Ensure A Good User Experience
The world of mobile app is changing rapidly – new apps are released daily, and new technologies completely change user experiences.
App developers need to focus on the most basic things to stand out and increase customer loyalty. A survey by digital analytics firm App Annie indicated that a good user experience is the biggest factor in user retention (59%), above other factors such as tools (35%) and relevant content (29%). Below, we’ve brought you some tips from the app industry so that you can create a good user experience:
Demonstrate The Value Of Your App
With countless apps available on the official iOS and Android stores, users must understand exactly what they get from your app. According to a survey conducted by Clutch, 72% of respondents revealed that learning to use the app in less than a minute is a key factor in deciding whether to continue using it. While this average time can serve as a guide, remember that this is not an absolute rule. A banking app can take longer to present all of its functions, and that’s not a bad thing, as long as everything is clean and organized. Regardless of the recommended time, the main objective is to align your learning curve to help your users.
Don’t Build An App With Too Many Tools
It is adding too many tools to make it do everything poorly. This confuses users, and that’s not what you want. Applications are not websites, which can rely on unlimited information. They need a great focus to succeed in what they propose. You can simplify your app by defining its main function before development. Try to specify at most 2 or 3 reasons that would lead your users to use the application, and invest so that these functions are performed in the best way.
Don’t Hide The Tools
Even though the “two-click rule” is not immutable, you should rethink the number of screens in your app. Not everything may be necessary, and you should prefer simple processes to help your users. Think about the following tips:
- Conduct Testing: Test your product with friends and family from the earliest design development stages. Please pay attention to the most difficult areas to use and make corrections to simplify them.
- Two-click rule: As mentioned before, this rule is not universal, but it can be interesting. Let the user do the most tasks with the least amount of effort. However, when doing this, you must be careful not to cram too much information into one screen. This can also end up confusing your audience.
Be Adaptable And Competitive
The applications that continue to gain users, even after some time, adapt to new market expectations and remain competitive. Here are some ideas that can help you in this task, essential for anyone who wants long-term success:
Respond Quickly To User Demand
The idea of any app is to be flexible. So, there are no bad ideas, but those will not please your audience. To come out on top, you must think fast and adapt to expectations just as quickly. There is no shame in making mistakes, as long as you realize your mistake quickly and take the necessary steps to fix them. Quickly drop bad ideas and come up with solutions.
A good example is Instagram, which was initially created to be a check-in app called Burb. The creators noticed that the app was not getting traction and that most users were using the platform to post photos of the places they visited. Realizing the behavior of users, the founders decided to focus on this aspect and worked to build an application with a few main functions: post photos, comment and like. Abandoning the initial idea was rewarding for Instagram. The app got 25,000 users on launch day and became the most downloaded photo app.
Pay Attention To Industry News
Application developers must pay close attention to the ever-changing digital industry. If that doesn’t happen, your new products may become obsolete and will be overtaken by those competitors who have understood new trends. The Pandora app is such a case: even though it is one of the pioneers in its category, it lags behind apps like Spotify and Apple Music in many ways. One example is the premium subscription service, which allows music streaming, and was launched this year after other platforms such as Google Play and Amazon Prime.
Provide Great Customer Support Service
A good app shouldn’t just offer a good user experience and engagement. They must also have good support, which must be active at all times. Unfortunately, this is one of the least worked out aspects of mobile apps. Mobile app creators forget that they must focus on the customer to gain loyalty. This is also about serving them when needed and listening to their concerns and problems. Here are some tips so you can improve your app’s support:
Be In The Same Place As Your Users
Create a simple way for your users to get in touch with you, implementing a form of communication within your application. It could be a call button or a chat function.
Be Personal
Personalizing communication with your users helps create greater engagement. It makes them feel valued and creates a sense of connection.
Reply To Your Users’ Comments.
A study showed that users expect companies to be more communicative. Among users who prefer to leave their feedback through the app, 64% expect companies to recognize their actions directly. But asking for and acknowledging feedback from your users is only part of the process. 55% of respondents who leave comments within the apps indicated that they do not intend to continue using the platforms if their feedback is completely ignored. This shows that it is important for developers also to recognize and respond to feedback left by users.
Stay Ahead Of Trends
The most successful apps always stay relevant, making big changes to the user experience as they adapt to market changes. App developers need to stay on top of new trends, changing the way individuals engage with mobile devices. Among the new trends in the world of development, we can highlight two of them:
- Augmented Reality: Augmented reality promises to change the way users carry out their day-to-day tasks, and it is already being introduced in successful games with Pokémon Go.
- Bots: Chatbots and other automated functions are taking over the app market and have already adapted for numerous functions such as communicating with users.
