With a learning attitude, the author of this article experienced the Unicorn product of Kuaishou and tried to understand the core needs of the third and fourth tier and rural users in China.

A product manager sitting in an office all day would not be able to create this APP. It is said that the CEO of Kuaishou lived in a third – and fourth-tier city for several years before creating this popular product in China. Due to the short video from has been in the last year, and I also want to in the short video industry in the future, holding the learning attitude, experience quickly this APP, so as to have the analysis report, the product experience article also puts forward some improvement opinions of the individual, such as there is unreasonable, hope you can criticize points out, make progress together.

1. Product Overview

1.1 Experience Environment

Experience model: OnePlus 3T

Operating system version: Android 7.1.1

APP version: 5.2.0

Experience time: August 2017

1.2 Product Introduction

Kuaishou is a very simple short video social app that allows you to record funny moments in your life in a fast way. Its slogan is “Quick hand – kind of interesting”, logo is a cartoon camera, let people know the positioning of APP at first glance. And the desire to record the best moments of your life.

1.3 Product Positioning

A sharing platform for ordinary people, a place full of oddities and folk masters. The dream is not to change the world, but to record the world. Use machine learning to help everyone find their favorite content and find their favorite people.

1.4 Product Development

1.5 User requirement analysis

(1) Target population

China’s third – and fourth-tier cities and rural users are in the majority.

(2) Population characteristics

  • Strong desire to express oneself
  • Curiosity is more important
  • The general level of education is low

(3) User portrait

(4) User demand analysis

As the technology continues to improve, 4G has gradually become popular. The number of mobile Internet users in China has reached 700 million, but there are few apps for residents in the second and third tier cities, who account for most of them. These users also have the need to display themselves and the desire to socialize. Mainstream platforms such as Weibo are mainly used to deliver and share news. They are the stage of big V, and ordinary users’ voices are easily drowned out. With the construction of China’s new countryside, the popularity of broadband, there are a considerable part of the rural network new users. But there is no place for them in the existing Internet society. The wide differences in values and knowledge make it difficult for them to fit into existing circles.

To sum up, the second, third and fourth lines and the vast number of rural users urgently need a platform to show themselves, in order to get the attention of others.

Kuaishou Solution:

  • Simple user interface: compared with Weibo, QQ, Miaopai and other software to operate much simpler.
  • Curb the generation of super V, increase the production of ordinary users, everyone can be hot.
  • Encourage users to share their real lives. Determine the value of user equality in Kuaishou.
  • Through the algorithm to only recommend their favorite content to users, so that users have been precipitation on the platform.

1.6 Market Status

The scale of short video industry exceeds 200 million, and the trend of continuous rise exceeds the video industry as a whole. Combined with the number of short video ecological users of super apps (Weibo, Momo and wechat), the mobile Internet is entering the era of short video for all people. Platforms are pouring money into short videos. Tencent led the investment with 350 million yuan. Tudou, a subsidiary of Alibaba Entertainment, transformed itself into a short video platform and invested 2 billion yuan to build a “big fish plan”. Miaopai continued to rely on the mountain of Weibo, while Toutiao launched a watermelon video, Douyin. Short video industry is going through a new round of reshuffle, which is expected to last a long time in the tuyere.

Why are short videos so popular in recent years?

  1. The best way to display information: more suitable for the user’s fragmented reading habits, more penetrating than the text and text, with fans and flow, easy to make, easy to spread, easy to share, but also for the brand owners of the new favorite!
  2. Technological improvements: The proliferation of smartphones, 4G and the upcoming 5G technology have provided the material foundation for the explosion of short videos. With the formal commercialization of 5G network in the future, users’ mobile network costs will be further reduced, and user experience will be further improved. This brings a solid base and broad market space for mobile short video content consumption and product creation.
  3. Better relationship structure: a short video is a kind of asynchronous networking, interaction of the moment, around a user generated content, users became the core of the relationship between formation is a one-to-many relationship, compared to the live broadcast, short video production costs are lower, everyone can produce, so the platform can through the way of flow distribution, will develop a one-to-many for many to many relationship. Many-to-many social relationships, on the other hand, are more structured. User migration costs are high.

