#wechatminiprograms

The Offensive and Defensive Positioning of Wechat Mini-program 

Everything you need to know about USB Menu Interface and it’s important for wedding video clients and vendors.

Wedding photographs and videos are among the most important part of a couple’s special day. There are a lot of aspects of the wedding which the couple and the family miss during the event and these videos and photographs are the only way to relive those moments. There was a time when wedding albums were mainly provided in printed format only along with DVDs or CDs for the videos. Yes, the wedding albums are still more charming in printed format for the photographers are now providing soft copies in CDs or DVDs as well.

THE SHIFT TO USB INTERFACE

In the last few years, the USB drives are penetrating more into the wedding business. There are a lot of benefits of providing USB drives instead of CDs or DVDs. First of you can present them in custom-made boxes. It is even possible to engrave the company information on the USB drive. These drives come in a variety of shapes and sizes and some companies even offer custom made USB drives as well. Additionally, the TV screens and home theater systems have USB compatible ports where you can play the content directly from the drives. In the end, they are extremely easy to store.

Now, in the case of CDs and DVDs, there is an option, in the beginning, to choose the particular part of the event and play it. That selection menu is called DVD Menu Interface. Unfortunately, most of the videographers do not understand its importance or do not know how to add such interface in USB drives. USB Menu Interface is an interactive autoplay file of the drive which provides the user to select a particular portion of the event or the slideshow of the images to play.

THE PROS

The main point is, it is very important to give the content a personal touch in connection with the couple. Let us discuss the benefits of the USB Menu Interface for the end user or we can say the couple.

User-friendly: It is a fact that not all users or couples are tech savvy. No matter how advanced the technology is in this world right now, there are a few people who do not want to get in touch with it. They can be the couple themselves or the family members of the couple. With USB Menu Interface, you can make the watching experience much more user-friendly. All they need to do is to plug-in the drive on TV or computer and it will auto load the menu.

Attractive: Think about it and imagine what you will prefer. Would you like to receive the files as just list of events or you want the drive to auto loads the menu with your photograph in the background? Of course, you will like to opt for the second option and it is same with every single user.

More personal: There are so many options that can make it more fun to watch. You can add couple’s best photograph or a collage of photograph in the background of the menu which will give it a personal and emotional touch.

Easier navigation: With the USB menu even a technologically challenged person can choose the event to watch without external help.

Let us now discuss the benefits for the vendors i.e. videographers, cinematographers and the photographers.

Personalized approach: You, as a vendor, can add a lot of information on the menu. You can provide a link to your website or social media accounts. You can add a logo, the name of the company and contact information right on the menu.

Saves time: In comparison to Blu-Ray, DVDs, and CDs, creating USB drives for product delivery is much faster.

Quick rendering: When you convert the content to Blu-Ray, DVD or CD, it takes a lot of time to render all files in right format. It is much quicker in case of USB drives.

WeChat, the largest social media app in China launched WeChat mini-programs a few months back and this amazing feature has been an instant hit. These programs let the owner of a business entity registered in China to create a small program to interact with the users of WeChat. These small programs do not require any installation on the users’ phones and can be accessed via WeChat app itself. It not only saves the resources and space on the user’s phone but also allows the owner of the business entity to save a lot of money on his side as well.

In this article, we will discuss how you can create your own mini program from scratch. Just like a website, there are several steps involved in the process of creating and launching the mini-program for WeChat. Let’s discuss these steps one by one.

1. Registration:

The first step is the registration. Each Chinese ID or sole trader business can register maximum 5 Wechat mini-program accounts. Some functions are not open to an individual account, such as Wechat Pay, membership card/coupon, registered mobile information, mini program nearby search function.

If you have Chinese ID or registered business in China, it’s very easy to create a mini program on WeChat. Unfortunately, if you do not have a registered business in China, you will be required more steps to create a mini program on WeChat.

Option 1: Ask a friend for help who is from China

Option 2: Use a business license from a Chinese entity

You can “borrow” a registered license from a Chinese company. Each Chinese company can register 50 Wechat mini program accounts. However, the account will remain attached to the Chinese legal entity and the legal name will be mentioned on the information page. But you still can customise your own account name, logo and description.

Option 3: Contact Tencent and go through a special process

It is possible to register as a foreign company to create a Wechat account but the special process will be required, which is a case by case process. Meanwhile, a verification fee will happen.

Steps to register:

You need to go to the http://mp.weixin.qq.com and click on “Register”. When you register for the program, it will ask you to fill an email ID. Make sure the email ID you are going to use is not associated with any existing account on WeChat. A verification email from Tencent will be sent to your registered email for your account activation.

Next, it will ask you to choose the type of the entity you are going to register. You can choose between Enterprise, Business, Government, Media and Other. Media and Other will need an additional step of verification.

After that, you will need to fill out the Admin information that will have sections like Admin name, Admin Chinese ID number, Admin Phone Number and verification code. Do remember that once you click the submit button, this information cannot be altered.

For the Enterprise account, you will need to verify your bank account. In this process, you need transfer a very small amount from your bank account to Tencent nominated account.

2. Preparation for development and design:

The next step is to prepare for the application. You need to decide the color combinations and features you want to use in the application. Once you are sure about the basic information that you will need about the user interface, the next step is to start creating the application.

First of all, login to your Mini Program account. Now fill the basic information required like name, icon, description of the service you are going to provide and so on. You can invite programmers to work on your application by clicking on the “Add new developers” under Developers section which can be found under User Identity tab. You can add up to 20 verified accounts of developers maximum and 10 non-verified maximum.

Under the settings, you will find a section named “Development Settings” where you can get the AppID. You will need the application development tools as well.

3. The basic pointers:

There are a few basics which you need to keep in mind while designing the application:

Do not use any problematic design. Don’t use any fields in the application which can be considered as irrelevant to the user.

Avoid using any banned script inside the application associated with other services like Google fonts etc.

Make sure to use the common font sizes like 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 20.

Keep the language of the application simple, polite and friendly.

Make sure to highlight the key points of the application.

Make it engaging.

Make sure the navigation is easy even for a layman.

Test the navigation bar on both iOS and Android phones.

Make sure to keep the color combinations as per the requirement of the OS.

4. Development:

With the help of a coding program and API documentation, you can create the program in a very short period of time. Additionally, you can take help of the developers as well. There are four main types of files with extensions .js, .json, .wxss and .wxml. Every type of file has different functions in the program.

5. Testing the program:

Once you are done with the code and design, you will need to test the program and submit it for the approval. Make sure to test it completely at every step before you submit it for the review. You can connect it to a testing account as well but it is completely optional. You can check the status of your application review under the “Development Management” tab.