Critiquing Startup Mobile Apps with Glide CEO

In the crowded field of mobile apps, design can be just as important as the software. But what makes for a well designed app? In this episode of Design Review our host Aaron Epstein is joined by David Siegel, founder and CEO of the no-code app builder Glide (www.glideapps.com/) to critique five startup apps. Together they’ll highlight dos and don’ts for creating a great looking, functional mobile app that’ll stand out from the pack.
Thanks to the YC startups featured in this episode: Pyrls, Bluedot, Duffl, BoldVoice, and EdenCare.
If you would like to have your startup's website or app reviewed on a future episode of Design Review, please submit your info here: shorturl.at/wIJS0
Apply to Y Combinator: yc.link/DesignReview-apply
Work at a startup: yc.link/DesignReview-jobs
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Intro: Mobile App Review
00:34 - What Glide Does?
01:07 - How to Design a Well-Designed Mobile App
01:39 - Pyrls: A Modern Medical Reference App
05:43 - Bluedot: Finding EV Charging Stations
10:03 - Duffl: Quick Snack Delivery for College Students
15:12 - BoldVoice: Hollywood Coaches and AI Feedback to Improve English
18:59 - Eden Care: Group Healthcare in Africa
23:37 - Outro

[@ycombinator]

What topic should we cover on an upcoming episode of Design Review?

[@jimifash]

Web app UI/UX for enterprise clients

[@sirtony5542]

I like it and I think you should do more like it. Very helpful Thanks 👍

[@thanhdatvo0]

Fonts, please

[@saravanakumargn]

@@thanhdatvo0 Fonts, Font Size

[@edoyak122466]

Web app UI/UX for enterprise clients who have multiple accounts and also offer the app to their own customers.

[@davidlinjiahao]

Thanks Aaron and David! The Duffl team really appreciates your feedback and we'll definitely strive to make the app better

[@nvrluki7608]

Shift your gamification notification till after customer completes a purchase, maybe even an email. And the subscription option could be an email and give them 7 days to sign up with credit for the previously paid fees. Or $10 credit

[@qoobes]

I adore this style of video, it's very useful for shifting my perspective and critiquing my own apps based on what you said about those. As someone who has designed, as well as built a lot of apps, it can be very hard to see what's wrong with them before I let the users test it.

[@godsaver_8]

honestly, all the app designs seemed very amateurish and not well thought out, some didn't even fulfill basic design guidelines and principles, I like that the 2 hosts were still supportive of all these products and talked in a very genuine way with the intent to help the designs to improve, which is great because what's the point in discouraging anyone even if they are not good at some point of their journey but i think these designs were tbh average and amateurish even and didn't offer much to introspect on as they were having obvious problems maybe this design review series can be divided into two categories, one where you do reviews of already proven great products and try and decipher what all they did well and infer subtle observations that can be taken and learned from great products as they will offer more to learn from and the second can be this series where you try and help designers and makers create better products by reviewing their products. anyway interesting video, Keep going guys.

[@mrrobinet5551]

Which apps are you talking about? I think you're the one who does not have any idea of what basic design principles are.

[@sleekism]

I think BoldVoice was a really nice app, not Uber/AirBnB level of polish but definitely delightful and intuitive and polished to a decent level. Duffl was more fun-oriented given the audience, and I liked it. The others were not so great, but Bluedot was doing something cool, just needs a good designer to improve the information design. If I was to rank, it'll be BoldVoice > Duffl > Bluedot > Pyrls while EdenCare takes a miserable last.

[@yega3k]

I don't think they were amateurish. I've used worst apps in real life. The language app is super clean in my opinion. The college food app also looked like it had a lot of work put into it. Yeah, a little busy but I can tell that it took a decent amount of dev hours. Besides if the apps were already perfect, what would be the point of making this video? I'm also curious to know if you're building anything yourself? Anyone that has or is building something knows that it is hard. The other thing that is mentioned frequently in the video is the importance of getting your app into a real user's hand to help spot UX problems quickly. And personally, that's my own takeaway from this video.

[@GreatTaiwan]

these designers were horrible

[@Roman-uy7qp]

Depending on how new these startups are, you shouldn't be worrying about design principles, the app looks ok to someone who doesn't understand design principles and that's all that matters.

