A successful Product Hunt launch is a combination of different factors. Aside from marketing, product quality, etc., we guide you through the graphic design process checklist. Of course, hiring an on-demand graphic design service or a professional graphic designer who does all the work for you would be better. Yet, if you have no cash to spare, we will help you with the ultimate design checklist for your product to launch successfully. Before getting into our tips and tricks, we'll discuss Product Hunt and this service. It should be interesting!
Graphic design checklist: What is Product Hunt?
The Product Hunt community platform was founded in 2013 by Ryan Hoover. Product Hunt's algorithm promotes and presents new tech, hardware, design software, and app downloads to each active member. Many entrepreneurs and start-ups utilize this fantastic platform for free advertising to make their new products visible to the audience.
While the idea of such a website is great, the most remarkable thing about Product Hunt is its community. The products rank by popularity among community members on the Product Hunt homepage (front page). All members with Product Hunt accounts can upvote or downvote a product according to its various elements and capabilities. All products have a comment section for sparking conversations, asking questions, engaging on the product's concept and quality, or offering new ideas/feedback on product improvement. It's like having a team of developers for free. Launching a product on Product Hunt is both challenging and rewarding.
Graphic design checklist for a successful Product Hunt launch
This checklist will give you the tools to understand better what you need to do and where the design heads should go.
User experience is crucial
The ability to make graphic design user-friendly is a real art. Remember, the most important thing about a successful product is that it must get people interested and be valuable to your customers. Yet, there's more to it.
Your product, whether an app, a piece of software, or even a website, can be crazy useful and bring so much joy to your customers, but unless they feel comfortable using it, they won't care much about its usefulness.
That's why you must understand the basic principles of user-friendly graphic design. Here they are:
- You are not a user: Test your Product with a pre launch audience and early adopters (not just family).
- Use accurate content: It's better to build a real-life environment for your design, not filler text.
- Keep things simple: Nobody loves a ton of details. Simplicity is key, especially for software products or applications.
- Prevent errors: It's much easier to prevent common mistakes than to fix them.
- Adapt your design: Design is not math. No formula can get the job done. Adapt to your new users and make them feel special.
Prepare the launch thoroughly
The worst thing you can do is create graphic design in a hurry. There's no such thing as "I'll create it in no time" when designing. The more time you dedicate to it, the better your design will be. Therefore, you need to invest as much time as you can. Remember, first impressions last, so you must conduct research and prepare thoroughly for your first launch. The best is to prepare the design one month prior and revise it every 2–3 days. Better to be over-prepared than to under-deliver.
Ask others
If you don't have a team of graphic designers working for you, get some opinions. It doesn't matter who as long as they are part of your target audience. Getting another view of your design is crucial. After working long hours and meeting deadlines, you can't spot all the weaknesses it might possess. Third-party opinions will make you understand your product better to complete the needed redesigns according to your customers' feelings and experiences.
Get yourself a graphic designer
It is possible to create professional looking graphic images like an animated GIF. Yet, the design work is complex and less pleasurable than many designers portray on Facebook groups and other social media platforms. Thus, the chances of your success are immeasurably higher with a graphic designer on your team. But if you're looking for something more cost-effective, you don't need to hire a hyped designer with a diverse design portfolio. Finding someone skilled enough with a willingness and passion for bringing your ideas to life would be best. And hey, you don't even have to pay with real money. You can offer a small commission on every successful sale.
Prototype before the real product
You need a prototype. It is a common mistake to work without a prototype and release the product into the market without testing it first. It's frustrating when you realize it doesn't work as expected, leading to poor social proof on product Hunt and impacting your future business. Products don't just relate to hardware and physical objects but software, app downloads, and even websites too. They all need heavy prototyping to get the best out of your ideas. So, draft designs/prototypes first!
The bottom line
Product Hunt is the best place to launch your final product and attract new customers with little marketing. Creating a graphic design for a product is challenging but doable. Therefore, this guide should help you get the best out of your skills for a successful launch!
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Reel Unlimited, the unlimited graphic design and content writing subscription for startups and marketing agencies, created this article. Optimized by Surfer for maximum reach, it has generated significant traffic for our client's website.
