One thing I do is that I show the person our current UI, and ask them what changes would they propose to make things better and the reasons behind their decisions. This really helps to see how the person approaches problems and what kind of design mentally he/she has.
I need some help and advice with my product. My company (www.pyronyx.com) has recently launched our iPhone app, iQila (www.iqila.com). We envision this app to help people find and share interior design tips and ideas and post questions or get advice from professional interior designers. The app in the current version allows you to take images and post them along with your question. Other users can then comment on your post or share it on Facebook. We have another version coming up with more sharing options and better camera/image UI and layout.
There are a few problems I know are there and I don't have concrete ways to solve:
1. Getting the message across. I find it difficult to explain the idea to people. It's not complicated at all but I think my choice of words is not correct and people don't understand the idea of the app if I email it to them, or through the app store. We've got about 300 downloads in the past week but only a handful of people have used the app.
What do you think after reading the website and app store descriptions? How can I improve it? How can I convert those downloads to users?
2. How do I get professionals to use the app? We plan on having professional profiles where people can search for designers in their areas. That is for a future release, and for that to work, I need to introduce the app to professionals in the field who would want to use the app in the first place to market themselves, answer questions, post ideas etc.. I look up professional interior designers online and personally them on twitter and through email but I'm not seeing ANY feedback. I think I'm lost and need help in targeting and finding the correct users, partners.
3. Any general advice on the product. We've built the app and the web backend such that we can change it for other domains and add and remove features. Initially, we thought of a framework we can provide other companies so that they can have their own similar apps. Although we aren't going that route yet, we ourselves can change directions easily, if need be.
About the company: We are just 2 developers with full time jobs and a shoestring budget.