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I’ve been thinking about user experience quite a bit recently. We know good design when we see it but as entrepreneurs, marketers, and developers how do we ensure that the websites and apps we make consistently improve and maximize user experience?

Recently I attended and blogged about Suzanne Ginsburg’s presentation on iPhone app user experience. In the presentation she did a screen by screen comparison of two competing business review apps (Yelp and UrbanSpoon) and provided a list of best practices [ http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1508-design-decisions-saying-more-in-less-space-on-the-new-highrise-site ] . As you can see from the user comments below the blog, not all users like some of the design decisions. But by sharing it openly in a blog, a space that allows two-way dialogue 37signals is able to assess such feedback and utilize it if enough users voice it or if it makes sense according to their goals.

At Suzanne’s presentation she mentioned that she had sent her deck to both UrbanSpoon and Yelp whose iPhone apps she had covered. While UrbanSpoon’s CEO responded saying that he found the deck helpful and was going to implement, Yelp never responded at all. When doing this blog post, I checked out Yelp’s blog [ http://officialblog.yelp.com/ ]. Not surprisingly the Yelp blog is about informing users of Yelp offerings, rather than starting a conversation on what the product provides and how to improve it. Additionally unlike 37signals where the blogs are done by people working in different functions on the team [ http://www.37signals.com/svn/ ] all Yelp’s blogs come from the CEO.

Some people may argue that the user types are different and Yelp cannot get its users to be so involved in the site design since they just care about reviewing and leave it to Yelp to make the design work for them. These people would say that 37signals has users who are intimately connected to the site design since they manage their work lives with it daily. I don’t think this is true since I’ve personally met several raving Yelpsters, including my friend Aleks.

Since Aleks posts such great reviews he got invited to a Yelp party a few months ago. He says there were easily 300 Yelpsters there covering a 2 floor club in NYC. Even if some small percent of crowds like that voice their design concerns and Yelp listens to them, it would take Yelp to a different level.

So Yelp if you are listening here is some advice—make your blog a two-way communication with your users on product decisions, especially design. They may very well show you how to grow your community even more.

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