[@harrison6082]

4:17 5:43 6:04 12:38 14:08 15:48 23:03 there's a lot of good advice here

[@solomonbush331]

The first app needs more padding around the base layout container

[@petefield1545]

Great timing, I'm building a quick app MVP right now. I'll admit, I was expecting more in the UI design of these app, but agree with the UX feedback. I'll check out glide, so mission accomplished on advertising. :)

[@YosmelLGD]

My goddess I’m doing my web-application start-up on glide . Amazing talk , thank you for all the details.

[@LiamMorris5]

2:57 Clickable areas can actually be a minimum of 40px square not 60px square. Primary buttons are typically between 48px - 60px height, depending on your grid system.

[@st-jn2gk]

Aaaksshuallli

[@djsiegel86]

I guess my thumbs are big :D

[@RajA-me9cl]

Please make more episodes like this.

[@christopherderrell8470]

A point on that duffle feedback @13:44. Yes as a first time customer you'd want to finish the checkout quickly first before being presented with rewards, but if it's a college student targeted app, there's a good chance first time customers have seen their friends use it, or have been referred to it directly. If that's the case, then they would know Duffl enough to see the benefit on first purchase of a pass that skips the line for future purchases. But the way they did it could have been on the purchase confirmation page.

[@sheharyarmalik3554]

This is great learning for me! Please keep such videos coming!

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Intro: Mobile App Review 00:34 - What Glide Does? 01:07 - How to Design a Well-Designed Mobile App 01:39 - Pyrls: A Modern Medical Reference App 05:43 - Bluedot: Finding EV Charging Stations 10:03 - Duffl: Quick Snack Delivery for College Students 15:12 - BoldVoice: Hollywood Coaches and AI Feedback to Improve English 18:59 - Eden Care: Group Healthcare in Africa 23:37 - Outro

[@SteveBoyer10]

Awesome job. Would love to have my app reviewed next time!

[@Builder-du5sf]

Better than a course. Thanks guys

[@nemines001]

Thank you, this explanation is very good.

[@the_ashman]

Loved it. Expecting more app reviews.

[@GRUMO]

Great to see David here. YC and Glide FTW!

[@daveb4446]

Originally I skipped over this, but I’m glad I came back to watch it. Great UI/UX advice!

[@HooHoo00]

this is truly a good content, keep it up

[@stableandhappy]

Thanks YC ❤

[@bigbird3778]

In-app navigation is not nice. Every user wants to use the maps app they like so standard design is to deep link to their favorite maps app.

[@cantdrivefiftyfive]

Soon, the standard requirement will be to push it to your car nav system via some sort of API. Too much fiddling around to make it practical plus it would allow FSD to get you there.

[@jimifash]

22:18 "If your app is about content and doesn't have many interactions, it's often better as a website."

[@anderson.meneses]

Please make more of this!!

[@yzniinja]

this was so good! more please

[@LCTesla]

8:30 what does "start charging" even do if you're not at the charge point yet..? shouldn't Route be the primary action item here? shouldn't "start charging" appear WHEN you are at the location in question?

[@godsaver_8]

yep, u r right, i thought that was a silly and amateurish conceptual mistake in the flow of that app.

[@angieisoverit8742]

Such a great video

[@sirtony5542]

Great job YC ❤...

[@dotpenji]

Your thoughtful analysis and feedback during the design review session was truly insightful. How do you plan to improve the design of the Eden Care app to make it more user-friendly and engaging?

[@markanthonymanayan2136]

The video, critiquing startup mobile apps with the CEO of Glide, is a valuable learning experience for anyone in the startup world because of the uniqueness used to explain the ideas. Thank you for sharing the content, like it!

[@shekinahmariesol8919]

David provides thoughtful and constructive feedback on the design of both apps. His insights are valuable for anyone who is interested in designing mobile apps. Awesome content!

[@DenverOrtiz]

Your style makes this video valuable for app designers and developers. Keep up the fantastic design reviews!

[@iracaullenegatan6668]

Thank you for helping start up mobile app developers & designers through your constructive feedbacks. It's best to learn from experts like you. Keep it up!

