TikTok: Product Design Analysis
If you haven’t fallen into the TikTok trap yet, I’m sure you know at least one person who has, especially during quarantine.
TikTok is a Chinese video-sharing and social networking app owned by ByteDance and has reached over 2 billion downloads worldwide since September 2017. This platform allows anyone to create content for up to 60 seconds long. Whether it’s lip-synching, cooking, or dancing videos, TikTok seems to have videos for everyone no matter what their background is.
What makes TikTok so addicting?
Some might say it’s the content specifically curated for them, often shown on their FYP (For You Page), but without consideration of its design, it may not have been as popular as it is today.
Great product design is useful, usable, and desirable by the end-user. TikTok’s AI algorithm tracks your interactions with each video closely, so they can recommend you videos that specifically fit your interests.
Its user interface is easy to use, once you download it and open the app, you are immediately taken to the FYP section of the app, where they’ll show you viral videos and gauge how you interact with the content. From there, you can scroll endlessly, where different videos pop up and compete for your attention. The ones you interact with the most (through likes, comments, shares) is what they’ll recommend to you in the future, bringing you content that holds true to its page name, the For You Page.
Creating content is simple too, you just hit the “+” button right in the middle of the bottom navigation bar and you can upload your own photos/videos, or you can play around with their effect and filters. You can send TikToks directly to your friends, but if you share the link with users who do not have a TikTok yet, a banner that says “*your friend’s name* is using TikTok, sign up now!” which encourages the user to sign up since someone they trust is using it.
Good products respect their users’ time and effort
When it comes to TikTok, content is just one click away. Even if you just downloaded the app and decide to exit the log-in screen, you can still access endless videos with just a scroll up. TikTok understands that during this digital age, users want content quickly, and they don’t want to spend too much time looking at one thing which is why TikTok limits videos to 60 seconds. TikTok values the time and effort of their users, which helps them make their app as efficient as possible.
Good products are easy to learn and consistent in their use
As I’ve previously mentioned, TikTok is an easy app to use. It understands that users have interacted with likes, comments, and sharing functions and keeps these icons and actions easy to identify and use throughout the app. TikTok takes the basics of social media and doesn’t complicate it, which makes it appealing for many users.
Usefulness is job #1
“If your product is not useful, if humans do not find use for it, then the design has failed.” — Joshua Porter
TikTok offers more than just entertainment, it can be an educational tool, networking tool, business tool, or anything else users find that fits their needs. Because of the content TikTok allows users to share and its AI algorithm, users can find multiple reasons to use TikTok.
Conclusion
Users come back to TikTok because they find personal uses for the app, whether it be entertainment or not. It’s easily usable which makes it a desirable app for people of any age. TikTok has seen similar apps in the past work well such as Vine, and Musical.ly (merged with TikTok) and improved on an existing concept that was already loved and used by many. Since TikTok wants users to come back to their app, they surely achieve their goal by creating a simple and easy product, fit for anyone to use.