So, what position does Kuaishou occupy in such a hot industry?

As can be seen from the third-party data, Kuaishou ranks first in the short video industry in terms of both the number of users and the active rate. And this is inseparable from the market positioning of the beginning with Kuaishou. Focus on the bottom-of-the-earth user’s desire to express themselves. Do not give big V any traffic tilt, do not insist on forwarding. Because once retweeted, the head effect will appear immediately. Lead to common user creation initiative frustrated.

2. Product analysis

2.1 Product structure drawing

It can be seen that the information structure of Kuaishou is clear, concise and light, and the three tabs of “Attention, Discovery and City” on the home page have not changed since they were transformed into short videos in October 2013. The high-frequency requirements for viewing videos are directly placed in the first-level entrance, while the low-frequency requirements for private messages and personal Settings are hidden in the second-level or even third-level entrance. This setting is undoubtedly friendly to Kuaishou’s user base. It is undeniable that the mainstream users of Kuaishou are less educated, so the simple interface structure makes it easy for users to get started. Throughout the whole mobile Internet products, there are few app-friendly designs aimed at third-tier and fourth-tier urban agglomeration users.

2.2 Flow chart of core functions

(1) From the perspective of users

The overall style of Kuaishou is very simple and clear, even simple and crude. There are two main things you can do in Kuaishou: watch videos and send videos. For watching videos, you can directly open the APP, select Follow, find or watch a certain column in the same city, and the operation path is very short. However, the operation cost and learning cost of sending videos are very low (except the hidden function), and it is very fast to get started, so even new users do not need to guide the user to operate.

(2) From the perspective of products

Kuaishou product design, the overall logic is clear, light without too much additional, has continued to use the original product structure, style unique. By opening the APP, users can quickly meet their core needs without dragging their feet.

2.3 Analysis of Function experience

Let’s experience this product from the beginning like Xiao Bai: Kuaishou is extremely simple, no welcome page, advertising page, guide page. For users who have just come into contact with this product and have not registered, they can directly click the waterfall stream video on the home page to watch it, but cannot record short videos, comment, like and other operations. When relevant operations are performed, the registration and login interface will pop up immediately.

I think it can be improved: the video recording function can be used when users are not registered, and when users upload and share, they will be prompted to register and log in. It is not ruled out that some users will record a wonderful moment in their life when they just open the software. If they do not register, they still do not know where the button to shoot is, which will cause users’ trouble and increase their thinking cost. Even when you find the shot and go through the registration process, the wonderful moment you want to record is long gone.

When users register and log in, they will find that, in addition to the three TAB keys at the top of the page, follow, discover, city, there is a photo icon. It can be found that only after login, there will be the operation of “reducing similar works”. If users open the app before registering, there will be eye-catching operations such as eating raw sick pork or eating electric bulbs in the app, it is not sure that a large number of users will abandon it. After all, not everyone is interested. There is also this operation requires long press the video to operate, many users often do not know this operation, it is recommended to login for the first time to prompt users, long press the operation.

Next, let’s analyze this product as a log-in user from three perspectives: watching videos (attention, discovery, city), shooting videos and live broadcasting.

2.3.1 on page

The videos presented on the attention page are the latest videos uploaded and live broadcast by the main host of videos that users are interested in. And the use of a small red dot to remind users of updates, and circle of friends, the same reason, users see a small red circle always want to eliminate, so as to timely access to their “friends dynamic”. Video streams are sorted in chronological order. It can be seen that in addition to the first page of each video, there are also the main picture and release time of the video in the lower left. This makes it very easy for fans to directly identify the host of the video they are interested in and the timing of the release.

