When it comes to your business success, users are what matter.
So when you are developing your mobile app from scratch or releasing a new version of it, your success depends on your user experience, “70% of online businesses fall through because of bad UX.”
In this article, we are discussing 5 main elements to focus on if you want to enhance your users' experience in your mobile app.
1- Set your app goals:
“One-quarter of mobile apps have only been used once.” The user experience relies on the design and it should be created based on the app’s goals. If you start designing your app with no set goals, you’ll end up with a pretty shell of an app that scores low on functionality, leading to a lousy user experience. So, based on your app type, set SMART (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant-Time-Based) goals. This way the design follows a goal alongside being visually appealing.
2- Choose your technology wisely
Choosing the proper development technology for your app is important because your mobile application’s performance depends on it and if you want to provide a positive experience for your users, you need to choose a technology that will help you achieve that.
There are various technologies that are present to choose from like React native which is a programming language developed by Facebook, and Flutter which is another programming language developed by Google. Your developers should be able to recommend a development language that suits your mobile application goals.
Here at Road9 Media, our developers use React Native to develop our client’s mobile applications.
3- User-centered design:
The user is the alpha and the omega here. That means you need to research your user well and understand the mobile applications they commonly use and spend time on; understanding their age and interests will help you design a mobile application that attracts them and holds their attention for long periods.
Here are a few pointers to focus on within your design:
- Proper use of brand colors: color inflicts emotion, so by understanding the psychological effects of colors, you’ll be able to incorporate brand colors that correlates with actions you want the users to make.
- Apply a minimalistic approach when designing: minimalism as a movement is still relevant, and numerous app designs are influenced by it; because the minimal designs are less cluttered, less overwhelming on the users, and appealing to interact with.
- Keep your design coherent and consistent throughout the app: “Over 80% of consumers think that a seamless user experience across all devices is vital.” Imagine browsing a store, and half of it is organized in one way and the second half is entirely different!
Besides the fact that you’ll feel like you are in a different store, the probability of you reentering that store again is probably null.
So keep your design coherent across the mobile application to avoid pushing the users away.
- Interactive design: an interactive design should be easy to navigate through and, this makes the mobile application easy to figure out and use, which is what users are looking for and what you ultimately want.
- Responsive design: your mobile application design should respond to different screen sizes. Whether mobiles or tablets, the user experience should be left intact.
4- User Journey:
Each user is different, and that’s why knowing your users is crucial as it allows you to create different behavioral scenarios and flows within the mobile application, and so you can optimize each page within your app to lead to the following page effortlessly. The goal of the user flow or path within the mobile app is to guide users to achieve the mobile application’s goal, and that differs according to its goal; for retailing apps, it’s making purchases, for educational apps, it could be spending a certain amount of time on the app, etc.
Your user flow must be fluid, and frictionless with limited to no glitches to ensure that users follow through without ruining their experience.
A second important element is properly onboarding your users on the mobile app. This could be done, by introducing them to the functionality of each section or button within the app; through popups or steps, but be careful not to add an unnecessary amount of popups or pages that would off-put the users from the app entirely.
Here are 10 apps with great onboarding processes for you to take inspiration from.
5- Testing and Feedback:
Before launching the mobile application, it must go through multiple user testing phases to ensure that everything is going smoothly and any bugs that pop up are dealt with and fixed. You don't want to launch an app full of bugs and watch your users uninstall your app after a day and leave reviews that would hinder your mobile application installation rate later on.
Another thing you can do is pre-launch your mobile application to a group that fits your users' personas to have them test and try the app and give you feedback on their experience and pointers where the app could use improvements.
Wrap-up:
There is always something you can do to enhance your mobile application UX, but we suggest that you start strong with a team of developers to help you launch an app that would create a buzz and have its users coming back for more.
So, why not book a consultation with us and tell us more about your mobile app idea.
