How to Enhance Mobile App User Experience

Steve Jobs once said, “If the user is having a problem, it’s our problem.” Today, mobile apps are more about delivering a wholesome experience. While building a natural user experience, developers need to understand how a user would behave in a particular situation. Hence, it becomes critical to understand and replicate those natural surroundings. A great user experience (UI/UX) design should be capable of making the passing time a worthwhile adventure.

Simple, common tasks and clarity in communication are the three key ingredients of great user experience. An intuitive and simplified Interaction with a site or an app is finally the deciding factor for success or failure.

The Changing Face of User Experience

An engaging experience is more than just a layout and content. It strongly depends on two essential traits of discoverability and efficiency. Recent years have brought a drastic change in UX development. Here are some ways to deliver a compelling user experience:

Content Design

The two crucial things that drive an ideal content design are its succinct and engaging nature. Another element that holds significance is that the content must be informative and send the desired message to the audience. A report indicates that around 46% of buyers often leave the site or app due to a lack of message. Crisp content doesn’t mean being so brief that the audience doesn’t understand what the business is trying to convey.

Hence, the design of the content is based on a hierarchical approach. Storytelling forms a critical part of this hierarchy approach. There should be a proper way of telling a story through the content that is consistent across all types of media. The audience visits a site or downloads an app to benefit from it in some or other way. And thus, they need to be informed of what the brand is offering to them so that they keep coming back.

Multi-level Interaction

No doubt, mobile-friendly user experience is the priority these days. However, users usually tend to communicate on different devices. Hence, developing a multiple-device interaction cannot be ignored. Such type of engagement helps in smoother transition when users switch from one device to another. This also includes real-time interaction with ongoing digital assistance. Users continuously look for convenience – it is the single most significant thing right now. Hence, chatbots also form an influential component of a convenient experience.

As the dynamics of experience are evolving, the gesture-based navigation system replaces the buttons. As users switch from buttons to gestures, it might get a little difficult to get used to it. Hence, developers need to add tutorials and hints on how they can use gestures to navigate. Teaching users how to work their way around some feature is also a significant part of enhancing user experience.

Simplistic Designs

Convenience and simplicity are the two essential traits of a user-friendly design that top anything else. No matter how attractive the visuals are, inconvenient features have the potential to turn customers away. Hence, only the necessary features and easy navigation have to be incorporated. Minimalist features in the app designing are the key ingredient that solves all the purposes, which have also proved to be a design trend in UI/UX in 2019.

The content must be designed in a way that is capable of educating the customers as quickly as possible. The CTA buttons must be easily searchable to select with desired actions and appropriate spaces between each other. Apps must also maintain a consistency of the same gestures across all the pages to increase usability. Ultimately, its the usability that holds the key for retaining maximum users. If they have to spend more time on the app than they have estimated to complete an action, they might not use it again.

Effective App Onboarding

App onboarding is the process where users get to familiarize themselves with the app. When they first download it and install it, app makers must make the most out of it by demonstrating how valuable the app can prove to be for them. Simply put, users need to know how conveniently and quickly an app can solve their problems. If the app has some complex and new features that users find challenging, they might not hesitate to uninstall it.

Hence, app-makers must get leverage against users by providing them a proper tutorial on how to use the features across different pages. A step-by-step instruction process for different stages can help in encouraging users to keep visiting the app. It is a significant step in proving the success or failure of the app. Additionally, permissions for push notifications, location, etc. with some extra information on why do they need; can help to create a great first impression to a lot extent.

Transparency and Personalization

Apart from usability, limited user input also forms a major component of personalization. Since mobiles have smaller screens, the input fields and fill-in forms must be limited to include predictive and autocomplete features. Similarly, app-makers can include various strategies like integrating barcode scanning and keyword searching to reduce user efforts. Some apps also have a lot of irrelevant permissions for users to grant. These usually include card information and photo galleries; even when the app doesn’t require them explicitly. Such things can result in users questioning the trust and comfort.

Hence, a transparent policy of permissions can prove to be beneficial for building loyalty towards the brand. It includes outlining the reasons why you need certain permissions so that users feel secure as they allow. Brands should also include quick and direct links to privacy, regulations, terms & conditions, trust and security badges for payments and other policies.

Concluding Notes

App brands must develop apps with the sole aim of making people keep coming back to use their apps. For that to happen, makers need to put on the users’ shoes and walk in them to know how a user would behave. It would not only help in designing an intuitive experience but would also streamline the testing processes. Innovation is essential, but it is equally important to take inspiration from the concepts that are already popular. Excellent mobile app developers knows when the brands need to break stereotypes and where to go with the flow.