2.3.2 found page

The video is presented in the form of waterfall stream, and the cover of the video is a frame selected by the author from the video, with sticker text added, so that the browsing users can roughly know the content of the video, and they can quickly browse the video they are interested in and click to play, saving the operation cost of users. Kuaishou not only supports short videos, but also allows users to post pictures, which are intermixed with the video stream and have an icon logo in the upper right corner. Can find that each video page’s thumb up, of course, is not only according to the thumb up for sorting, but quickly according to the algorithm through the interest hobby, thumb up, comments such as weighted recommendation, presents the content of interest to you, sometimes brush out just a few great video stream, therefore, everybody can be popular, as long as you make a short video attentively, could have on the list, This is also one of the reasons that Kuaishou can have a large number of users, giving relative equality to the main video.

2.3.3 city

The video page displays the profile picture of the video owner and the distance from the user. Users can find videos posted by people nearby. LBS social interaction undoubtedly enhances the playability of the software. Videos in the same city undoubtedly enhance the sense of belonging of users. When a girl posts a video of herself making fun of the fact that she has no one to go to dinner or a movie with, and another male user is less than a kilometer away from her, she feels the urge to send her a direct message. That’s why Kuaishou put tabs in the city so important.

You can also roam in the same city. Click the lower triangle next to you to roam to other cities and watch the featured videos of other cities. Quite a number of kuaishou users are from sichuan, Guizhou and other economically underdeveloped areas, in order to make a living in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and other cities struggle. This is why the majority of kuaishou users are from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while the majority of kuaishou users are from third-tier cities and rural areas.

Accordingly, city roam this function gets this batch of user love deeply. I’m in a different place, watching what’s new in my hometown. Of course, there are also many users who are interested in the local customs of individual cities and click there to learn about local life.

2.3.4 Playing a Video

When entering the video details page: Double click like (” old iron double click 666 “has become a popular Internet slang thanks to Kuaishou) this interaction is very well designed. When double-clicking the video playing page, a red heart will appear, giving the user a visual surprise. From the perspective of interaction design, there is no progress bar when the video is played, but the automatic loop is played. When the user watches the short video, he will have trouble, and when he will finish watching, he will have a sense of anxiety, and he will not know how many times the video is played even if he does not pay attention to it. I suggest adding a short video playing progress bar at the bottom of the video playing page.

Comment design: Comments are arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent comment at the top. It can make users feel more involved, but it is a little messy for users to view the comment dialogue. It is suggested to divide the dialogue between the two comments into gray modules, just like sina Weibo, so that it is easier for readers and the two participants to obtain information. The video slides down to comment rather than expand another short video, so there’s a lot of emphasis on community interaction, but the video stops automatically when you expand comments. This will give users a bad user experience. I suggest that you slide a short video to the bottom right of the screen to continue when you scroll down to see comments or replies.

2.3.5 Shooting short videos

As an UGC type product, content is its core value and advantage. So how does fast hand do as a camera, as a tool for producing content? Kuaishou provides three kinds of video length, the default recording video is 7 seconds, if long press to shoot the video is 17 seconds, three consecutive clicks, can shoot the video of 57 seconds. It can meet different user needs. Background music can be added in photo mode (unfortunately not local music) and magic emojis can be selected in selfie mode. After recording, the video can also be processed. Provides 5 functional modules:

  • Filters: Select filters of different color styles for video processing.
  • Scene: Select a simple eight scene soundtrack effects for video processing.
  • Soundtrack: Adjust the proportion of original sound and soundtrack, where the soundtrack comes from local or cloud music.
  • Cover: You can choose a frame in the video as the cover of the video, and you can also choose a text sticker.
  • Advanced: can edit a frame in a video.

After shooting, enter the release page, you can select the people you follow, choose whether the work is public, add geographical location and other functions. And support sharing circle of friends and other platforms.

2.3.6 live

In 2016, kuaishou did not follow the trend of live broadcasting, but hid the live broadcasting in a deep position. In addition, livestreaming only supports some users: it needs to meet the requirements of releasing high-quality works that are favored by the majority of users. I guess the reason for kuaishou to do this is that its positioning is to be a tool to record everyone’s life, but live broadcasting is not the best form to record life. Therefore, Kuaishou has always maintained a restrained style and slowly explored the way of live broadcasting, rather than opening up all at once to follow the trend of live broadcasting.

