Design Review: Building a better mobile app

Design Review</a> is our series that lets startups volunteer to have their websites (or in this case, their mobile apps) put under the microscope by two design experts. For this episode, series host and YC Group Partner <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/people/aaron/">Aaron Epstein</a> is joined by <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/dvdsgl?lang=en\%22>David Siegel</a>, co-founder and CEO of the no-code app builder <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/glide/">Glide. Having previously been a Head of Design at companies like Microsoft and Xamarin, Siegel has spent much of his career thinking about how to take all of the pieces and make them fit together just right.<figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.youtube.com/embed/4N55fVuxxOg?feature=oembed\%22 frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Critiquing Startup Mobile Apps with Glide CEO\"></iframe></figure>They’ll cover concepts like:<ul><li>Thinking about context and where users actually are when using an app</li><li>Getting users to the “Aha!” moment as quickly as possible</li><li>How good design uses color and animation for more than just looks</li><li>Why it’s important to watch someone use your app out in the real world</li></ul>The startups featured in this episode are <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/pyrls/">Pyrls, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/bluedot/">Bluedot, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/duffl/">Duffl, <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/boldvoice/">BoldVoice, and <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/eden-care/">EdenCare. You can click any of those company names to find out what each of the apps is built to do… or, better yet, you can work that out in real-time along with Aaron and David.","comment_id":"64f20d568274c00001f7527c","feature_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/09/SR0404-David-Mobile-Apps.jpg","featured":true,"visibility":"public","email_recipient_filter":"none","created_at":"2023-09-01T09:12:06.000-07:00","updated_at":"2023-09-01T10:37:25.000-07:00","published_at":"2023-09-01T10:30:32.000-07:00","custom_excerpt":"There’s a lot to think about when designing mobile apps, where seemingly small details can have a big impact. Viewers have been asking for a mobile-focused episode of Design Review — and here it is!","codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"custom_template":null,"canonical_url":null,"tags":[{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"}],"authors":[{"id":"645000ebb09be6000165fbad","name":"Greg Kumparak","slug":"greg","profile_image":"/blog/content/images/2023/05/greg.jpeg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Greg oversees editorial content at Y Combinator. He was previously an editor at TechCrunch for nearly 15 years.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/greg/"}],"primary_author":{"id":"645000ebb09be6000165fbad","name":"Greg Kumparak","slug":"greg","profile_image":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/content/images/2023/05/greg.jpeg","cover_image":null,"bio":"Greg oversees editorial content at Y Combinator. He was previously an editor at TechCrunch for nearly 15 years.","website":null,"location":null,"facebook":null,"twitter":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/author/greg/"},"primary_tag":{"id":"61fe29efc7139e0001a71172","name":"Video","slug":"video","description":null,"feature_image":null,"visibility":"public","og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"codeinjection_head":null,"codeinjection_foot":null,"canonical_url":null,"accent_color":null,"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/tag/video/"},"url":"https://ghost.prod.ycinside.com/design-review-mobile-apps/","excerpt":"There’s a lot to think about when designing mobile apps, where seemingly small details can have a big impact. Viewers have been asking for a mobile-focused episode of Design Review — and here it is!","reading_time":1,"access":true,"og_image":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"twitter_image":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"meta_title":null,"meta_description":null,"email_subject":null,"frontmatter":null,"feature_image_alt":"YC Group Partner Aaron Epstein and Glide co-founder David Siegel in front of the text \"Mobile App Review\"","feature_image_caption":null},"mentions":[],"related_posts":[{"id":"61fe29f1c7139e0001a71b4d","uuid":"8a0f88a3-2b5d-464c-8f92-b65351647ba5","title":"Updates for Startup School 2019 and Office Hours with Kevin Hale","slug":"updates-for-startup-school-2019-and-office-hours-with-kevin-hale","html":"<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://twitter.com/ilikevests/">Kevin Hale</a> is a Partner at YC. Before working at YC he cofounded Wufoo.\nKevin’s on the podcast today to do some Office Hours and talk about this year’s edition of <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.startupschool.org/">Startup School</a>.\nIf you’d like to sign up or learn more, check out <a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://www.startupschool.org/">StartupSchool.org.

00:25 – Stats from Startup School 2018\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=1m45s\%22>1:45 – Updates for Startup School 2019\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=8m15s\%22>8:15 – Sign up at StartupSchool.org\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=8m50s\%22>8:50 – Sean Maina asks – In the early days of Wufoo, how did you give a great customer experience?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=11m30s\%22>11:30 – Design affordances\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=13m45s\%22>13:45 – Sunil Tej asks – How was Wufoo 10x better than the market when they just got started?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=17m45s\%22>17:45 – Building an audience before a product\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=20m15s\%22>20:15 – Wufoo’s growth\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=23m30s\%22>23:30 – Coming up with the idea for Wufoo\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=27m30s\%22>27:30 – Companies pivoting during YC\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=29m\%22>29:00 – Building a product in an unsexy space\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=32m30s\%22>32:30 – Sivaraj Ghanesh asks – How do you know if you’ve achieved product market fit? Or if your product just isn’t noticed yet?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=43m30s\%22>43:30 – Sivaraj Ghanesh asks – How do you gauge the size of a market?\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=46m\%22>46:00 – Tips for Startup School success\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=50m15s\%22>50:15 – Advice on vetting cofounders\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://youtu.be/kyYHUXxyjvI?t=53m45s\%22>53:45 – Sign up at StartupSchool.org\n<hr />\n<div id=\"backtracks-player\" data-bt-embed=\"https://player.backtracks.fm/ycombinator/ycombinator/m/133-updates-for-startup-school-2019-and-office-hours-with-kevin-hale\" data-bt-theme=\"orange\" data-bt-show-art-cover=\"true\" data-bt-show-comments=\"true\">\n</div>\n<script>(function(p,l,a,y,e,r,s){if(p[y]) return;if(p[e]) return p[e]();s=l.createElement(a);l.head.appendChild((s.async=p[y]=true,s.src=r,s))}(window,document,\"script\",\"__btL\",\"__btR\",\"https://player.backtracks.fm/embedder.js\"))</script> <script> \n(function(p,l,a,y,e,r,s){if(p[y]) return; \nif(p[e]) return p[e]();s=l.createElement(a); \nl.head.appendChild((s.async=p[y]=true,s.src=r,s)) \n}(window,document,'script','__btL','__btR', \n'https://player.backtracks.fm/embedder.js')) \n</script> <script> \n!function(n,i,s,c){n[s]||(n[s]=function(i){n[s].q.push(i)}),n[s].q||(n[s].q=[]), \nc=i.createElement(\"script\"), \nc.async=1, \nc.src=\"https://c.bktrks.com/utils-1.0.0.all.min.js\", \ni.head.appendChild(c)}(window,document,\"BTUtils\"); \nBTUtils(function(use) { \n var options = { \n autoplayLinks: false \n }; \n use('backtracks-autolink', options).init(); \n}); \n</script>\n<hr />\n<h1>Subscribe</h1>\n<a href=https://www.ycombinator.com/"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/y-combinator/id1236907421/">iTunes
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Greg Kumparak