestions to improve their driving habits.

为此，我想扩展Fuelhunt的数据库，使其包含迄今为止发布的所有车辆模型及其城市，高速公路和综合燃料消耗量。 然后将其与我的用户的真实数据进行比较，以确定驾驶效率低下。 而且，如果燃烧的汽油多于所需量，请向用户提供建议以改善他们的驾驶习惯。

结果 (The outcome)

What went wrong?

什么地方出了错？

1. The team is everything

   团队就是一切

   It’s vital to have the right partners and team members involved. But it’s also important to have developers as a core team in the same room to being able to iterate and execute fast.

   拥有合适的合作伙伴和团队成员至关重要。 但是，将开发人员作为核心团队放在同一个房间中也很重要，以便能够快速迭代和执行。

   I ended up building this project with developers overseas, which brought many obstacles to the whole process. Before I realized some team members were not a good fit in the culture, it was too late and the price we had to pay to replace them was too high already.

   我最终与海外开发人员一起构建了这个项目，这给整个过程带来了许多障碍。 在我意识到某些团队成员不适合这种文化之前，为时已晚，而更换团队所要付出的代价已经太高了。

2. The issue of adding value

   增值问题

   Despite all the research and user validation that showed there is a product and market fit, I still had doubts.

   尽管所有的研究和用户验证都表明产品和市场适合，但我仍然对此表示怀疑。

   I spent too much time trying to perfect the experience from day one instead of releasing MVP, getting the feedback, and moving on to iteration.

   从第一天开始，我就花了很多时间来完善体验，而不是发布MVP，获取反馈并进行迭代。

3. I ran out of cash

   我没钱了

   From the beginning, I didn’t want to use crowdfunding or any other investment opportunity to raise funds. I wanted to stick to my own cash to feel more responsibility for the project. Like, if I fail I’ll lose my own money.

   从一开始，我就不想利用众筹或任何其他投资机会来筹集资金。 我想用自己的现金来承担这个项目的更多责任。 就像，如果我失败了，我将失去自己的钱。

   And I did. Would I do something different next time? Definitely yes.

   而我做到了。 下次我会做些不同的事情吗？ 绝对可以。

4. Personal issues

   个人问题

   Sometimes that happens, when you need to choose a personal life or a business. I tried to balance both.

   有时在您需要选择个人生活或企业时会发生这种情况。 我试图平衡两者。

   I lost focus on the project and let distractions to get control over me. It was too late when I realized it.

   我失去了对项目的关注，让注意力分散了对我的控制。 当我意识到这已经太迟了。

What did I learn?

我学到了什么？

Startups are considered intense experiences that result in rapid learning. I gained a lot of experience designing Fuelhunt, filling more roles than I could possibly fill as a full-time employee.

初创企业被认为是可以快速学习的丰富经验。 我在设计Fuelhunt方面积累了很多经验，担任了比全职员工更多的职位。

The exciting part was getting the knowledge that helped me roll into a Product Design career from my previous Marketing background. This is an experience that I can look back on to build something more meaningful.

令人兴奋的部分是，从以前的营销背景中获得了帮助我进入产品设计职业的知识。 我可以回顾这种经验来构建更有意义的东西。

Closing a startup is often seen as a bad and sad thing. For me, it’s only a chapter before the next adventure.

关闭一家初创公司通常被视为一件不幸的事。 对我来说，这只是下一次冒险之前的一章。

I’m currently open for career opportunities in Toronto to contribute as a UX/Product Designer. Feel free to contact me.

我目前正在多伦多寻求职业机会，以担任UX /产品设计师的角色 。 请随时与我联系 。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-a-marketer-attempted-to-design-an-app-e334660a70b2/

我的第一个安卓应用程序