2.3.7 I

Kuaishou’s personal Settings page is hidden deep, you need to right the menu bar to expand to find. As a short video content APP, this demand is not high. The platform mainly meets the needs of users to browse and shoot short videos. Therefore, Kuaishou placed it in the deep entrance.

In its function modules mainly include: gossip, message, private message, search, setting, local portfolio, scan and so on. And click the profile picture to enter the personal portfolio, you can see that the portfolio has also done a detailed classification: works, private, like. One of them like this feature personally feel very well done. Because short video platforms generally do not support downloading, but through the “like” function, it can help users to record their once liked videos, and it is also convenient to watch them in the future. The function of gossip, in fact, is the recent dynamic of the people you follow, such as paying attention to which videos users like and which dynamics they follow. This function, as a supplement to social networking, allows you to manually find a series of similar users or videos. However, I feel that this function is a little weak, because the discovery page has done a good job of personalized recommendation through the user’s behavior, and this function also involves personal privacy, for example, I recently followed a group of beautiful women, but I do not want others to know that I care (after all, I will appear low). Therefore, I personally feel that this function can be cancelled.

Private message: Users can instantly communicate with the video host they are interested in one to one. Of course, they can also choose to reject strangers’ private messages in the Settings to reduce interference. The slightly annoying thing is that if you type something into a private chat screen and then get interrupted (quit the chat screen) and re-enter it, it will disappear. This is a bad user experience. Personally, I feel the need to optimize.

3. Analysis of competitive products

3.1 Comparison of basic Information

Through the comparison, the basic information can be found, quickly product positioning for the majority of the 234 cities and countryside young users, this part of the population in China accounts for a large proportion and more leisure time, entertainment is relatively scarce, and quickly gave them the chance to show themselves, therefore, quickly in a short video industry forefront now, both in scale of users and user activity Ahead of the competition. Kuaishou’s slogan is obviously more grounded, which makes people want to play. Compared with the fun gameplay of short videos highlighted by seconds and beauty, Kuaishou’s slogan can directly make users have a sense of participation. Everyone wants to have some fun in life, which can more inspire new users to try to download.

3.2 Differentiation Analysis

Through comparison, it is found that Unlike other mainstream short video platforms, Kuaishou encourages users to create excellent works through lists, because The positioning of Kuaishou is to record the life of ordinary people. If the list is ranked, the head strength will become stronger and stronger, which will inevitably hit the creativity of ordinary users. Instead, algorithmic recommendation techniques are accumulated over many years with minimal human intervention. Let users only see videos that interest them and immerse themselves in the platform. And let ordinary users insist on using fast hand to record the real state of life. On the other hand, The video image processing technology accumulated by Kuaishou over the years is also not available on other platforms. Powerful and simple operation, can meet the diverse needs of users.

3.2 a SWOT analysis

4. User comments

4.1 User opinion rating

Although anti-Kuaishou is almost politically correct on Zhihu, what are the comments of users who actually use Kuaishou? In the last month, the majority of users have positive reviews for mobile phones. This is inseparable from kuaishou’s minimalist restrained style. Never chasing from the draught, but according to their own product positioning step by step improvement. And too anxious to pursue commercial interests, but from the perspective of user experience step by step commercialization. I think that’s why this unique company is so well received by users.

4.2 Details of User comments

Judging from the details of the comments, many users asked kuaishou to give them access to the platform. Due to Kuaishou’s restraint, not everyone has access to live streaming. This has even led to the emergence of grey chains, with many stores on Taobao selling the right to broadcast live or teaching customers to obtain the right to broadcast live in illegal ways. Personally, I suggest that Kuaishou increase the input of operation, customer service and audit resources, let competent people open live broadcasting as soon as possible, and give timely reply to those without live broadcasting rights.

