<p>Published on <a href="http://ift.tt/2oMDZqC">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Fairy Lai <img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2oMBXqa"></p>
<p>If you have ever attended a UX/UI/Digital/Visual/Product Designer interview, you might have encountered this question:</p>
<p><strong>What is your favourite app?</strong></p>
<p>It used to be a very touch question for me. I still remember the first time I have been asked this question, I felt like I was baked inside the oven…Then I rigidly pull my smart phone out, swiping the screens with trembling fingers, and finally pointed to the default music player on my phone…<strong>An app doesn’t necessarily to be a mobile app, but when you are in an interview, it is way easier to explain while showing it on your phone.</strong></p>
<p>To be honest, I was not an active mobile user because of its small screen and keyboard. I’m that kind of person who will type a message on laptop, send it to my phone, then copy and paste to reply a friend…I firmly believed that mobile is mainly for keeping in touch with people, and consuming content. So it was not surprising that this question was such a tough one for me.</p>
<p>Even now, I’m still not a big fan of it. But I understand that it has become an essential part in my everyday. With the development of technology, there are more and more possibilities for mobile . <strong>There is not doubt that mobile has been far beyond keeping in touch and consuming content, people can shop online, create stories, finish a work-related email…on a mobile phone. </strong>And the biggest advantage of a mobile phone, is its size. Easy to carry with when traveling around the world!</p>
<p>I’m going to share 5 of my favourite apps here!</p>
<h3>1. <a href="https://www.meetup.com/">Meetup</a></h3>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2pzt3iS"></p>
<p>I talked about <a href="http://ift.tt/2nvnQ9R">net-working in this previous post</a>, as I shared before, I used to be afraid of talking with strangers, let alone joining a net-working event. But what really helps me out is Meetup.</p>
<p>You can find all kind of categories on meetup, from politics to pop music, from peanut butter to JavaScript…The diversity of culture and value is what I like about meetup the most. You can always find the community you belong to there, and meet people who share the same interest as you.</p>
<h3>2. <a href="http://ift.tt/15QkT62">Pocket</a></h3>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2pzcVxV"></p>
<p>When you come across an interesting link, but you are busy with something else…Pocket is for this kind of situation!</p>
<p>You can save links from laptop/tablet/mobile and read it later! The cool thing is that it will save the pure content of the link(get rid of the formatting and just keep the image and text)so you can read them on your phone offline! (Extremely helpful for me as there is no signal in the subway in Toronto lol)</p>
<p>Another nice feature is that you can save the links inside the text to pocket as well 😀</p>
<h3>3. <a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a></h3>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2o1wG1b"></p>
<p>Besides the delightful visual design, I like Slack because it really provides the possibility for you to manage all kinds of messages in one place. You can have multiple channels, direct messages, group messages in one team, and you can also login withe different email address and manage all the different teams in one place!</p>
<p>All kinds of integrations and powerful search function also allow you to effectively catch the useful information in time.</p>
<h3>4. <a href="http://ift.tt/2oNzr2E">Yelp</a></h3>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2pzfmAv"></p>
<p>Finding a good restaurant is not an easy thing, especially there are more then 5 Japanese cuisine in the same street and you have no idea which one will be the best. Plus, you don’t want to go into a restaurant and start thinking about the your poor wallet after seeing the crazy numbers on the menu…Yelp is a perfect app to solve all this kind of problems!</p>
<p>One of my favourite features is that Yelp put all the information you need in one place, brief intro, location, menu, price, review…You can easily have a glance and decide whether to go in a min. Also, Yelp has a big and trustful community, you can see the real and detailed review and have a closer look at the place further — the service, environment, even some interesting stories about the brand!</p>
<h3>5. <a href="http://www.bilibili.com">Bili Bili</a></h3>
<p><img alt="" src="http://ift.tt/2oMp6o7"></p>
<p>I put this at last because it is a niche product in China not because it is less important. Bilibili is a video-sharing platform similar as youtube, but it focus more on sub-culture like animation, manga, gaming fandom as well as some other recreations. Many people believed it is a copy of Japanese video-sharing channel <a href="http://ift.tt/nG9Rwy">niconico</a> because of the same naming structure, similar content and the most featuring <a href="http://ift.tt/2oMy0BW">dynamic subtitles(submit, view, and add commentary subtitles)</a>.</p>
<p>However, the bilibili now already walked out of the shadow and it has a completely different feeling and I believe its design is clean, user-friendly and nice!</p>
<p>What I really like about bilibili is that it offers a niche community of sub-culture, so people who are like me can find a sense of belonging. I also love the way people interact with the video with the commentary subtitles, it is a more vivid and engaging interactive experience then the traditional comments beneath. Sometimes people will watch the video twice: with those commentary subtitles and without. People sharing their emotions, comments, and even start a story in the comments, which is quite interesting to see.</p>
<h3>How to answer the Favourite APP question？</h3>
<p>Well, I failed that interview. Of cause it is not just because of that question, it should have something to do with my lack of preparation and experience as well as my poor performance in the interview.</p>
<p>At that time, I didn’t have an app that I can talk about. Now, I have 5. How will I answer that question then?</p>
<h4><strong>Start with introducing the app.</strong></h4>
<p>Tell the audience the name/region of the app.Then make a short introduction of what the problem the app is solving/what can the app help with.</p>
<h4>What I like about the app and why.</h4>
<p>Talk about what you like, maybe a specific feature/UI/the whole app/the company’s concepts…There should be some other apps doing similar stuff in the market, but why I like this one the most?What makes this app unique to me?Maybe I find the way to interact with the bot is very interesting!</p>
<h4>What can be improved.</h4>
<p>Finally, I will finish the answer with pointing out what can be improved for the current app. For example, I like the commentary subtitles but it might be a better experience to add emoji to it to increase engagement!</p>
<h3>How to find a “favourite app” if I don’t have any?</h3>
<p>No worries. I used to be in the same situation as you.There are 3 ways you can do.</p>
<p><strong>1.Go to the App Store/Google Play and download top 10</strong></p>
<p>Quickly go through the most popular ones on the ranking, chances are you will find your favourite ones soon!</p>
<p><strong>2. Choose the apps you use daily</strong></p>
<p>Your favourite app doesn’t need to be fancy. It can be an ordinary app as long as you can find something unique and explain why. Start from the apps you use for daily basis, like social media apps: Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat… even your banking app. Love to read? Are you using Kindle/Kobo’s app? Are you using Medium/Pinterest? A fan of music? Are you using Spotify?…</p>
<p><strong>3. Ask your friends.</strong></p>
<p>If you still can’t find one, ask your friends. Perhaps someone is on a diet so she will introduce you a food app, maybe someone who is a fan of outdoor activities will tell you about a camping app…There are lots of possibilities!</p>
<p>That is it! Hope you can answer the favourite app question confidently:D</p>
<p>Fairy is a product designer who is dedicated to utilizing technology to better connect the world. Welcome to connect me via<a href="http://ift.tt/2mOgudU"> Dribbble</a>, <a href="http://ift.tt/2nzxQzS">Linkedin</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/fkojiang?lang=en">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p><img src="http://ift.tt/2pzkbtq" width="1" height="1" alt="stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSou"></p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://ift.tt/2oMwwrh">What is your favourite app? I have 5 now!</a> was originally published in <a href="http://ift.tt/2cAqCpx">Prototyping: From UX to Front End</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.</p>


What is your favourite app? I have 5 now!

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