[@melaniecerez8938]

It's really cool! David's explanation are incredibly informative. Great job!

[@welissoncanto]

Really great content

[@DigitalHole]

Awesome, Great video.

[@jacksonuxd]

GREAT EPISODE. HOW DO I SUBMIT PROTOTYPES TO BE CRITIQUE❓

[@iamvalenci4]

great content

[@wdavis6254]

The Bluedot app only needs to show those charge stations that are not busy

[@sarangbhirad]

Maybe red dots for busy stations, yellow dots for stations available in next 10 mins , and blue dots for available stations. It will make it crystal clear where I should click on

[@Tony-mw-533]

That will avoid time wastage. Great take

[@Tony-mw-533]

@@sarangbhirad great idea

[@teddysalas3590]

@ycombinator Can you do an episode about how to start a promising robotics startup?

[@gmanu7288]

Nice work

[@HowPortal]

where is the critiquing part?

[@colinmcdonald6003]

He did him dirty by suggesting finasteride! 💀

[@spcsld]

So nice!!!

[@cucabeludo8324]

The guy on the right was like, cmon dude, there’s a Red Bull icon right there, no need to play stupid.

[@urcadelima4124]

IS these app built with glide?

[@nxnu2119]

What about alternative app stores

[@hassansabra9392]

Are these companies part of YC? Because they look like they were built overnight by amateur designers and developers

[@ehibble]

21:10 my man said "very breif" ahahahah

[@eddyporg]

love it

[@TarunKumar-ru2xw]

Very good

[@rasheedm3459]

How to connect with you guys,I have a startup app please review

[@Vishal-iu5le]

I think there's a difference between "Getting Distracted" and "Choosing to be Distracted".

[@todoku1]

Did I miss something? BoldVoice - you are a spanish speaker and you want to learn/improve english, but the lessons are presented in english - Shouldn't it be in spanish? Also I think that the language selection should be the first question in the onboarding process.

[@Travelthinker]

nice

[@eml9147]

Are any of these startups funded by YC?

[@talknow-app]

I think design is not the main thing in the app. For example in food delivery your primary care about catalogue and time to deliver

[@andrewxzvxcud2]

and how do u get to that information?

[@Tony-mw-533]

@@andrewxzvxcud2 I think what his take is the functionality matters. first before the design. But in the end users need a good design for easier interaction with the app's functionality , so I see why your question is valid.

[@UjangRohmana-el3yn]

Good👌👌

[@noe_122]

20:15 Glideapps CEO: ~'Native apps ...' Wait... 😂😂😂

[@abhishekchauhan_108]

People talking about app design who are in a cropping image box✨

[@nathanasher9012]

1

[@kh5322]

when is yc ever going to have a proper mobile app?

[@KieranCrown]

Eden care looks like a React Native app not a web app imo

[@GTDragonGaming]

First

[@brockunseen]

16:06 disagree that you should limit onboarding steps, users will put up w a long onboarding flow

[@devstuff2576]

no we don't! 99 percent of people press skip

[@nicolas.cardinali]

please hire a UX designer and then a UI designer ahaha

[@BN-fi9wi]

affordances affordances... affordances

[@atomparish]

I would be fired if I produced work of this quality

[@philipehusani]

I'm seriously dumbfounded! If a designer came into my office with any of these, I'd throw the phone at him and send him out of the building.

[@willswill8163]

Yet they actually produced something. For startups, it's more important to get something out there as quickly as possible and get it in the hands of users to see their reactions.

[@philipehusani]

@@willswill8163 First Impression... They'll just use the competition instead and never use your app again... That's what I'll do.

[@victormustin2547]

Aaron you look like french actor Benjamin Lavernhe

[@victormustin2547]

actually you don’t

[@maximusandsenecagloballlc1209]

Borrring 🎉

[@rp2804]

pyrl app is horribly designed. Butchered typography and everything

[@philipehusani]

All these designs were terrible! Next time bring in a UI/UX designer.

[@0xBerto]

Let people export the code! Booo to platform locking

[@fragman8350]

less goo manifesting getting into yc w23

[@jamesgregory4938]

whats your compamy?