When the user changes the mobile phone number and unbinds the original account, the solution given by Kuaishou is to obtain the verification code of the original number. This design obviously gives users a sense of powerlessness and a sense of space and time. Does not reflect the humanized design principle. You are advised to add a password to obtain the original account verification code to unbind the account. As shown in the lower left figure.

5. If I’m PM

1. When new users use it, simple portrait collection will be carried out, and then intelligent algorithm will be recommended

Objective: Algorithm recommendation often brings about cocoon effect. When users find a kind of interesting information, they will push this kind of information crazily, and lose the possibility in a wider range. People’s vision becomes increasingly narrow and monotonous, and eventually the platform becomes low. Gradually, the platform is filled with simple, simple and crude content, because these contents are most likely to attract people’s attention in a short time. Therefore, when new users first enter Kuaishou, they often see some offensive content such as eating raw pork and overeating. With a good portrait collection, you can start by recommending short videos that users like. In this way, they can strive to make their products more inclusive and attract more diverse user groups.

2. Optimize search so that users can perform fuzzy search

Objective: To reduce user anxiety and improve user experience. If you need to pay attention to “Li Dashi fitness” this user, search master Li fitness results are unsatisfactory, must be accurate Li Dashi fitness to find, and this is a bad user experience for the quick hand generally low education users.

3. Increase the priority of “label” function entry, diversify labels, and put them directly in the video stream

Purpose: the existing label function is in the search, and the default label only: and China new Song cooperation “China new song”, and Xinhua News Agency cooperation “five years taste” two labels. Since Kuaishou platform has invested heavily in Variety shows such as China’s New Song, it should maximize the benefits of operation. For example, by diversifying labels and encouraging users to participate, users can have a stronger sense of belonging to the community, thus producing more excellent original short videos.

4. Strengthen operation, audit and customer service resource investment

Purpose: Some time ago, a father “molested” his six-year-old daughter on kuaishou platform, and last year, a junior high school student engaged in a fight on Kuaishou platform, and other incidents have caused a lot of repercussions in the society. In order to attract attention, many video hosts go to extreme lengths, even skirting the law, which undoubtedly brings a huge negative impact on Kuaishou platform. Then strengthen audit strength is imperative. In addition, by attracting higher-level users through operation, we can make our products more inclusive and attract more diversified user groups, thus providing possibilities for future business continuity. Although it is difficult to correct the first impression of a product, the user group and its cognition are constantly iterating. If Kuaishou makes more efforts in marketing, there is still a great opportunity for brand remolding.

5. Add short video appreciation function to bring more possibilities for commercialization

Objective: Kuaishou gives grass-root users the opportunity to get attention and become red, but it does not give the path of commercialization. Therefore, there are fake shoes, fake bags of unknown origin of weight-loss drugs, health medicine and other wechat business advertisements on the platform. However, if this lasts for a long time, it will certainly bring harm to the platform. Therefore, value-added services can help creators realize legitimate cash and enhance their passion. Otherwise both sides will be victims.

6. Summary

Quickly as currently on the market of the most popular short video applications, on the user experience is not too big problem, and made the platform as the tencent invested $350 million, significantly increased the user a second-tier cities of advertising, such as “poking fun at the conference”, “run brothers”, “China’s new song” and so on variety shows and first-tier cities building subway spending sponsored propaganda. It is undeniable that Kuaishou has attracted most users in the third and fourth tier cities and rural areas through its algorithm and established its own barriers. However, has it considered the incompatibility of these two user groups in its “rural encircled city line”? Personally, I think the algorithm may not have values, but the users behind the algorithm will have values. Therefore, Kuaishou needs to increase the review of short video content on the platform. Short videos that are not conducive to the core values of the society should be snuffed out in the cradle so as to avoid the spread of social repercussions. On the other hand, we can make simple portraits and intelligent recommendations for newly registered users, so as to achieve the compatibility of different user groups, so that kuaishou platform can grow healthily and healthily and record more ordinary people’s ordinary lives.

 

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