This article is reproduced from the author Zhang Xinyu
On January 25, a few days after the WeChat update, another social community product on the Chinese Internet, Douban APP, was also updated to version 7.0, with Slogan as an "interesting and diverse cultural life community."
After experiencing it, I found that the most important product change of the Douban APP version 7.0 is the addition of the left sidebar on the homepage. Some user account management functions that were previously embedded in "My" in the previous version have been advanced to the left sidebar on the homepage. Including "My Favorites", "My Concerns", "Browsing History" and other system functions. In addition, at the bottom of the left sidebar, the functions of "Order", "Shopping Cart", and "Wallet" have also been added to the transaction direction. At the same time, the three major products of "Douban Time", "Douban Reading Bookshelf" and "Douban FM" have been added. Collected in the left sidebar.
The five pages of homepage, book video, group, market and me can be swiped left directly into the left sidebar, so that users can check their favorites, unfinished articles or open Douban FM to listen to songs at any time.
Comparison of the old VS new interface, source: Douban
Coincidentally, the WeChat 8.0 revision a few days ago also added a left sidebar to the top drop-down bar for the first time. However, the current left sidebar of WeChat is only a replacement for this front floating window, which is mainly used to store and cache unfinished articles by users. No other functions have been developed for the time being.
For a situation where an APP needs to meet multiple user needs, users are not completely immersed in it. There are usually moments of interrupting or suspending a certain usage scenario, but too many clicks and jumps, or unable to retrieve the previous Use progress will make users disappointed with the entire APP. The product manager is to resolve this conflict.
This coincidence on the product may indicate that the development and mining of the left sidebar will increasingly become a potential option for all product managers who are struggling with limited space. Previously, Kuaishou, QQ, etc. have generally adopted the scheme of using the left sidebar to store user management functions.
But the left sidebar of the new version of Douban also has Douban features.
After opening Douban FM in the left sidebar, the simple interface style is very similar to a small program, and even if you exit Douban FM, music can still be played in the background. When users use other sections on Douban, such as browsing book video reviews, filling water in Douban group, or shopping in Douban market, they can also access/exit/control Douban FM by calling the left sidebar at any time. Key to listen to the song.
You can control Douban FM with one click through the left sidebar
However, Douban FM in Douban APP does not provide a search function. Users need to tune Douban FM's algorithm to find the songs they want to listen to.
For non-video community products, the solution provided by Douban to integrate Douban FM into the main APP is a user-friendly attempt. This is also due to the previously independent financing of Douban FM has returned to Douban's parent company.
The fifth column of the new version, "I", is now a more pure personal homepage, including book videos, dynamics, group collections, photo albums and other user content collections on Douban. People are content. The new version of the personal homepage "I" is no longer hidden in "My" that focuses on account management functions, but directly displays all the content left by users on Douban.
In addition to the above functional revisions, Douban 7.0 also optimizes the book, audio, video, group, and also adds a new version of the function is "personal TOP10".
Top 10 personal books, audio and video
Personal TOP10 can be regarded as a comprehensive personal dimensional interest ranking list, and everyone can organize their own TOP10 and name it at will. TOP10 is completely DIY, not calculated by the system based on big data.
Features such as personal TOP10 enrich the "I" page. Each user can enrich "I" with his own avatar, signature, book, video, and dynamic content, making it his own personal homepage.
This is easily reminiscent of Zhang Xiaolong’s explanation of WeChat version 8.0 on WeChat Night this year. He also wants to provide users with personal homepages on WeChat through the "status" and video number of WeChat 8.0. One big difference is that, as a whole, WeChat is still an acquaintance social product, and the user relationship is very real, while Douban pays more attention to "recording yourself in a place where no acquaintances are staring, and communicating real life and feelings."
In addition, Douban 7.0 has also made many optimizations in social, search, and content publishing. The new version of Douban APP, after the precipitation of the 6.0 version of the book audio-visual recording tool, has returned to the function of the most fundamental "people" who constitute the community, and has made a relatively large turn to a true community product.
It is worth mentioning that when almost all content, transactions, and community products are in the era of video transformation, the new version of Douban still does not leave room for video, a content format that has a low threshold for user consumption and helps increase consumption time. . Regardless of whether it is a dedicated video column or recommending video content in the content information stream, Douban has not done it. Of course, it is currently impossible for users to upload video-based life records on Douban.
The graphic content is still Douban's stubbornness.
According to the explanation given by Douban, if the release of the 6.0 version of the book audiovisual world in 2018 is an exploratory starting point for community planning, then the 7.0 version of the Douban APP can be said to have carried out more specific and in-depth environmental transformations around the "community" And the intermediate stage of facility upgrade.
In terms of commercialization, Douban version 7.0 has no major changes in its business model. Douban said that so far Douban is still dominated by revenue from advertising and marketing traffic. In version 7.X, everyone has the opportunity to see Douban's more active exploration methods.
The most valuable thing about Douban is its high-quality users. In the 7.0 era, Douban has long abandoned the idea of a mobile tool for Douban Family Bucket ten years ago. Instead, it chose to continuously update the Douban APP. In this revision, the focus on people and content is highlighted. The ambition of communityization.